What We’re Listening to This Earth Day

Five songs for reflection, resistance, and reconnecting with the planet.

Earth Day is a moment to pause, reflect, and recommit — not only to action, but to a deeper awareness of what’s at stake. In a time of compounding crises and urgent calls for change, music becomes more than background noise; it’s a vessel for memory, meaning, and momentum. It turns grief into something we can share, grounds resistance in feeling, and connects us — on the streets, on the dance floor, or in moments of quiet reflection.

This year, we’ve gathered five songs, some new, some timeless, that each speak to the climate moment in their own way. All invite us to listen more deeply — to one another, to the planet, and to what this movement demands.

1. “HEATED” – Anusha Savi x GARMI (2025)

Genre: Pop-R&B | Mood: Clear-eyed and energized

This Earth Day, rising artist Anusha Savi and climate storytelling studio GARMI drop “HEATED” — a bold, beat-forward breakup anthem that takes direct aim at the Oil-igarchy.

At first listen, it has all the makings of an addictive pop/R&B track. But beneath the surface, it’s something more: a love song to climate justice and a call to break from the industries still burning our future for profit.

“How could you blame me when you chose violence?
If I see smoke, I won’t stay silent.”
— Anusha Savi, “HEATED”

This is a song for the moment you’re ready to walk away—from an ex, from a broken system, or from the stories we’ve been told to believe. It’s both a personal anthem and a collective call to action. “HEATED” is out now on all major platforms.

2. “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)” – Marvin Gaye (1971)

Genre: Soul | Mood: Mournful, visionary

This tune from Marvin Gaye’s prolific What’s Going On album stands as one of the earliest and most powerful songs to confront environmental devastation. Gaye’s voice carries grief, but also deep clarity about the systems responsible and how they connect to injustice everywhere.

“Where did all the blue skies go?
Poison in the wind that blows from the North and South and East”
— Marvin Gaye, “Mercy Mercy Me”

Amid tracks that speak to war, poverty, and racial injustice, “Mercy Mercy Me” was a risk — Marvin Gaye had to convince Motown producers who worried a song about the environment wouldn’t land with audiences. More than five decades later, its lyrics still resonate, and Gaye’s insistence on telling hard truths mirrors the ongoing fight for climate justice.

3. “Rainforest” – Noname (2021)

Genre: Hip-hop/Jazz | Mood: Reflective, radical

With a bossa nova-inspired groove and razor-sharp lyricism, Noname weaves themes of environmental destruction, capitalism, and colonialism into a track that’s as sonically soothing as it is politically searing. “Rainforest” calls listeners to reckon with the global systems of extraction rooted in exploitation, while reminding us that joy, care, and solidarity can thrive even in resistance.

“Only animal that ravage everything in its path

They turned a natural resource into a bundle of cash ”
— Noname, “Rainforest”

Noname reminds us that resistance doesn’t always roar and that healing, too, is a form of defiance.

4. “Big Yellow Taxi” – Joni Mitchell (1970)

Genre: Folk-pop | Mood: Bright but bittersweet

Joni Mitchell’s iconic track is deceptively upbeat, masking deep concern for the loss of nature to development and pollution. Its core message —“you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone” — has echoed through environmental movements for decades.

“They took all the trees, put em’ in a tree museum
And they charged the people a dollar and a half just to see em’”
— Joni Mitchell, “Big Yellow Taxi”

It’s a gentle, but pointed reminder of what we lose when we treat nature as expendable.

5. “It Feels Like Summer” – Childish Gambino (2018)

Genre: R&B/Soul | Mood: Dreamy, disquieting

With hazy melodies and a soft, lulling rhythm, “Feels Like Summer” moves like a warm breeze before a storm: gentle on the surface, but heavy with tension and foreboding. It’s a meditation on the slow violence of climate change, capturing the quiet dread of watching the world unravel while everything seems calm.

“Every day gets hotter than the one before
Running out of water, it’s about to go down”
— Childish Gambino, “Feels Like Summer”

“Feels Like Summer” speaks through stillness, drawing our attention to the subtle signals of a world in distress.

Have a favorite Earth Day anthem? Share it in the comments — we’re all ears.