Billie Eilish announced that she’s donating over £10million from her Hit Me Hard and Soft tour to climate causes and urges billionaires to “give away your money”
Grammy-winning artist Billie Eilish is no stranger to philanthropy and donating to charitable causes.
On October 29, as she accepted the Music Innovator Award at the Wall Street Journal Magazine Innovator Awards in New York City, the Birds of a Feather singer announced that she’d be donating $11.5 million (£10million) of the proceeds from her Hit Me Hard and Soft tour to climate causes.
The money will go to The Changemaker Programme, an initiative to support organisations and projects to food equity, climate justice and reducing carbon pollution.
As she took to the stage to accept her award she also called out on billionaires in the room to give their money away. She said: “I’d say if you have money it would be great to use it for good things and maybe give it to some people that need it.”
She continued: “If you’re a billionaire, why are you a billionaire?,” and added: “No hate, but yeah, give your money away, shorties.”
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She urged people to be empathetic and said: “We’re in a time right now where the world is really, really bad and really dark and people need empathy and help more than kind of ever, especially in our country,”
The singer recently gave money to a youth climate leadership programme in Howard County, Maryland, USA. She donated $11,000 (£8,400) to the local non-profit Howard County Conservancy’s Youth Climate Institute (YCI).
The YCI Executive Director said: “Billie Ellish’s commitment to climate action and amplifying youth voices aligns perfectly with our goals. Our student ambassadors are elated to have their work recognized by Billie, who uses her platform for climate justice and sustainability.”
The programme is a high school programme that was founded in 2020 and has more than 700 students and 50 active chapters in 10 states. They combine climate education and action to make students become effective environmental ambassadors, apply for green jobs and combat the climate crisis.
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Sarah KC, a YCI Certified Ambassador with Honours shared: “Having Billie Eilish support our work is incredibly meaningful; she’s an icon for our generation, and her recognition shows young climate activists that we’re not alone in this fight,” and added “It gives me hope that together we can create the change our planet needs.”
Other climate actions that Billie Eilish has taken include her going vegan back in 2014, and using social media to spread awareness.
Her 2019 song, All The Good Girls To Hell, was about the climate crisis. She captioned the video: “Right now there are millions of people all over the world begging our leaders to pay attention. Our earth is warming up at an unprecedented rate, icecaps are melting, our oceans are rising, our wildlife is being poisoned and our forests are burning.”
She also shared in 2019 a viral video on the threat of the climate crisis saying: ““We cannot let this happen on our watch”.
The artist has opted for plastic-free concerts. For her 2020 world tour, she teamed up with a non-profit that helps musicians with sustainability, Reverb. She banned plastic straws, and fans were asked to bring their own water bottles and everything else was recycled.
She also created a video with scientists ahead of the 2021 climate summit and called out on world leaders saying: “We must stand together and speak up to save our planet, not just for us but for our future generations.”
The singer has been consistent in her activism for climate change and this donation adds to her lengthy and impressive list.
Source: Mirror
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