WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Young Rappers Tackle Climate Change

Young Rappers Tackle Climate Change

Montpelier, Vermont - July 9, 2007

This weekend's Live Earth concert turned rock stars into environmental advocates, raising awareness about global warming.

Now, some teenage rappers from Montpelier High School are doing the same thing -- using music to lobby lawmakers about climate change.

"Hopefully this will get our voices heard," 17-year-old Luke Martin said.

"Glaciers melting, waters rising, sky is storming, global warming!" their rap begins.

The students, who call themselves X-10, first drew attention this spring with their rap, "802," which described life in Vermont. Their video has been viewed more than 123,000 times on YouTube.

Instead of 802, they're now rapping about CO2 -- carbon dioxide, which some scientists blame for global warming. They're urging lawmakers to override Governor Jim Douglas' veto of H. 520, a bill that calls for a new energy efficiency program to combat global warming.

"We felt like we had gained some influence from our last video," Martin said. "We tried to use that to make a song that was still funny and still doing what we were doing, but actually get a point across this time, trying to change the minds of some people."

The members of X-10 said writing about pollution was tougher than writing about pizza, a topic in their first song. But they said global warming and the environment were important issues to their generation.

"Some of the lines are pretty goofy and they're not real musical," 17-year-old Colin Arisman said. "But we think that's kind of funny, putting all this scientific information into a rap."

The bill goes before the legislature again on Wednesday. Governor Jim Douglas had vetoed it, arguing it called for an unfair tax on Vermont Yankee. Legislators need a two-thirds vote to override the veto.

"We want to do everything we can to get it passed, so we're trying to urge legislators to override the veto," Arisman said.

Kate Duffy - WCAX News