Sheryl Crow: I was expecting great things from the college age group, but I wasn’t expecting the kind of ingenuity they were already applying on their college campuses. One college had figured out a way to take all of the cooking oil from their campus cafeterias and use it to fuel their delivery trucks. Simple things like that. All that required was somebody thinking of it and managing to apply it.
It speaks volumes about this generation and the importance of movements that have come out of college campuses throughout history.
But still, the question of “Is it too late” was always prevalent at every concert we did. And so I really think it’s important that we stay focused on the hope of that dream, of making a shift in our consciousness, as opposed to just going to sleep, sitting back and figuring, “Well, it’s too late.”
LW: What do you consider the most serious environmental issue facing humanity today? What should we be doing about it?
Sheryl Crow: That’s a tricky question, obviously. The melting of the polar ice caps is of great concern and it’s irreversible.
I think the major thing, at this moment, is to start to take our government back, to demand that we address the future building of coal plants, that we demand some kind of emissions regulation, that we demand that the car companies in Detroit start addressing oversized vehicles—what I call ego-autos—and that we really start owning the fact that what we do in our personal lives will affect our communities, the United States, and the world. It’s all interconnected.
It’s like Laurie said every night on that tour, “It’s not about doing everything, it’s about doing something.” Starting at the personal level, whether it’s changing light bulbs, or not taking a two-hour hot shower, or not running your dryer when you could actually hang your clothes, or not running the water while you’re brushing your teeth. Just simple, simple things. Like recycling.
In my mind, it’s about consciousness. And, ultimately, it’s going to become a real moral issue, especially when we talk about countries running out of water. Even in our own country, we’ve gotten so used to the luxury of being able to take clean water for granted. When it starts to creep into our own backyard, that’s when we’re going to see a movement kick in. But in my mind, we don’t have time to wait for that.
LW: As someone who survived cancer not long ago, do you have particular concerns about some of the health effects of pollution, pesticides, global warming and other environmental hazards?
Sheryl Crow: Absolutely, I think they’re all interconnected. When we were on the tour, we met this wonderful mayor in Texas, who is a former research scientist. He’s making correlations between rising temperatures and what will happen. We’re going to see malaria in this country, and other diseases that we have become accustomed to not having in [the United States].
I feel the environment has great play in everything. We’re seeing our young people developing earlier because of [excess] hormones [in milk and other foods]. We’re seeing pesticides and herbicides influencing the rise in cancer. For instance, my cancer was estrogen-positive, and we already know that pesticides and herbicides affect that, and that the phthalates in plastic water bottles and plastic containers imitate estrogen.
There are all these little things we don't even know about that are damaging to us.
LW: You started your career as a teacher. I'm wondering how your early desire to educate and enlighten as a teacher has influenced you as a songwriter and a performer.
Sheryl Crow: In my life, I think there's definitely a correlation between information seeking and information disseminating, and just having a general dialogue. And more importantly, about truth being the underlying motivation behind all of it.
It's wonderful that we have the Internet, but let's be honest and acknowledge that so much of the information that comes to us from the Internet is not true. It's misinformation. In these days, it's really important for us to dig for what the truth is.
I sometimes think the Internet has diluted our ability to be emotionally invested in anything. We close the computer and we turn off the TV and the 24-hour news, and we don't feel emotionally attached to anything. We just feel overwhelmed by all the information that's out there, to the point where we don't know what the real truth is and isn't. Otherwise, we would have impeached our president; we would have done something about Enron and Halliburton. Instead, all the information, and misinformation, that's out there has rendered us essentially numb.
LW: Speaking of sources of misinformation, tell me about your confrontation with former Bush advisor Karl Rove at the 2007 White House Correspondents Dinner, when you urged him to take a fresh look at the science of global warming.
Sheryl Crow: Laurie and I laugh about it. We like to take full credit for him leaving office, but of course that's probably not the truth...
LW: I'm willing to give it to you.
Sheryl Crow: (Laughs.) I think he's a very clear example of what this administration is based on: total deception.
