Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
Editor's note: This article is published through the Great Salt Lake Collaborative, a solutions journalism initiative that partners news, education and media organizations to help inform people about the plight of the Great Salt Lake.
SALT LAKE CITY — Two Utah environmental groups are teaming up with a major pop band to bring awareness to the plight of the Great Salt Lake.
AJR, an indie-pop band made up of brothers Adam, Jack and Ryan Met, is on its "The Maybe Man" tour and performing at the Delta Center Tuesday and Wednesday.
Adam, the group's bassist, is an activist who has a nonprofit organization called Planet Reimagined, which is billed as a group "spearheading a bipartisan approach to reshape U.S. clean energy policies" and helping to train future climate leaders.
The nonprofit completed a study and survey, "Amplify: How to Build a Fan-based Climate Movement," in which they studied the relationship between fans, musicians, concerts and climate advocacy.
The survey was sent to 350,000 fans, and produced such takeaways as: 72% of music fans said "climate change is an important issue" to them, and 70% of "respondents do not oppose artists using their platforms to speak out about climate change."
Acting on those results, AJR is giving concertgoers information on local climate sustainability causes. A dollar from each ticket sold will also go to support Planet Reimagined.
At their two Utah shows, the group will collaborate with the environmental advocacy group HEAL Utah and the Youth Coalition for Great Salt Lake, a group of teens dedicated to raising awareness about the Great Salt Lake's condition and getting involved in the action.
Adam Met, in a statement sent by email to The Salt Lake Tribune, wrote: "The Great Salt Lake is a critical ecosystem that supports incredible biodiversity and thousands of local jobs. But as climate change worsens, the lake is shrinking, leading to toxic dust storms and some of the worst air pollution in the country. We're proud to partner with HEAL Utah and the Youth Coalition for the Great Salt Lake, helping us empower our Utah fans to take action by sending letters to their state legislators demanding they reduce water diversion to ensure a safe and prosperous Great Salt Lake for generations to come."
Harnessing the energy of concerts to encourage climate change action and advocacy has been a growing trend over the past few years. Another organization that musicians utilize at their shows is REVERB, which helps reduce concert and tour footprints; one of the acts that has partnered with REVERB, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, performed Saturday at Deer Valley
Liam Mountain LaMalfa, the founder of the Youth Coalition for Great Salt Lake, said Adam Met's nonprofit reached out to them to get involved in the cause. It felt really "cool," he said, that "a cause so large would understand the importance of the Great Salt Lake issue."
At the AJR shows, the band and nonprofits will ask audience members to write and send postcards to state legislators, asking for them to take action to protect the Great Salt Lake.
"There's really two actions to be made by the people who are there," LaMalfa said. "[One is] a digital action that is going to be scanning a QR code, and sending a letter to the state legislature. Then there's going to be postcards that can be sent to legislators at the 'action village,' a section indoors." Information will be available to concertgoers about which legislators to contact.
LaMalfa, 18, graduated this spring from the Salt Lake Center for Science Education and plans to attend the University of Utah this fall. He said he decided to start the coalition when he first heard about dust stirred up from the Great Salt Lake's exposed lakebed.
"That really startled me — the notion of the Great Salt Lake's receding lake level allowing a lot of dust to flow out into not just the Salt Lake Valley, but Utah in general, and even beyond," LaMalfa said. "As someone with asthma, that idea of particulate matter, more air pollutants, was very scary."
As he started researching the lake, he also learned about the lake's economic impact in Utah, and the millions of migratory birds that rely on it. That encouraged him to do something, he said.
"Youth voices garner attention, because when we speak, people have to listen," LaMalfa said. He testified at the Legislature in February.
LaMalfa's mom, Lisa Mountain, is an adult mentor for the youth coalition. She said it's "phenomenal" to watch musicians like AJR help "influence and bring people into the climate movement through their platform."
Mountain also said that she's been impressed by the "intelligence, motivation, dedication and passion" of the youth involved with the coalition. "It has been amazing to watch them gain even more confidence that their voices matter and that what they have to say is powerful," she said.
Everyone who engages with the awareness effort, Mountain said, will get a souvenir of sorts after the concert: A follow-up letter from Adam Met and the band.
