Cork kids’ rap for climate change goes viral

An elementary school in Cork has gone viral after its students released a rap song about climate change.

Cappabue National School in West Cork released their catchy number 'One Small Change' on Jan. 30, 2020, and the video has already amassed over 33,000 views on YouTube, in addition to countless others on social media.

One such social media post by viral-sharing platform NowThis has almost 200,000 views.

These Irish students wrote a rap song about the climate crisis pic.twitter.com/wL7JdLYi0F
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) February 7, 2020

The song was written by the students themselves as part of a music workshop with rapper Garry McCarthy,

The lyrics call on Irish people to follow their example and make small changes to their daily lives, such as turning off the tap when brushing your teeth and carpooling to work or school, in order to save the planet.

Norma Healy, the school's principal, said that students have been participating in the fight against climate change since May 2019, when they took part in a environmental competition for local schools.

The students undertook a fact-finding mission and a clean-up of local beaches as part of the competition and Healy said that this fueled the environmental enthusiasm at the school.

The students at the small school, which only has two teachers, won the competition for making a 3D art installation of a whale by using discarded sea litter.

The school has banned the use of single-use plastic bottles, and students bring steel drinks containers to school instead.

Cappabue also uses a filtered water cooler system with the water supplied from its own well, and Healy said that students wanted to send a message to other schools around the country with their video.

“The children wanted to spread the message to other school children as to how they too could make a difference in their own small way.

“Working in groups, the children came up with the entire content of the song themselves. Garry [McCarthy] set up a recording desk in the classroom and, under his expert direction, 'One Small Change' was born,” Healy said.