Sing a song of urban nature

“I would listen to the lyrics when the children were sleeping and then turn around to play the piano and find the melodies. I saw spontaneous, crazy, joyful ideas become something, take on a life of their own. It may seem strange that we are singing about London, but the stories about the connection to nature in cities are universal and human. Even though they are very specific, they tell stories that can touch anyone,” she says.

Green London sings

Music can address complex issues in an attractive and accessible way. Crystal Palace is a lament for the long and complex legacy of Empire. It was inspired by the park where the former Crystal Palace, originally built for the Great Exhibition of 1851 to celebrate the British Empire, was moved in 1854 before burning down in 1936. Since then, debates have raged about what should take its place, just as we are challenged to replace the lifestyle of Western overconsumption.

One Tree Hill, on the other hand, is about a journey from living for short-term financial gain to acknowledging the greater importance of nature. Named after a small park in a place called Honor Oak in south London, it is the place where the campaign was launched to make London the world’s first ‘National Park City’, an initiative to get people to think of cities differently as places of nature, and where nature is respected in the same way it would be in a traditional national park. From the top of One Tree Hill there is a clear view across the Thames to London’s financial centre, the City, which finances so much ecological destruction for short-term gain.

Battersea Park is completely different, a song of joy, a memory of very personal moments in special places, deeply rooted in the soul. The London park on the Thames, near the famous power station, symbol of former dependence on fossil fuels, reinvented as a shopping temple of overconsumption, is a place where people come to walk, run, exercise, do yoga and go boating. It was also here that my daughter Scarlett’s naming ceremony took place, next to a beautiful pagoda on the river bank, in the shade of large plane trees.

Life out there

Parliament Hill reminds me of the total solar eclipse of August 1999, which I watched from the hill above London. It was a moment of discontinuity, a sudden and shocking reminder of one’s connection to the immensity beyond our small, fragile planet, with its vanishingly rare and precious conditions for life to thrive. For me, it was a reflection of the human obsession with worrying about life in space while we are deliberately destroying it beneath our feet, and a reminder that “we are the life out there”.

Closing this first volume, Rise Up is a short cry from the heart inspired by a run through Stockholm’s nature reserve on the edge of Bagarmossen, where Anna lives. Running on the uneven paths forces one to pay full attention to the nature around one, and the ever-present presence of water is an inescapable reminder of cities’ vulnerability to rising waters, easily leading to the idea that we too must champion change. Unglamorous but essential urban green spaces like London’s Mitcham Common are celebrated in a follow-up EP.

Natural remedies

Yet today we are experiencing a mass extinction, the result of a negligent, destructive relationship between humanity and the rest of nature. And by harming nature, we harm ourselves. However, we have a chance to be enchanted again if we connect with, respect, and enjoy nature in the cities where most people live. Nature doesn’t have to be loved in a functional, self-serving way, but knowing that access to green space eases anxiety, boosts immune systems, and improves mental health makes a clear case for restoring nature. Unequal access to green space based on race and income also makes this a case for racial and class justice.

One way to show what we care about and what we are willing to fight for is to write and sing songs in her honor. Our Urban Nature is a small example of how we, with friends and colleagues in the climate movement, have sought to celebrate our love and inextricable connection to nature. It continues the great tradition of singing for joy and gathering our spirits as we face our challenges. Nature sings to us with her dawn chorus to welcome each day. Let us sing back as often as we fight to restore her.

“Our Urban Nature” is available on most digital platforms. Music written and performed by Tree Oh! (Anna Jonsson, Sara Nilsson and Nina Wohlert), concept and lyrics by Andrew Simms.

Andrew Simms is co-director of the New Weather Institute and deputy director of Scientists for Global Responsibility, co-founder of the Badvertising campaign, coordinator of the Rapid Transition Alliance, writer on new and green economics, and co-author of the original Green New Deal. Follow us on X @AndrewSimms_uk or Mastodon @[email protected].