If I ruled the world: Moby

Future generations will ask why we dug miles into the earth to bring out toxic black sludge in the form of oil and coal when we had an abundance of sustainable forms of energy such as solar, wind and hydro, which are free. I drive an electric car and am in the process of installing batteries and solar panels so that I can be off the grid. We have compromised the health of the planet so that the shareholders of energy companies can buy themselves private jets.

There are many ways to fight climate change but planting trillions of trees is the most effective way of storing carbon. I had a swimming pool in my back yard, which I used ten days of the year. I tore it out and replaced it with trees, though I don’t think 20 trees are going to make a huge difference. We need a few trillion.

I’m a vegan because I love animals. But, apart from that, animal agriculture is destroying us. Ninety per cent of rainforest deforestation is for animal agriculture. It causes cancer, heart disease, diabetes and antibiotic resistance. Billions of animals are kept on factory farms in the worst possible conditions, where they’re fed obscene amounts of antibiotics. These farms are breeding grounds for superbugs and, at some point, we won’t be able to produce stronger antibiotics. 

We’re nothing without education, but there are professional athletes who in one year are paid as much as the combined salary of thousands of teachers. At the same time, you have teachers sleeping in their cars and holding down three jobs because they’re paid so little. It’s infuriating.

In the last US presidential election, 40 per cent of the electorate didn’t vote. People have jobs and can’t get to the polls. But, if you make voting compulsory, and also make it a holiday, you can approach 100 per cent-involvement. A lot of pernicious political agendas are only advanced because they know that most people won’t vote.

With trolls and bots, you never know who you’re engaging with. The way to get rid of that is to allow posts only from verified users. I’ve managed to annoy people regarding music, politics, animals, just about everything. They give themselves absurd names that might be a robot, a troll or a real person in a basement in Oklahoma. I don’t want to hand my wellbeing over to people who might not actually exist.

I know how seductive it is to pick up your phone and spend hours re-checking Instagram. But we’re becoming a nation of hunchbacks. It’s easier to get people to pay attention to a tree if it’s a picture on social media than an actual tree. That seems pretty unhealthy. There’s a lot to be said for actually reading a book or exercising or engaging with friends and family. I go hiking all the time and I intentionally turn off my phone.

No music or background noise in a restaurant should be louder than the people who are talking. I own a vegan restaurant in LA and that’s part of our ethos. I don’t know who enjoys going out for a meal and having to yell to have a conversation.

Moby’s memoir, Then It Fell Apart (Faber, £14.99), is out now