The Be Cool! Campaign grew from “I Wanna Be Cool”, an Americana meets Beatles pop anthem bringing more than awareness to the climate crisis. The goal of the Campaign is to inspire meaningful climate action and mobilize global youth to combat the world’s worsening climate crisis.
The Campaign was launched by Music Declares Emergency US and The ClimateMusic Project, recruiting more than 2,500 young people across the world to sing the chorus and 10 award- winning vocalists to sing the verses, including Jefferson Starship lead singer Cathy Richardson, six-time Grammy nominee John McCutcheon, electric violin pioneer Scarlet Rivera (formerly with Bob Dylan), and former “The Voice” contestant Raine Stern. An Emmy award-winning design studio, Imaginary Forces, created a heartwarming, fun music video.
I Wanna Be Cool – composed by award-winning songwriters Will Kimbrough and Brant Miller in collaboration with distinguished climate scientists, calls attention to the widespread impacts of climate change. The Campaign highlights three areas for action: civic engagement, greenhouse gas emission reduction, and climate education. It encourages participants and their communities, as well as viewers, to engage with grass roots organizations to help address the climate crisis. See climatemusic.org/becool for some related organizations and guidance for action.
The video is available for any organization that wants to inspire their communities. It has been shown at major events, such as the 2025 EarthX Summit in Dallas and COP29 via climate media outlet, We Don’t Have Time and. It has also been highlighted at meetings, conferences and classrooms, and has over 135,000 YouTube views.
After learning that many of the participating schools from rural Nigeria do not have access to electricity, the Campaign started raising funds with a goal of electrifying twelve schools this year. Later this summer, the Campaign will support solar and battery installation for the Wisdom Academic School, a 12 classroom, 210 student school in Igbudu Warri Delta State.
Please check out the Campaign website to find out how you can be part of the Campaign community, create your own version of I Wanna Be Cool, or learn more: https://climatemusic.org/BeCool/
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