Brand New Sky Video

Inspires Hope for Climate Movement – Highlights Soil

September 28, 2016 – Thetford, VT

Soil4Climate released a music video of the upbeat climate restoration anthem, “Brand New Sky.” The video includes striking scenes of land — dying and healthy — interspersed with photos of farmers and ranchers healing land and sequestering carbon, that add depth and clarity to the song.

​Featuring printed lyrics, the new video invites audiences to sing along. “Music, poetry, and art are essential elements of movement building,” noted Soil4Climate cofounder Seth Itzkan, who contributed to the lyrics and plays bass in this rendition. According to Itzkan, one of the lines – Where there was once nothing to see, Now there is life all around me – “was inspired by my observations at the Africa Center for Holistic Management in Zimbabwe. Land that had been desertified for decades was restored to vibrant savanna with deep-rooted perennial grasses. Standing in the midst of tall grasses on land that only a few years earlier was hard-capped eroding desert, is a soul-stretching experience that can never be denied or diminished.”

“Brilliant!” exclaimed Andre Leu, president of Organics International (the new name for IFOAM, the 800-member International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements). “The message in this song will help save the planet from climate change. Let’s sing it loud and often,” he continued.

Ariel Greenwood, grazier with Santa Rosa-based Holistic Ag and owner of Circle A Beef, said, “Brand New Sky is a timely anthem that reminds us that we can partner with nature to restore planetary health for the benefit of all.”

William Moomaw, Professor Emeritus at Tufts University’s Global Development and Environment Institute and a distinguished member of the intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, stated, “As this hopeful video makes clear, regenerating the world’s degraded soils is a crucial part of the climate solution. To quote the lyrics, There is something we can do. How we choose to farm, raise livestock, and tend our gardens will shape our climate future.”

Featured in the music video is vocalist Leigh Meunier. Singer/songwriter Kevin O’Connor is principal composer of “Brand New Sky.”

An arrangement of “Brand New Sky” for chorus was created by Chris Eastburn, Artistic Director of Family Folk Chorale in Arlington, Massachusetts. Lyrics, chords, the chorus arrangement, and multiple recorded versions, including an instrumental track, are available at soil4climate.org/2016/03/29/soil4climate-song/.

Soil4Climate, a Vermont-based nonprofit, advocates for soil restoration as a climate solution.

Media Contact Karl Thidemann: karl.thidemann@gmail.com
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Lyrics to “Brand New Sky”

​Think of a world where everyone cares
About the land that everyone shares
Think of the soil that’s under your feet
And what it needs to make it complete
Under a brand new sky

We don’t have to settle for a dying planet
There is something we can do
We can save the land and everything upon it
All it takes is me and you

Take a look outside of your door
And find a world worth fighting for
Where there was once nothing to see
Now there is life all around me
Under a brand new sky

We don’t have to settle for a dying planet
There is something we can do
We can save the land and everything upon it
All it takes is me and you

The answer that we’re looking for is soil for climate
Put the carbon back in the ground
This can be a movement if we get behind it
Help us turn the world around

We don’t have to settle for a dying planet
There is something we can do
We can save the land and everything upon it
All it takes is me and you

© Kevin O’Connor and Seth Itzkan 2016