Nightwish’s Floor Jansen: It’s Time To Respect Our Planet

By educating ourselves on the issues our world faces, we have a real chance to make positive changes, says Nightwish vocalist Floor Jansen…

Words: Floor Jansen, speaking to Steve Beebee

“One good thing about social media is that it has made us more aware. It takes a global effort to make real change, and countries you might not at first think of are actually very active in trying to turn things around.

“As a child I was shocked at the idea of animals being killed for sport. I became a member of an organisation that campaigned against it, but today they’re still fighting exactly the same battles. Shooting animals for pleasure is disgusting, and it’s more organised now than before, with people paying a lot of money. They claim it’s raising funds to help conserve animals – that’s sad and weird, but at least it’s not as bad as it was 20 years ago. The way we then treat the planet to get those luxuries is a problem. We’re ruining the planet for future generations.

“As a musician looking out of my window and seeing nothing but nature I’m aware these problems aren’t at my doorstep, and sometimes even reading about it doesn’t get you nearer the truth because everything is coloured by someone’s agenda. For example, we’ve heard a lot about the problem of plastic being dumped in the ocean, and while that’s terrible we don’t hear so much about all the other places plastic is being dumped. Getting to the truth about global warming, equally, isn’t easy. As long as people’s power and money are more important than their consideration of our planet, nothing will change. Using compostable supermarket bags is a start, but big corporations need to start changing their ways, too.

“I don’t think we’re doomed yet, but we really need to smarten up. If you look at how long humans have been around, the threat seems less immediate because the planet is much older than we are. A lot of shit came along as we industrialised, but also a lot of new knowledge and exciting possibilities arose. If we explore those details, and show that we care about them, we can turn our polluting effect into a much more planet-friendly outcome.”