Greta Thunberg reveals our future in new Pearl Jam video for ‘Retrograde’

Climate change activist is depicted as a fortune teller in the rock band’s stark new video

Pearl Jam have enlisted Greta Thunberg as the star of their new animated video for “Retrograde”, in which she issues a dire warning about climate change.

“Retrograde” is taken from Pearl Jam’s latest album, Gigaton, which received positive reviews after being released earlier this year.

In the music video, a man visits a fortune teller and witnesses a series of climate change disasters after looking into a crystal ball, including rising seas engulfing New York City, and fires destroying the Australian outback. Thunberg is later revealed as the fortune teller.

Pearl Jam make an appearance as matching tarot cards. The band make a number of warnings about the future of the planet on Gigaton, including on the track “Quick Escape” and in their videos for “Dance of the Clairvoyants”.

The Independent’s review of Gigaton said: “The band seem guided more by instinct than any sense of formula, but there are some superb embellishments – a fearsome guitar solo on ‘Take the Long Way’, eerie synth ripples on ‘Retrograde’ – that build to the surprising final track, ‘River Cross’.

“Here, Vedder’s energy seems to sag, as though he’s come to the end of a long journey. ‘I want this dream to last forever,’ he wheezes over the pump of an organ. ‘Let it be a lie that all futures die.’ The orchestration peters to a single shimmering line, beautiful but uncertain.”

See the full video here.