Greta Thunberg delivers climate crisis message on new 1975 album: ‘It is time to rebel’

‘There are no grey areas when it comes to survival’

Climate crisis activist Greta Thunberg has recorded an essay for The 1975’s new album Notes on a Conditional Form.

The Swedish teenager, 16, has become a leading voice in the fight against climate change. She became famous last year after she protested every day for three weeks during school hours by sitting outside the Riksdag (the Swedish parliament), calling on the government to reduce carbon emissions in line with the Paris Climate Agreement.

In her essay, which is recited over ambient instrumentation provided by the band, Thunberg calls for “civil disobedience” and announces: “It is time to rebel.”

“There are no grey areas when it comes to survival,” she says on the track, which was released overnight on 25 July.

“We are right now at the beginning of a climate and ecological crisis. And we need to call it what it is: an emergency,” she continues.

“Today we use about 100 million barrels of oil every single day. There are no politics to change that. There are no rules to keep that oil in the ground, so we can no longer save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed, everything needs to change, and it has to start today.”

The new 1975 track is not a single in its own right, but will feature as the opening song on the band’s album under the title “The 1975”, in the same vein as their previous three albums that have also opened with an ambient track under the same title.

Notes on a Conditional Form was recorded at the same time as The 1975’s last album, A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships, which was released in November last year to positive reviews.

Notes on a Conditional Form is scheduled for release in August. The proceeds from the track will go to Extinction Rebellion, at Thunberg’s request.