“Climate change deniers... you either want to flatten them, or write a piece of music that might just get under their skin and feel the love we need to feel for our planet”: Hans Zimmer on composing as climate activism

Legendary film composer Hans Zimmer has been talking about working with David Attenborough, and how he hopes his scores for BBC series like Planet Earth II and Frozen Planet will make people “fall in love with this little blue spot in this universe” and become motivated to act on climate change.

“But we’re not trying to scare you,” he pointed out. “We’re trying to make you fall in love... to make you feel something and hopefully it’s a Trojan horse”

In a passionate TEDx talk that was released online last week, he told how as a young boy his chemist father took him to see the Rhine and showed him how polluted the river was at that time. “As a 5 year old I was educated in the idea that we were losing our planet, losing our home.”

He explained how he’s sees his work with the BBC Natural History Unit as a form of climate activism: “Climate change deniers... you either want to go and flatten them. Or go and write a piece of music that might just get under their skin and maybe just for a moment stop them having these politicised ideas, and feel the love we need to feel for our planet.”

The 66-year-old composer also explained how a number of players in his orchestra were refugees and how its multinational membership is a source of strength. “People are forever talking about music being the global language. Actually.. it’s got loads of different accents, and things which resonate in Japan absolutely do not resonate in Colorado, and without compromising you have to find some sort of common denominator.”

And he had a message for all musicians: listen. “Everybody says that when they see a great band or great musicians play is that they can play so well. Every musician can play really well! 

"I mean you start aged 4 with your piano lessons etcetera. But the thing you really learn is to listen to each other. And that’s the most important lesson, because that’s how you make beautiful music. You learn how to work as a team.”

One of our greatest living film composers, Zimmer has enjoyed a glittering career that has included two Oscars and four Grammy awards. He has scored an enormous range of films over the last four decades, including Rain Man, The Lion King, Gladiator, Pirates Of The Caribbean, Inception and Interstellar. And if you recently saw Dune: Part Two at the cinema, well, that was him too.