Sean Paul Continues Climate Change Awareness Advocacy

Sean Paul is continuing his climate change awareness advocacy to ensure that the Earth maintains the “right temperature”. Literally.

It is not strange, therefore, that the effects of global warming on the legendary Hellshire Beach in St. Catherine, his childhood stomping ground and one of the places where he took Rihanna on her first trip to Jamaica, has not gone unnoticed by the We Be Burnin’ artist, who was named an Ambassador for Climate in the Caribbean in 2018.

Paul told Sky News’ Beth Rigby recently that he realizes the effects of climate change are getting “getting closer to home”, with the beach, at one point one of the south-east’s most spectacular, gradually disappearing.  According to the No Lie artist, as a youngster, he had thought of climate change as a distant threat, something he would not experience in his lifetime, but Hellshire had given him a “first-hand” experience of the phenomenon.

“As a child Growing up in Jamaica, I’ve always been told, you know, climate change is something that’s in the future.  And I’ve always been like, maybe we’ll never seen that happen,” Sean told Rigby.

Sean said that as a child, he and his family spent weekends in Hellshire Beach and back then, there was about 20 feet of sparkling white sand beach between the seafood huts and the high water mark.

“But I can tell you of a personal experience; we have a beach in Kingston, which is a very nice, white sandy beach which no hotel organisation has captured; it’s a legendary beach for Kingstonians to go to on a Saturday or a Sunday… Over the years I’ve seen this beach move away.   It’s very sad to see now that there are no more beaches. And it’s shocking when I remember when I was a kid…The coral reef that was used to buffer the beach from the sea “can’t survive.   This is coming from climate change,” he said.

Sean Paul expressed worry about the future of the younger generations, and told the publication that among the things he has been doing since his Love Letter the Earth song in 2015, he has been taking steps to reduce his environmental footprint.

One of the measures he has taken is to outfit his home with solar power, and another which is in the making is to switch to electric cars.

“Lessening your carbon footprint – each person – that’s a good thing.  And more and more you can pressure your government about it.  I have made the move to make my whole house solar powered.  From the water to all the lights, And it runs my studio as well.  So that’s been an awesome move,” Sean said in another interview with ITV News.

He also admonished those of the world’s billionaires, who have taken a fancy to shuttling themselves to Space, trips which burn a tremendous amount of fuel and emit massive amounts of carbon, urging them to pay attention to the planet.

“These bigger heads who want to go to the moon and to Mars and to do all kinds of crazy stuff, I wish they would put more of their energy towards utilizing the sun more, utilizing the wind and the waves that come on.   I think a lot of that can be done,” he explained.

In September 2015, Sean Paul along with Toby Gad, Natasha Bedingfield and John Shanks, co-wrote the song Love Song to the Earth, described as the first song that earns royalties for Earth.

That same year he had attended the COP21 climate summit in 2015, which resulted in the historic Paris Agreement, also referred to as the Paris Accords or the Paris Climate Accords, which is an international treaty on climate change covering climate change mitigation, adaptation, and finance.

Sean collaborated with eleven other internationally renowned artistes to voice Love Song to The Earth, urging world leaders to reach a global agreement to limit the impacts of climate change, during the United Nations climate conference which was to be held that December in Paris, France.

The song was part of a unified global movement supporting the United Nations’ call for a meaningful, universal, global climate change agreement.

Among the collaborators were including Sir Paul McCartney, Jon Bon Jovi, Leona Lewis and UN Goodwill Ambassador Angelique Kidjo.   Also on the list were Sheryl Crow, Fergie, Colbie Caillat, Natasha Bedingfield, Johnny Rzeznik, Krewella, Angelique Kidjo, Kelsea Ballerini, Nicole Scherzinger, Christina Grimmie, Victoria Justice & Q’orianka Kilcher.

The single was made available for download on iTunes and Apple Music and all the proceeds accrued by Apple, the artistes, producers and directors of the song are donated to Friends of the Earth US and the UN Foundation, to “keep fossil fuels in the ground and lower carbon emissions, and to aid the work of the UN Foundation to inspire international action on climate change”.

Paul’s Scorcha album was released last Friday, via Islands Records.