They say sex sells. But does music teach? This seems to be
the case with a couple recent music videos — one on the potential health
hazards of hydraulic fracturing (which we’ve covered quite a bit here at HCN, from lack of regulations to health studies to health hazards in the chemical mix)
— and another on climate science.
The fracking song has made it’s way across the Interwebs,
getting 80,000 views on YouTube already — and it was posted less than two
weeks ago.
And this climate rap, which is, I might mention, NSFW, is
certainly more fun to watch than all 94 depressing minutes of An Inconvenient
Truth.
There’s a fundamental difference between the two popularized
science music videos, though. The first was done by a journalist, and is
presumably intended for a wider audience of people who haven’t yet made up their minds
about fracking — and maybe haven’t even heard of the practice.
The climate rap, on the other hand, while produced in part by the Australian
equivalent of National Public Radio, sounds more like a vent than an attempt to
teach.
And while I’m talking videos, I may as well just throw in another anti-fracking tune — this one a folk ditty from a Canadian singer/songwriter.
I enjoy all these videos. But the first one is a truly innovative way to tell a relatively well-told story — and may inspire even a tone-deaf writer like me to
pick up a tambourine and beat out some environmental tales of my own.
Stephanie Paige Ogburn is HCN‘s online editor.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
