Depeche Mode’s Memento Mori Tour Is Music For The Masses - And The Environment

Anyone that is in my close circle knows that I am a huge Depeche Mode fan. I have been a fan since my early teen years and have constantly followed the recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees. They have continued to release amazing music and this week will gift us with their 15th full-length album Memento Mori. On the heels of the death of long-time member Andrew Fletcher, the duo of Martin Gore and David Gahan use a Latin phrase to remind us that death is inevitable. However, they certainly embrace life, from a bigger picture perspective, as they recently announced an environmental sustainability component with their global tour (and yes, I have tickets).

On the group’s Instagram page, they wrote,”With @hublot as our official charity partner of the Memento Mori Tour, tothether we will be supporting @conservationcollectiveorg and their grassroots projects focusing on environmental clean-up, single use plastic reduction, recycling and waste management, and more.” The band also prompted readers to “stay tuned” as they roll out more information about sustainability efforts with the tour. Their partner, the Conservation Collective, is a global network of locally-focused environmental foundations.

Why is all of this necessary? The International Union for Conservation of Nature says that roughly 300 millions tons of plastic are manufactured annually, and over 14 million of it ends up in the oceans (80% of all marine debris). Their website goes on to say, “Plastic pollution threatens food safety and quality, human health, coastal tourism, and contributes to climate change.”

Speaking of climate change, a new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report was released this week, and its message was dire. It conceded that we likely cannot stop global warming from surpassing 1.5 deg C (2.7 deg F) by 2040. Texas Tech Professor Katharine Hayhoe summarized the big takeaways in the Tweet thread below. Hayhoe, chief scientist for The Nature Conservancy, prefaced the thread by saying, “First, climate change has already caused widespread and substantial losses to almost every aspect of human life on this planet, and the impacts on future generations depend on the choices we make NOW.”

She ended her message with an important question. She tweeted, “So given this dire news, surely we are well on our way to cutting our carbon emissions, no? No. The synthesis report is crystal clear: we are not doing nearly enough to avoid dangerous impacts, let alone achieve the targets of the Paris Agreement.”

I have been big fan of Depeche Mode for decades, and they have always been stewards of sustainability and the Earth in their songs. I remember listening to “The Landscape is Changing” from the Construction Time Again album. That song was released in 1983 and its message is just as alarming today. I look forward to attending the Depeche Mode concert and supporting their sustainability efforts.