The Pharrell Williams song that won’t be released for “100 Years” is a statement about global warming

By Marissa G. Muller
15 November 2017
(W Magazine) – Pharrell Williams just dropped a new song, but you’ll have to wait until 2117 to hear it. That is, unless you were one of the 100 people he premiered it to—who were prohibited from recording it—in Shanghai at a listening party thrown by Louis XIII cognac, which teamed up with Pharrell on the project designed to raise awareness for climate change. Fittingly dubbed “100 years,” the song is a statement about the disastrous effect humans have on the environment, including a rising sea level. If humans continue to contribute to the rising sea level, however, even in 100 years people may not get to hear the song as it’s currently being stored in a clay vessel that will be destroyed should its storage unit ever flood.If Pharrell’s elaborate attempt to curb climate change doesn’t sway you to change your consumption habits and encourage everyone else around you to do so as well, perhaps his words will. “I want to be really clear that I am not a tree hugger,” he told Vogue. “I think it’s important that every human being—from the most eco-aware person to someone that’s driving a diesel truck—always has a sense of terrestrial awareness. That’s what it boils down to.”For Pharrell, change also boils down to passing the baton from the current generation making policies to the next one. “They don’t need to hear it as much as the old folks,” he said of climate change. “These kids don’t feel there’s a necessity to own a car—they’ll Uber or they’ll Lyft. They don’t feel like they have to have a big house on the hill—they will Airbnb. They were born into a shared space. The older generation was sold the American dream that was like, ‘Okay, you have to own a house, you have to have two cars, you need the picket fence.’ That was a marketing scheme. Kids now are like, ‘Those are your rules.’ They have a different appreciation of how to treat the world. They think about things in a very different way. It’s this: Don’t try to live up to a super high standard, but be aware. Be aware of how you can contribute. That’s how we’ll realistically get it done.” [more]

Pharrell’s Song That Won’t Be Released for “100 Years” is a Statement About Climate Change