(This poem is meant to be read as two simultaneous voices.)
| Global warming activism | (the dream) | |
|---|---|---|
| Michael Stipe didn't quite get it | ||
| With the lead and feathers | ||
| They only fall the same in vacuum | ||
| Air makes them fall differently | ||
| Air is always falling on you | ||
| Light, air, all needs to fall just right | ||
| For you to keep on going | ||
| 1995 | ||
| There's a problem | ||
| Bouncing light, re-radiation | ||
| Infrared hits ground again | ||
| Before it leaves the air | (Cue R.E.M.) | |
| They said it's not real at all | Buy the sky and | |
| And it's really better for us all | sell the sky and | |
| And we can't fix it at all | tell the sky and | |
| And fixing it would cost it all | tell the sky | |
| I thought the denialists would fall | ||
| The brand new "Web" site | ||
| Got a scientist | ||
| In with Congressional staff | ||
| I didn't think they could last | ||
| 2000 | ||
| There's the progress | ||
| We have found a way | We have found a way | |
| To talk about the problem | to talk around the problem | |
| The call from Munich Re | ||
| They insure insurance | ||
| They were helpful | ||
| Got numbers from them about | ||
| Costs of great weather disasters | ||
| We ran ads we ran lots of ads | ||
| It turned out not to matter | ||
| Munich didn't help | ||
| Foresight isn't worth anything at all | Foresight isn't anything at all | |
| 2005 | ||
| Well I would keep it above but then it | ||
| Bodies floating by in New Orleans | wouldn't be sky any more | |
| 2009 | ||
| Can we agree on cap and trade? | Buy the sky and | |
| We can make a scheme for trade | sell the sky and | |
| They say they believe in trade | lift your arms | |
| They don't believe in trade | up to the sky | |
| They built on trading in racism | ||
| Millions will be killed | ||
| They'll say they didn't know | ||
| 2013 | ||
| Revealed preferences: | ||
| What people want is what they buy | ||
| American Electric Power is #1 | ||
| They want AEP, they don't want power | ||
| Can't buy public goods | ||
| 2014 | ||
| What do people actually want to do? | ||
| I heard on the radio, you're happy | ||
| "if you feel like a room without a roof" | ||
| Well yeah! finally a plan we can do | ||
| Hurricanes and floods will do it | ||
| Everyone can have a room without a roof | ||
| We can be happy and not down | And ask the sky | |
| CO2 high won't bring me down | and ask the sky | |
| Our system's wrong and will fall down | Fall on me | |
| Ask the sky to pour it down | Fall on me | |
| And fall, fall on me |
Lyrics quoted from R.E.M. "Fall on me" 1986, Pharrell Williams "Happy" 2013
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