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Missy Higgins rocks the world and saves it too

Missy Higgins rocks the world and saves it too

Missy Higgins is on a green mission. The 24 year-old singer-songwriter from Melbourne, Australia is immensely popular in her country and is now carving a name for herself in the United States. She is just as dedicated to fighting climate change and talked to the UN Works about her commitment to the planet.

Higgins uses her celebrity status to educate people about the importance of taking care of the planet – something she feels very passionately about. “My dad once said to me ‘with fame comes great responsibility’ and I realized that to be given some sort of public profile is an opportunity for your voice to be heard by many people. It would be a waste to not use that for good,” she said as she entered the General Assembly Hall at UN headquarters in New York.

Higgins has been performing on stage with her older brother’s band since the age of 13. Since winning a radio station’s songwriting contest in Australia a few years ago, Missy has gone from undiscovered teenage musician to one of her nation’s biggest selling artists of all time. She has won more ARIA’s (the Australian Grammy’s) in the past three years than most singers win in a lifetime, and is easily considered one of the biggest stars in Australian music. Missy is now poised to meet the same success in the US with the release of her sophomore album, On a Clear Night, along with a northern American tour to support it.


Missy performs in New York City

© UN Works / Lindsey Thoeng

Wearing skinny jeans and brown leather boots, Higgins starts talking about touring ‘carbon neutral’. “I felt that my lifestyle of touring was having a big impact on the planet, and I didn't want to be a contributor to global warming,” she says. Missy and her band are trying to eliminate the amount of pollution that they create on the tour. “We power all the music venues with green power, we drive from city to city instead of flying, and we use hybrid cars.” Along the way they have recycling facilities backstage and on the tour bus and they only use organic produce. The rest of the emissions she offsets with the help of experts in greening tours, such as the Carbon Kid in Australia and carbon credit funds Carbonfriendly.com and Carbonfund.org in the US. “They calculate our emissions and then neutralize it by supporting renewable energy projects like wind farms and solar power stations,” she says. In addition, Missy’s tour bus for the upcoming series of gigs will be fueled by bio diesel.

On her US tour in October of 2007, Missy, her guitar player and camera crews drove around in a hybrid vehicle and visited places along the way that were environmentally conscious. She spoke with an environmental scientist in Colorado at the National Center of Atmospheric Research (NCAR) who did not sugarcoat his view on global warming. “He really hit home to me how fast these dangers are approaching us. It was definitely a reality check. I went into that meeting wanting some reassurance that the situation is actually OK and maybe it’s not as bad as we thought, but I came out realizing the absolute opposite,” she says.

Missy also stayed in hotels that have adopted green standards and visited the Mountain View Montessori School in Nevada which has 10 solar panels on the roof as well as a wind turbine. “That school was so inspirational to me. In all of the classrooms they had these intricate composting systems set up for the kids to do themselves and they were instilling in these children at such a young age the value of the environment and this real love of nature,” she says. “The kids were really empowered and realized that it was in their hands. The teachers weren’t just leading by example, they were actually encouraging the kids to take charge and do this kind of thing themselves.”

Missy’s teacher in fourth grade, Mr. Dowell, gave her little tips about saving the environment that really made an imprint in her mind. “He would ask everyone to turn off the lights after they leave and to turn off the taps properly. I remember taking those lessons home and teaching my mom and dad the same thing,” she recalls. Her passion about the environment and saving animals reached an absolute high when she refused to swat flies and kill mosquitoes. “I got a little bit silly at one stage. I went a bit overboard and I used to get really upset if people killed insects. I’m not so much like that anymore I have to admit,” she laughs.

An activist not only when it comes to the environment but also with regards to animal rights and ending poverty, Missy has always been globally conscious. Ever since she was a kid she has been involved with World Vision and Greenpeace. A proud vegan, she has also worked with PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), the Make Poverty History campaign in Australia and plays charity gigs for issues such as breast cancer and victims of the 2004 tsunami. The star does not own a car but gets around on her bike and the tram, and switched the power in her house to green power. “It makes such a difference to the environment because you’re getting your energy from renewable sources like wind and solar power, rather than from coal fire stations,” she says.


Missy at UN headquarters

© UN Works / Sean Murphy

When it comes to the environment, Missy believes that rich countries have a responsibility towards the poor. “I’m a big believer in the power of the Kyoto Protocol. I think that distribution of wealth and pollution is a really intelligent way to go, and we definitely have a responsibility to protect these third world countries. We’re realizing that climate change is just as much of a threat to them as starvation is. We’re the only ones who can actually do anything about it because they’re so far behind and it’s impossible for them to catch up without our help. It’s up to us.”

Scary reality checks aside, the petite Melbournian is positive about fighting global warming. “It’s the little things along the way and realizing that you can’t be perfect. None of us can single handedly cool down the globe or suck the carbon out of the atmosphere. But we’ve got to do what we can to pass down this information to our kids and also making the greatest amount of change that we possibly can. We can’t just sit back and hope that the older generation is going to take care of it for us. It’s in our hands to not take no for an answer and to do everything we can in our own lives, but also participate in your community and try to convince your governments that we need some seriously dramatic changes in the way that we live. The best way is to lead by example.”

Click here to view the first webisode of Higgins’ green documentary “Missy Takes The Wheel” or watch it on on MissyHiggins.com and her MySpace profile

By Lindsey Thoeng
Main image: Missy Higgins in the General Assembly Hall at UN Headquarters


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