Go for a walk or roll on the trail, sit on the bench, stand on the bridge, whichever you wish, and listen through your headphones. Look out at the beautiful and abundant salt marsh ecosystem.

What if we lose everything?

…can be accessed anywhere at any time, on the “Carry the Spark” EP on Bandcamp!

This song is an imagined conversation with world leaders, corporations, and anyone who is apathetic about the climate crisis. It asks and pleads with them to consider the impending doom that awaits us if climate change continues as is.

It asks them to use their imaginations and think about the extreme forest fires, heat waves, and floods that await. It invites the listener to not just think about what will happen to the earth in general, but to think about how climate change will deeply affect everyone very personally. “When’s it all going to collapse? The walls fall in and everyone’s trapped. The neighbours go by in a little life raft. Everything’s gone, nobody can go back.”

There is a sense of unfairness that pervades the song. Because it is hard to figure out an easy solution to climate change, a prevailing feeling, especially among young people, is a deep sense of injustice. It feels like our futures are so uncertain, and cannot be planned for or dreamed about. There is a general understanding, even if just in a jokey way, that “the world is going to end” before we reach middle or old age.

It feels like there is no one who knows what to do and no one who is willing to do what it takes to care for our earth. It feels like we’re in unknown territory and no one will help. “And you say life’s just like that, but nobody gave us a road map, and it’s night time, there’s no signs, and no one to ask. There’s no way to go back, there’s no way to go back.”

The song ends with a reminder of the earth’s beauty, and one of the reasons we want to preserve and care for the earth. It is a little thank you note to one of my favourite eco-systems: the salt marshes. “The sun in the morning, the song the birds singing, the mud coating my skin, the salt air on my lip, save me my favourite.”

The transcript or descriptive text for this piece can be found by touching the "Text" button in the bottom right hand corner of your screen in the "View the Art" section.

Keeper E. combines heartfelt, tender lyrics with playful pop sounds and beats, enveloping the listener in her sweet melodies. Living and working on the East Coast of Canada in Nova Scotia, her music is filled with the natural imagery of rivers and oceans, and her songs are rooted in folk traditions. Her songs are deeply personal, and they have an inviting quality to them that empowers the listener. Keeper’s folk-inspired melodies are coloured with layers of vocals, energetic synths, sound effects, and gentle, yet driving, beats. With catchy melodies and raw emotions, Keeper’s songs inspire listeners to sing along.

Photo credit: KT Lamond

Salt marshes are coastal wetlands that act as a transition zone between the land and the sea. Healthy salt marshes provide habitat for birds, fish, and other wildlife. Salt marsh restoration is the process of reversing damage done by erosion, human activity, dyking, ditching and construction, by replacing restrictive tidal crossings with larger, more appropriately placed openings to allow for a more natural tidal flow. For example, the EAC’s Cheverie Creek salt marsh restoration pilot project, over 30 hectares of ecologically significant Bay of Fundy salt marshes were protected and restored in 2004.