Thom Yorke Releases Video for Greenpeace-Exclusive “Hands Off The Antarctic”

The track is part of Greenpeace's Antarctic Ambassadors project

Music News Thom Yorke
Thom Yorke Releases Video for Greenpeace-Exclusive “Hands Off The Antarctic”

Thom Yorke has got horror on the brain. When he’s not teasing music from his forthcoming score for Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria remake, the Radiohead frontman is confronting a different type of horror: that of a dying planet, and a Republican administration that refuses to even dialogue about it. His latest song, “Hands Off The Antarctic,” was released Tuesday in partnership with Greenpeace through the organization’s Antarctic Ambassadors program.

Okay, so maybe the song doesn’t directly address U.S. Republicans—but it’s not hard to hear it as a sneak-diss of sorts, especially considering the Trump administration’s recent shrugging-off of a predicted seven-degree temperature change as an excuse to deregulate further. The song itself is a frigid, thumping IDM odyssey, a fitting soundtrack for the images it’s played over. The footage of Antarctica, captured by Greenpeace’s ship Arctic Sunrise, is shot in captivating black-and-white, and illustrates just what’s at stake by continuing to ignore climate change—not just the beauty, but the life that finds itself in places uninhabitable by people.

Greenpeace asks that fans donate to protect the Antarctic here.

Watch the video for “Hands Off The Antarctic” and listen to a 1995 Radiohead session from the Paste archives below, and check out our essay on why it’s so hard to write a good song about the environment here.

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