Rock Song Lyrics
Throwing the Planet Away
by Ben Sibelman
- “Henry Ford found a way to turn work
- Into robotic repetition, the stupid fascist jerk
- So production speeds up and living standards rise
- But look at the cost, people, open your eyes—!
- Now, assembly line labor’s only where it begins,
- ‘Cause the more you stamp out, the more you have to take in,
- And as resource extraction goes faster and faster,
- Our consumption could lead to a global disaster—!”
- “If the human race just keeps scaling it up,
- We’re gonna run out of room some day.
- We already use a quarter of the ecosystems’ energy—
- We can’t go on this way!”
- Chorus: “Oh, you’re just one link in a very long chain
- From nature to the scrap heap, just use your brain
- How long before the landfills swallow up the fields of grain?
- Yes, we’re throwing the planet away.”
- “We’ve got national parks and recycling bins
- But the CO2 still thickens ‘cause the trees are getting thinned
- While the power plants and cars belch it into the sky
- So the oceans heat up and the coral reefs die—!
- You say, ‘the crops keep growing, and the sky is mostly blue,
- I’ve got trees in my neighborhood, I bet you do too,
- There’s still fish at the market, we wouldn’t kill them all
- It’s the species we don’t need that are taking the fall—!’”
- “Well, guess what? Everything is interwoven—
- Pull out one thread, you might unravel it all.
- We could kill off some critter that doesn’t seem to matter,
- And watch the biosphere fall!”
- Chorus: “Yeah, we’re just one link in the great web of life
- But we’re ripping it up with technology’s knife
- This can’t go on long without causing us strife,
- Yes, we’re throwing the planet away.”
- (Brief instrumental section)
- “About a hundred more species die out every day.
- Yes, the Sixth Great Extinction is well underway.
- If that’s the price of progress, then progress is doomed,
- It’s heading for a wall, and it’s hitting it soon—!
- That’s right, man against nature is man against himself.
- Our lives all depend on the biosphere’s health.
- But the darker it gets, the faster we drive,
- If we don’t put on the brakes, we may not survive—!”
- “Things may look hopeless,
- A runaway world, past the point of no return,
- But the only way we’re sure of things going to Hell
- Is if we sit by and let the fires burn!”
- Chorus: “Now, you’re just one voice in society’s din
- But if we all shout together, we can begin
- To force the folks in power to admit the mess we’re in
- Yes, we’re throwing the planet away.”
- (Longer instrumental section)
- “Now the scale of the problem is huge, to be sure,
- But if we are the cause then we can be the cure.
- Yes, it’s easy to destroy and hard to create,
- But as a species united, we can choose our own fate!
- And though the times ahead will surely be tough,
- That will help us decide that enough is enough—
- As things start to run out, we’ll learn to do more with less,
- Which is how we get on our way out of this mess—!”
- “If we succeed, the future’s wide open,
- ‘Cause healing our world is a step on the way
- Toward launching our seeds from the mother tree
- And bringing other worlds to life someday!”
- Chorus: “Yes, we’re just one speck in the vastness of space
- This may not be true forever, but for now we must face
- That this pale blue dot is home to the whole human race
- So stop throwing the planet away!
- Let's stop throwing the planet away!”
...And on a lighter note...
It's all God's fault
by Ben Sibelman
- “Let’s found a new religion, for those who can’t take blame.
- They don’t want forgiveness, just want someone they can frame.
- The Universe is stupid ‘cause it doesn’t treat them right.
- So whoever made it work this way must not have been too bright.”
- Chorus: “Blame God! It’s all God’s fault!
- It’s all gone wrong! He should press Control-Alt-
- Delete and start again!”
- “‘This world was made for people,’ says the Bible, but it’s wrong.
- The viruses are winning and the oil will not last long.
- The atmosphere traps heat but all the UV’s getting in.
- If someone says that’s our fault we’ll just pass the buck to Him.”
- Chorus
- “There’s all this war and killing ‘cause of human nature’s flaws.
- Yes, we should all be friends instead of fighting tooth and claw.
- But we can’t change our instincts, we can’t even change our minds.
- Yes, He should have made us better than the blind leading the blind.”
- Chorus
- “The aliens have landed, they’re among us as we speak.
- We call them ‘men’ or ‘women,’ and they’re crazy scary freaks.
- The one can’t grasp the other’s way of looking at the world.
- Yet both must live together just to make more boys and girls.”
- Chorus
