Baba Brinkman knows talking climate change is frustrating — so he raps

While rap sometimes gets a bad rap, Baba Brinkman knows it can be a vehicle for intelligent and sophisticated conversations.

That's why the B.C.-born, New York-based rapper's songs are all about science — especially climate change.

"A lot of people that care about climate change are frustrated by how hard it is to get people to pay attention and make it part of their lives," Brinkman told Cross Country Checkup host Duncan McCue.

"This can help to move the needle, hopefully."

Earlier this month, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a dire warning about the impact of global warming.

The report says that continued inaction on climate change could carry life-or-death consequences within the next few decades.

Brinkman, 40, hopes rap will encourage people to take action.

"One of the problems of climate change communication is frankly just getting people to care and getting people to feel something," he said.

Advocates and skeptics

Like Brinkman, 25-year-old Alexis Sylvester of Toronto told Checkup on Sunday she wants to see more movement on steps to slow climate change.

The farmer and environmental specialist says she's moved into a smaller house, drives a more fuel-efficient car and has planted 6,000 trees to reduce her carbon footprint.

Climate science, she says, is settled and there's no more room for debate.

"I want to know how we can look at climate change as a nonpartisan issue because that's where we're getting really stuck," she told McCue.

But Rupert Thurerer doesn't understand the urgency. According to the Lac Dubonnet, Man., cattle rancher, the climate is in a constant state of change — and humans play little role in shifting climate patterns.

"When I went to school it was ozone layer. Back in the '80s, that's what they were all scared about," he said.

Thurerer doubts fiscal approaches to dealing with climate change, like carbon taxes are effective.

If you go home and do some siloed, little consumer-choice changes and feel like you've done your part, we're failing this challenge.- Rapper Baba Brinkman

It's skeptics like Thurerer that Brinkman hopes to convert into understanding that broader, government strategies are needed.

"What seems sort of abundantly clear at this point is that individual level actions are going to fail to meet the required drawdown that's needed for us to really, really deal with the warming situation," Brinkman said.

Activate through music

At Brinkman's shows, he doesn't want his music to be a passive experience. He encourages his audience to engage with his ideas.

"Making them call and respond, shout out, throw their hands in the air," he said.

"I thought if I could get them in a room and have them have a collective experience that was rap driven ... it would hopefully have some people leaving the theatre more galvanized."

Brinkman's ideas are big. He's the son of Liberal MP Joyce Murray who has championed climate change legislation. Her policies have inspired his work, he says.

More than just making changes on a personal level — though those are valuable, he acknowledges — voters should work together and embrace approaches like carbon taxes.

"If you go home and do some siloed, little consumer-choice changes and feel like you've done your part, we're failing this challenge," he said.

"Voting for carbon taxes, and fee and dividend legislation … that's a way to solve the problem."