Across generations and genres, musicians worldwide increasingly recognize the threat of climate change and are expressing themselves as they know best: through their music.

Few artists are making music on the climate crisis as vivid and bold as rapper Xiuhtezcatl Tonatiuh Martinez — a lifelong environmental activist and a trained Climate Reality Leader.

First, the fact that the climate crisis is already taking a devastating toll across the planet:.

Second, that the climate crisis is an unprecedented intergenerational justice issue:.

And third, that if we can change as individuals and as a society, there is still hope to avoid the worst of the climate crisis:.

With lines like "Below decks the engineer cries / The captain's gonna leave us when the temperatures rise / The needle's going up, the engine's gonna blow / And we're gonna be left down below" McCartney gives voice to the danger of putting off climate action any longer.

Childish Gambino released "Feels like Summer." Though lyrics like "You can feel it in the streets/ On a day like this, the heat/ It feel like summer" initially make this feel like a mellow summer tune, a closer look reveals a much different reality:5

Of course, the song is actually a sobering wake-up call on the climate crisis.

As he acknowledges, climate change is already taking a devastating toll on the natural world.

Additionally, he repeatedly expresses his lament for our inability to change with the lines:6

Jaden Smith is another rapper who's been taking on the climate crisis through his music, often teaming up with others to do it.

With lines like, "If I fly as a butterfly in my dream, or a bumblebee / As we going extinct, will we still live on in eternity," Jaden makes us consider the impact of the climate crisis on the natural world and, specifically, on increasingly threatened wildlife.

Really, just a few lines into the song make it clear that this eerie chart-topper is about our warming world and the climate-fueled wildfires in her home state.

Just last October he released Colorado, an album lamenting the climate crisis and issuing an aggressive call for action.

Lines like "When I look at the future / I see hope for you and me / Have to shut the whole system down" make one thing clear: Young believes that we can still act in time.

Just take the music video for the song "Like Lightning," where a furry protagonist wakes up society to its mindless destruction of the planet, capturing the band's climate concern and distaste for rampant consumerism?

Lana Del Rey is another high-profile artist that's making climate change a central theme in her music — and many critics are entirely here for it.

To see how that's possible look no further than the Climate Music Project: a San Francisco group that takes real climate data to produce what could be considered the sound of climate change.

As the group's founder Stephan Crawford explained to the New York Times, "Music is really visceral… Listening to a composition is an active experience, not just a passive one.

It can make climate change feel more personal and inspire people to take action.".

Snippets of the Climate Music Project's work can be found at climatemusic.org/our-music/#climate.

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