IPCC Music Video
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1. |
Options
04:35
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Straight outta Canada, not straight outta Compton
I got into rap from lovin’ the lyrics but never from limited options
The only limited option I could see when rippin' a dope beat
Was reppin' the streets, or becomin’ a OG
Who me? I went to university, studied poetry
And planted a million trees at a summer job while learnin' to MC
I could've continued on to get a PhD, but I dropped out
After I finished a masters to put some intelligent hip-hop out
Invented a new style that's fact-checked and peer-reviewed
Packin' ridiculous levels of information into a lyrical groove
What should I do? I've got options, what should I rap about?
I think I could rap about anything, except what the rest of them rap about
So what about climate change? Yeah, I love a good challenge
That's about as unsexy a topic as anything I could imagine
Plus it happens to be a massive threat to human survival
So nothin’ less than savin' the planet with rap is my goal
So get your head noddin’
We’re solvin’ some problems
Get your head noddin’
‘Cause we still got options
Tree-huggin’ Canadian, we don’t know what to make of him
People heard me rap and always thought I was an alien
Until the day I played Aesop the Living Legend some of my music
And he said “That’s the kind of rap white people should be doin’”
Watch me find my groove and chase it, rhymes and music makin’
The world a better place with science communication
So do me a favour and check your feelings while you listen to me rhyme
Your reaction is like the weather, whatever it’s like outside
But the feelings of everybody listenin’ combined
That’s like the climate, the average weather over time
It’s simply not sufficient for you to check your intuitions
Check ‘em against evidence and statistics
If reality contradicts an individual's worldview
It takes persistence for the message to get through
And that's what I'm here to do, this is not your basic rhymin’
It’s designed to penetrate your confirmation bias
Newscaster:
Well it’s now official, NOAA and NASA have now concluded that 2015 was the warmest year on record globally…
So get your head noddin’
We’re solvin’ some problems
Get your head noddin’
‘Cause we still got options
We got options, I’m talkin’ ‘bout choices and consequences
Believin’ in superstitions or the scientific method
Twenty fifteen, officially hottest year on record
But one cold day is all it takes to forget it
I’m beginnin’ to feel like this particular problem was designed
To evade the innate architecture of the mind
Ask a scientist, they'll tell you the climate is in crisis
But people on the street see a bigger threat in ISIS
Cognitive biases, I really don't give a puff
Of CO2 whether you drive a ridiculous SUV
Or eat tofu, just try to remain conscious
Of how you influence other people’s options
Rappers comin’ out of Compton, the Bronx and Brooklyn
Introduced me to this music, and this is where I took it
So nod your head to the beat
Climate change is real, nod affirmatively
So get your head noddin’
We’re solvin’ some problems
Get your head noddin’
‘Cause we still got options
Obama:
If anybody still wants to dispute the science around climate change, have at it. You will be pretty lonely, ‘cause you’ll be debating our military, most of America’s business leaders, the majority of American people, almost the entire scientific community, and two hundred nations around the world who agree it’s a problem and intend to solve it.
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2. |
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You want a new definition of “hard core”?
Check out the intergovernmental climate report
It says the world is getting warmer, unequivocally
And the oceans have increased 30% in acidity
And 90% of the warming trend is oceanic
And concentrated in the arctic – nobody panic
But the level of greenhouse gasses in the air
Is higher now than it’s been in millions of years
We added more than a trillion tonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere
It’s gonna be centuries before some of the gasses clear
I’m dropping science, unvarnished, unbiased
But I don’t blame you if your instinct is to deny it
‘Cause we evolved to prioritize immediate threats
If it bleeds it leads, that’s what the media says
So let the gangster-esque rap music paint a picture
And I’ll hit you with some evidence-based predictions
Get ready for…
Wars, famines, droughts, floods
Hurricanes, heat waves, murders, thugs
Chaos, refugees, stress, disease
Extinction, disaster, I-P-C-C
Hollywood summer blockbusters can’t touch this
I get my thrills from the latest reports published
By the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Formed in 1988 to get the science straight
Now they dropped the fifth assessment and the data’s up to date
So allow me to summarize: bad things on the way
Higher emissions, sea level rise, dire predictions
On target for disaster movie-style predicaments
In Copenhagen we set a limit of two degrees
But that’s still enough to disintegrate major ice sheets
Over the course of centuries, or maybe decades
Yeah, some of the details are still up for debate
They fluctuate between certain disaster and likely disaster
Slow and steady or higher and faster
Consensus, it’s the lowest common denominator
Which means it’s probably gonna be way worse
Than the…
Wars, famines, droughts, floods
Hurricanes, heat waves, murders, thugs
Chaos, refugees, stress, disease
Extinction, disaster, I-P-C-C
So be afraid, be very afraid
But we’re not, despite what the scenarios say
And the effect of talkin’ about it is visible yawning
And occasionally changing our behaviour microscopically
And even those who get it, tend to get it logically
But not viscerally, so we’re navigating myopically
The threat is existential, it’s not environmental
And your individual response is inconsequential
Only coordination of our whole species
Is gonna keep coastal cities from sinking below the deep seas
And when was the last time a solution included all of us?
Geophysics is at the mercy of geopolitics
Climate change communicators, keep it positive
People need to feel like they still have options
And we do have options, either we find a solution
Or we stick with the business-as-usual level pollution
And get used to the…
Wars, famines, droughts, floods
Hurricanes, heat waves, murders, thugs
Chaos, refugees, stress, disease
Extinction, disaster, I-P-C-C
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3. |
Keep It Positive
01:23
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Try to keep it positive and play it cool…
Keep it positive, don’t give in to the nihilism
Beat the Mobb Deep pessimism with the primal rhythm
When I'm tellin' a story it's so epic
I get my positivity from De La Soul records
But art-official intelligence wont save us
The stakes is high for today’s civilizations
Stuck in an ego-trippin’ balloon mind-state
The ocean’s about to be three feet high and rising
It’s time for a grind date, say no go
We gotta get that baby fat under control
And it starts with me, myself, and I reduce emissions
Where I can in this dog-eat-dog competition
So the kids don’t face a stone age instead
Of a daisy age after De La Soul is dead
But De La Soul is still alive
So there's still time for humanity to survive
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4. |
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Let’s take it back
Way back…
In the greenhouse
We heated it up
Now we gotta figure it out
And though we may not be around
When it all goes down
I know that what we
Do now will live on
And on and on and on
Let’s take it back 200 years
To the 1800s up in here
When we only had two hundred and ninety
CO2 parts per million in the atmosphere
We had one billion Homo sapiens
On the planet tryin’ to get their groove on
And soon lots of them would
Thanks to industrial revolution
Joseph Fourier was a Frenchman
A physicist and a mathematician
He discovered the fact that the atmosphere
Acts like a blanket for heat retention
The greenhouse effect, first described
In 1824 – visible light
From the sun meets little resistance inbound
‘Cause the size of the wavelengths is hella tight
But then when it hits the earth it emits
Infrared radiation, with longer waves
And they get trapped and bounce back when they
Try to escape on their way back up into space
In the 1860s, John Tyndall
Investigated methane and CO2
And water vapour to see whether any of them block
Infrared radiation, and they all do
But methane and water vapour don’t stick around
In the atmosphere for long, it took a Swedish
Genius to identify carbon dioxide
As a regulator, Svante Arrhenius
1896, Svante did the math
If you double the level of CO2 gas
You get a 5 - 6 degree temperature increase
All across the map
In the greenhouse
We heated it up
Now we gotta figure it out
And though we may not be around
When it all goes down
I know that what we
Do now will live on
And on and on and on
In 1927 Arrhenius died
A celebrated Swedish civilian
And three years later the population
Of planet earth exceeded two billion
In 1938 a British engineer
By the name of Guy Callendar
Discovered a rise in carbon dioxide
And also measured a rise in temperature
In 1958 Roger Revelle
Demonstrated that the oceans couldn’t take care of it
He said: “Humans are now carrying out
A massive geophysical experiment”
In 1960 Charles Keeling
Did some measurements on Mauna Loa
Of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
And every year the level appeared to go up
It was rising at a steady rate, the same rate
As emissions from us burning oil and coal
Also in 1960, the population
Hit three billion souls
And it only took fifty six years to get
More than seven billion in the same boat
All hooked on fossil fuels like a drug
And how we gonna quit, huh? Just say no?
We started at under three hundred, now it's
More than four hundred parts per million
And it can't go up much more before
A bunch of tipping points get to kickin' in
So either we set a carbon budget
With a fixed cap, and we stay within the limit
Or else we can expect a catastrophic
Greenhouse effect, and that’s physics
In the greenhouse
We heated it up
Now we gotta figure it out
And though we may not be around
When it all goes down
I know that what we
Do now will live on
And on and on and on
Homo sapiens, live on and on
Primates, live on and on
[Various organisms] live on and on
Parasites, get squashed
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5. |
Party Don't Stop
01:05
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Party don’t stop…
There ain't no party like a fossil fuel party
Cause a fossil fuel party don't stop
“But if the fossil fuel party continues
The venue’s gonna get too hot
And if we don’t want the warming to be an issue
We got this carbon budget we gotta stick to
Simple!” But people don’t like budgets
That’s why rap songs don’t have them as subjects
I checked, it’s all gas guzzling
With the top down screamin’ out “Carbon ain’t a thing!”
So so energetic and so so deaf
To the cautionary principles of environmentalists
Addicted to energy in high density
It's not just the music industry, it's industry
Tappin' into these joules in abundance
J-O-U-L-E, we run this
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6. |
Run the Joules
03:01
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Life is a battle against the threat of entropy
To keep the chaos at bay it takes energy
Joules, you get four joules in a calorie
They keep your body movin’ just like juice in a battery
Performing work, that’s a joule’s capacity
Living things either bring in joules or they’re casualties
Life is a joule theft, everything is eating everything
And it’s ruthless, food is a source of energy
To make moves with, how else you gonna hold on?
Plants are the exception, they get joules from a photon
And store it in a chemical bond, that’s the juiciest
Until you come along and stick it up for its nutrients
Every organism livin’, stick 'em up, run the joules
Unless they're photosynthetic, stick 'em up, run the joules
Plants get it from sunlight but the rest are criminals
Stick 'em up, run the joules, stick 'em up, run the joules
The sun give me energy
I got the energy to win
You draw whatever energy
You need to live
We burn energy, makin’ order for entropy
We even learned to harness external sources of energy
Burn the wood and get some extra calories
Out of your food and light up the night, and break out the heat
Domesticated animals gave us an extra dose
And then we dug underground for the treasure trove
Three hundred million year old black gold
Hydrocarbons: oil and coal!
That’s when external work really just accelerated
Energy abundance makes a civilization creative
We transcended the limitations of evolution
One machine can do the work of fifty humans
Every organism livin’, stick 'em up, run the joules
Until they go electric, stick 'em up, run the joules
Now we get external energy from fossil fuels
So that “stick ‘em up” thing is totally old school
People tryin’ to
Drain me of this energy
Energy to win
You draw whatever energy
You need to live
We had fun with our energy abundance
Until we discovered the carbon cycle is disrupted
It was in balance, until we dug around
And pulled a couple hundred gigatons out of the ground
And burned it for the joules just to keep things movin’
And now the atmosphere is full of carbon pollution
And two hundred and fifty trillion joules of extra
Heat gets added to the planet every single second
That’s two hundred and forty Hiroshimas every minute
So maybe it’s time to get our joules somewhere different
Like a drug in your system, ooh yeah, that’s the buzz
If only we could get it from the sun like a plant does
Every organism, stick 'em up, run the joules
Gimme gimme gimme gimme, stick 'em up, run the joules
It’s nothin’ personal but I gotta get the juice
We got the dirty energy blues
I don’t know what
They want from me
It’s like the more carbon we come across
The more problems we see
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7. |
Mo Carbon Mo Problems
01:21
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Mo carbon, mo problems…
Mo carbon, mo problems
Biggie Smalls could get a party poppin’
But could he get it poppin’ while talkin’ 'bout carbon?
It’s not exactly a party-sparkin’ topic
Bring it up if you wanna fill a party with awkwardness
Right next to religion and politics
Try to keep it non-partisan when discussin’ it
Stick to the science, skip the political ugliness
Don’t mention Republicans block it and filibuster it
Don’t mentioned Donald Trump’s Twitter
Proclamations that climate change is clearly a hoax
Just imagine how high that conspiracy goes
But he’s not alone, the Donald’s a standard-bearer
For the most error-prone segment of America
Don’t take sides for the sake of takin’ sides
Take sides ‘cause one side is the mistaken side
When it’s so cut and dry, not takin’ sides
Is the same as takin’ the wrong side
Rest in peace, Biggie Smalls died in a tragic beef
So listen to Bill Nye breakin’ it down for 2016
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8. |
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Bill:
They make their living introducing doubt, or trying to reassure people in the fossil fuel industry, that their business isn’t really causing all this rapid climate change.
If you like mathematics, it’s right around a million times faster than it would have happened without humans burning all this ancient fossil fuel.
Ha ha ha ha ha, check out the bizarre
People tryin’ to claim that global warming isn’t human-caused
Anthropogenic climate change skeptics
Convinced that the liberal media’s out to get them
Sometimes they tell us that the warming isn’t happening
Other times it’s happening, but it’s just a natural thing
Their views vary and remain contrarian
Economically they’re invariably libertarian
They think government’s already too massive
And climate change is just a scam to expand it
Commonly you can find them on a comment stream
Anonymously commenting
Cherry pickin’ a bit of temperature data
And tryin’ to claim that climate change is in hiatus
It’s not, the trends are still goin’ straight up
But they ain’t tryin’ to change their minds once they’re made up
So now the scientists know, but the public doesn’t
They think the government can’t be trusted, it’s up to somethin’
Either they deny there’s a consensus
Or they view it through conspiracy lenses
What's beef?
Beef is when the scientific findings all agree
Beef is when the public perceives controversy
Beef is when the contrarian view
With no data supporting it, still gets through
What's beef?
Beef is the whole field of climatology
Beef is ninety seven percent against three
Beef is when your worldview
Predetermines what you don’t believe and what you do
First portray the science as nothin’ but shaky guesswork
Then cite the research of a bunch of fake experts
There’s a formula, and some are paid to follow it
But most of them are just in an echo-chamber that swallowed it
And some are even smart as whips, sharp as tacks
All that cleverness just makes them clever with the facts
They emphasize controversy and uncertainty
Like: “We should probably just wait and keep researching”
Science always has to deal with probabilities
But how we interpret them reveals our flexibility
If it’s a one percent terrorist threat, that’s a killing spree
Better invest in the military
But when the science is 98% confident
About the climate, they say "scientists admit dissent"
Well that's the method, scientists have to admit it
I guess they need some backup from some rappers who get it
What's beef?
Beef is when the scientific findings all agree
Beef is when the public perceives controversy
Beef is when the contrarian view
With no data supporting it, still gets through
What's beef?
Beef is the whole field of climatology
Beef is ninety seven percent against three
Beef is when your worldview
Predetermines what you don’t believe and what you do
So what about my worldview, how was it shaped?
A liberal Canadian, environmentally raised
When I was thirteen, my mama was working
On her masters on climate change researching
And my dad ran a company that planted trees
Takin’ carbon out the atmosphere with forestry
In 1992 my mama’s thesis
Was about CO2 and Svante Arrhenius
So if you try to say that climate change isn’t serious
You’re dissin’ my mama! – I’m cliquish
People tend to believe what their friends believe
And believe the opposite of perceived enemies
So pick a team, baby, what’s it gonna be?
Is it team Trump, or team green energy?
Team evolution or team creationism?
I’m takin’ the scientific mainstream position
And the scientific mainstream on climate change
Says it’s dangerous, it’s happening, and yeah it’s man-made
And there’s a debate, but it’s not against the few who doubt it
The debate is what to do about it
What’s beef?
Bill:
The science is settled, so what we gotta do is raise awareness of the fossil fuel industry’s techniques here, so that we can pass reasonable regulations and all move forward.
Fewer than two dozen but more than a dozen people have been able to introduce so much doubt so successfully, that the world’s most technologically-advanced country has not been the world-leader that it once was. We’ve been sitting on our hands here in US.
We’ve let this extremely conservative portion of the Republican Party become so influential, in a way that’s just not appropriate, and this has something to do with money I guess.
But we can change that. Built into the system is change, so let’s change. Vote, vote, vote.
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9. |
Battle Lines
01:39
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Ya mama’s carbon footprint is so fat!
How fat is it?
It’s fatter than a herd of cattle’s methane emissions
It’s so fat, it shows up on NASA’s instruments
Ya mama’s carbon footprint is so fat, when it happens
It melts whole glaciers and floods manhattan
I’m kickin’ battle raps on climatic facts
With consequences for human habitats
Like Drake and Meek Mill or Jay-Z and Nas
Like a high stakes version of Lil Kim vs Nicki Minaj
Biggie and Tupac, lives are on the line
Except it’s millions of lives this time
So get your ringside seats for the great debate
They don’t match these opponents up weight to weight
The mismatches on either side are shocking
It’s like Sarah Palin against Stephen Hawking
I even got friends who reject the consensus
And not trolls either, those get unfriended
Sophisticated skeptics debating on the topic
Persuasively, spot the flaws in their logic
The false assumptions and resulting blunders
Just try not to get lost in the numbers
Chris Christie:
We shouldn’t be destroying out economy in order to chase some wild, left-wing idea that somehow us by ourselves is gonna fix the climate.
Carly Fiorina:
A single nation acting alone can make no difference at all. So why would we destroy all these jobs with regulation when the answer to climate change is innovation, not regulation?
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10. |
Lost in the Numbers
05:05
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I’ve got a friend and he’s into the climate contrarians
Clever clever and he seems to know better than scientists in those areas
Yes my friend, you have arguments in your defence, I’m aware of it
And we can stay friends even if your opinions
Are a bit of an embarrassment
Don’t worry, everything’s gonna be just fine
We've heard this kinda thing before, what's different this time?
They said “The population bomb is coming, and we're all gonna starve!
Resources are gonna run out soon and life will be hard!
Y2K is gonna get us, we're all gonna die!
We're gonna run out of oil, or ozone, and we're all gonna fry!
Civilization is doomed!” It's always the lefties
Who salivate at the thought of consumerism's death wheeze
That gut feeling that modern life is too good to be true
Has a lot more to do with this debate than CO2
Climate change is not a problem. It's what, a couple degrees?
Are we supposed to panic? Over what, a warm breeze?
Yes, it's happening, and yes it's caused by human emissions
So don't call me a science denier, this is not creationism
Call me a “luke warmer”, a “contrarian”, call me a skeptic
All I'm suggesting is we consider the costs and the benefits
If CO2 goes up, crops are gonna be more productive
We can adapt to a planet that's warming up a bit
Chances are, global warming is gonna be harmless
So we must have the courage to stand up to these alarmists
You’re lost in the numbers
You miscalculated it
The cost of climate change
You underestimated it
You’re lost in the numbers
You miscalculated it
The cost of going green
You overestimated it
What’s the plan? Are we gonna tell African nations
That after we got rich off of fossil fuels, they can't partake in them?
It’s the height of hypocrisy for a western democracy
To block any path to prosperity for people living in poverty
And let's be honest, renewables are too expensive
They power five percent of global energy? Unimpressive
And that five percent is massively subsidized
So renewables only survive because governments take sides
And distort the market so they can overcharge for it
Fossil fuel is what lifted us out of our former darkness
And now the forces of environmental hysteria
Are desperate to drag us back into a bygone era
You want chaos? Try shutting the power mains off
Try rolling blackouts, gas shortages, massive layoffs
Economic collapse, skyrocketing energy costs
You want to stop fossil fuels? Try shutting everything off
Nah, here’s what’s gonna happen: emissions will increase
For like twenty or thirty years, along with prosperity
We will get off of fossil fuels, after a while
We just can't let it happen on the back of an African child
You’re lost in the numbers
You miscalculated it
The cost of climate change
You underestimated it
You’re lost in the numbers
You miscalculated it
The cost of going green
You overestimated it
Let the market decide, don't be too eager
Renewables can take over as soon as they’re cheaper
And no sooner, otherwise we all pay out of pocket
Yeah climate change is real, and here’s how you stop it
You do nothing, enjoy the fruits of progress
As more and more products hit the market and cost less
You invest in adapting to sea level and temperature rise
As the GDP soars to indefinite highs
Thanks to innovation, thanks to human ingenuity
What you don’t do is put the breaks on it prematurely
‘Cause every dollar you spend on “decarbonization”
That’s a dollar you don’t spend on a hospital patient
Even the IPCC doesn’t paint such a bad picture
They say in eighty years, everyone’s gonna be ten times richer
So the cost of acting now is ten times higher
That’s built into the models, you can check if you think I’m a liar
The worst thing we can do is saddle today’s poor
With a burden their grandchildren would have no trouble paying for
The best thing we can do is all become prosperous
Rich enough to adapt if climate change tries to bother us
So what do you think y’all
Are you with me?
I’ve got a friend and he’s into the climate contrarians…
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11. |
Bright Side
01:36
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Tellin’ me look on the bright side…
It was all a dream
I used to read Nature magazine
And expected the weather to get extreme
But that was just a dream, what a relief!
So take a look on the bright side
And you’ll see that we goin' be alright
Do you hear me, do you feel me baby?
We goin' be alright – come on, try it, it’s nice
Look at the world through contrarian eyes
You might lose a few friends but it’s worth the price
To be a maverick
To buck the trends instead of stickin’ to the average
This is so dope, you should try it
We have no control over the climate!
Don’t you feel liberated?
Consensus, pfft, don’t be intimidated
The National Academy of Science is wrong
NASA’s wrong, and so is the Pentagon
They all need to look on the bright side
That's the dark side, this is the light side
There’s almost nobody here
So take a look in the mirror
Brush off your collar
And embrace it
You’re a fossil fuel baller
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12. |
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Forgive me for producin’ some emissions and pollution
But this rhythm and the music is my livin', when I do it
I get paid! Yeah, it’s been a decade
Since I've had a day job and I did it my way
Like Frank Sinatra, I’m just kickin up a racket
I could be at a university teachin' classes
But this is more fun than teachin', look at the people I'm reachin'
Been around the world, I fly to Europe for the weekend
Do a gig in California before I fly to New Zealand
Encyclopedic rolling stone, pinch me I'm dreamin'
You can check my status, got a U.S. Visa
O-1: Artist of Extraordinary Achievement
This all I've ever wanted, baby, livin' the life!
In the past five years, a hundred and fifty flights
Fifteen countries, forty states and provinces
And as for carbon emissions, I'm off the charts with it!
Fossil fuel is how I got here
Both to entertain you, and in my career
If you’re earnin’ somethin’, well then you’re burnin’ somethin’
Prosperity is driven by internal combustion
I need what you got
And I'm not thinkin' too far
Past tonight
Burn money
Burn rubber
Burn it all
And give me all that you got
And I'll be honest, I
Can't promise much
But I'll touch you right
So you want it
Where my fossil fuel ballers at?
If you're burnin' somethin’, holler back
We got Mother Nature on her back
But it's a one-time thing
Never call her back
Burn baby burn it all
Fossil fuel baller
I been burnin’ the hydrocarbons at both ends
Burnin’ to make money and burnin’ to spend
And no one tells me how to dispose of my own property
A globe-trotting solo artist with total autonomy
This is what I am, fossil fuel is a part of me
It powers eighty percent of the global economy
In other words, if you have some money
It’s got oil stains on it, your hands are bloody
And if you don’t believe me go ahead and do a study
Pimpin’ ain’t easy, you better ask somebody
Cookin’ with gas is pimpin’, drivin’ a car is pimpin’
Energy consumption is pimpin’, look at how we’re livin’
Gangster! Compared to horse-and-buggy days
Crankin’ up the air conditioner on muggy days
Not freezin’ to death in the winter
If energy consumption is a sin, I’m a sinner
Life is good, it’s better than it used to be
Let the good times roll, fossil fuels are cheap
That’s how we stay hella major
Prosperity is the bomb, player hater!
I need what you got
And I'm not thinkin' too far
Past tonight
Burn money
Burn rubber
Burn it all
And give me all that you got
And I'll be honest, I
Can't promise much
But I'll touch you right
So you want it
Where my fossil fuel ballers at?
If you're burnin' somethin’, holler back
We got Mother Nature on her back
But it's a one-time thing
Never call her back
Burn baby burn it all
Fossil fuel baller
Turn off the lights, conserve power
Everything goes dark, it’s earth hour
We're taking action on climate change
All together now, back to the stone age!
In the meantime, I’ll be up in Vegas
Illuminated, laughin’ at you player haters
Face it, ballin’ is part of our nature
Embrace it, you love energy wastin’
Would you rather be livin’ large and comfortably?
Or in a shack, burnin’ dung for heat?
Some people don’t have a choice, but you do
So don’t hit me with any hypocritical voodoo
About tryin’ to reduce my footprint voluntarily
I’m tryin' to make ends, I can’t let them barely meet
I’m always tryin’ to get more gigs and fly more
I got a wife and daughter to provide for
And maybe one day solar will supply us
I hope so, it’s better for global climate
Just don’t make me choose between solar and diapers
And don’t make me switch off my amplifiers
I need what you got
And I'm not thinkin' too far
Past tonight
Burn money
Burn rubber
Burn it all
And give me all that you got
And I'll be honest, I
Can't promise much
But I'll touch you right
So you want it
|
||||
13. |
Exxon Knew
01:23
|
|||
Ballin’ like a mother…
Lodi dodi, we likes to party
Fossil fuel ballers ain’t botherin’ nobody
So what you talkin’ ‘bout toes gettin’ stepped on?
The top baller of all time is Exxon
CO2 from their products, add it up
Exxon pollutes more than Canada
They funded skeptics, but Exxon knew
What they told the public was just not true
Internal memos going back to the seventies
Show they studied the question scientifically
And recognized a consensus on the topic
That rising emissions would be catastrophic
They raised up off-shore rigs, for sea level rise
While still telling lies to the public… disgusting
That's why I'm down with the activist
Left wingers, like his holiness Pope Francis
I never thought I’d get into religion
But this pope has animal magnetism
And that behaviour was crazy despicable
So Francis, hit ‘em with a papal encyclical!
|
||||
14. |
Laudato Si
04:41
|
|||
Enviro cristo domino
Deus ex machina
Etcetera
Laudato si
Praise god the creator, laudato si
These techno-capitalists don’t wanna mess with me
They just picked an epic rap battle of history
They’re tryin’ to defend carbon, well I’m the Holy C
I’m the Pope! This world is a paradise
And we’re degrading it with our dominant technocratic paradigm
It’s time, for an ecological conversion
I’m as sure of that as I’m sure the Lord was born of a virgin
This earth is our home, there’s nowhere else to go
We're worshipping a false god: unlimited growth
We’re poisoning the oceans and the air with carbon
We’re makin’ a golden calf out of the free market
But we’re part of this world; we’re created out of its dust
If we don’t put limits on our appetites, they diminish us
The root cause of global warming and inequality
Is rampant consumerism, spiritual poverty
This is not our war…
But you’re part of this world!
For your crimes against nature
You’re facing excommunication
There’s more to life than a paycheque
Redemption lies in protecting creation
I’m the first Pope with a sense of rhythm
At the heart of my faith is environmentalism
As a Christian I can say that today’s “market fundamentalism”
Is worse than any fundamentalism found in religion
But radical change is coming, stop ignoring the problem
The most prosperous are destroying the global commons
While the most vulnerable watch as the sea level rises
That’s a sure path to mutual destruction and violence
Anything less than a total shift in mentality
Is nothing less than selling our collective soul for a salary
Worshipping gold is a fallacy; stop asking for more
Stop feeding your appetites off of the backs of the poor
It’s a moral imperative to step back from self-destruction
And reform the whole system of production and consumption
Rich countries owe poor countries an ecological debt
They block international action out of national interest
Selfish...
For your crimes against nature
You’re facing excommunication
There’s more to life than a paycheque
Redemption lies in protecting creation
Selfish individual consumers driven by greed
Selfish companies fight to protect their subsidies
Selfish countries obsessed with economic development
Whatever we do next, history is gonna remember it
And don’t trust market solutions like "cap and trade"
That's a trick to keep polluting, even if you have to pay
And those who say we need population control are dodging
We can feed ten billion easily with greater equality
It’s not about government policy; it’s about changing consciousness
No technocratic fix for sustained obnoxiousness
These aren’t just my views, they’re also Jesus’
We need to protect nature y’all, and also fetuses
I had to slip that in, in case you forgot I was Catholic
But mostly we’re protecting the poor from the affluent
And protecting this earth, our common home
From the tyranny of unlimited economic growth
For your crimes against nature
You’re facing excommunication
There’s more to life than a paycheque
Redemption lies in protecting creation
There’s more to life than a paycheque
Redemption lies in protecting creation
|
||||
15. |
Yank the Plug
01:29
|
|||
Only god can judge me, only god
Only god can judge me now
Only god can judge me so I’m gone…
Yeah, sometimes I'm kinda blasphemous
But only god can judge my sacrilege
And that’s why I don’t pay it no mind
‘Cause blasphemy is a victimless crime
Unlike desecration of the planet
So I bet Francis will understand it
Holy Vatican, we look to your guidance
On climate, show us the spiritual side of it
I tried to change my consumer habits
I ride my bike and recycle my plastic
But it’s not enough, emissions are goin’ up
And the whole system is driven’ by burnin’ stuff
The challenge is to break habits of waste
And maximize freedom in matters of taste
So is it time to replace capitalism with a more
Compassionate system? Or just a more compassionate
Version of capitalism? That's what I want
That way my job doesn’t have to stop
Holy father I got crowds to rock, responsibilities
You can’t yank the plug on the vibe, you feelin’ me?
The bottom line is, when it comes to rhymin’
I would not stop to save the climate
I'm rockin’ til the day they make me stop
Climate change or not, I make it hot
|
||||
16. |
Make It Hot
05:57
|
|||
Lyrics
Scientists are telling us that we’re standing on a precipice
And we have to convert the global economy and make it emissionless
And those emissions are caused by every single one of our jobs
Every one of us contributing carbon emissions to the smog
For instance, if I write a rhyme tryin’ to describe climate change
And it's hot, so it catches on, someone’s gonna fly me someplace
To perform it, and the appeal of that is enormous
It’s not an option for me to turn down work for global warming
‘Cause I make it hot, people say my rhymes are dope
I twist words until they're unrecognizable
I make it hot, make it heezy fa sheezy
So hot even climate change skeptics will believe me
I make it hot, like the temperature it needs to be
Before the tea party will believe the IPCC
I make it hot, I liquify the Greenland ice sheets
Seven meters of sea level rise, that’ll do nicely
And yeah, humans are adaptable, and we can toughen up
But that response ignores people who feel like it’s already tough enough
Make a list of countries that nobody visits as a tourist
They have low carbon emissions, the richest inflicted this on the poorest
We did it by heating our houses, and feeding our spouses
And flying and driving places and having no patience for power outages
The Pope calls it anthropocentric, he calls it obnoxious
But I got work to do, and work takes energy to accomplish
And I make it hot, I turn up the heat on the crowd
You make it hot too though, so don’t try to be weaselling out
I make it hot like the African sun
Like the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum
I make it hot, feel that bass when it vibrates
Hot like the permafrost releasing methyl hydrates
I make it hot, like a planet with low albedo
Like me rockin’ a trench coat on a beach instead of a speedo
Hot with no apologies, but still I’m feelin’ a lot grief
For the impact my lifestyle has on the planet’s ecology
My carbon footprint is bigger than crypto-zoology’s
I’m talkin’ loch ness monstrous, so I’m not at peace
Because the aggregate effect of every decision I’m makin’ is tragic
But I can’t just quit, they say that we’re “carbon emission addicts”
But that’s just glib, you want me to live in poverty abject
And if I did, what happens to greenhouse gasses on average?
If I quit and you don’t, it’s still hell in a hand-basket
A traffic jam with no plan of action, fantastic
This is a classic arms race that we’re trapped in, it’s ominous
Self-interested parties stuck in a tragedy of the commons
The problem is caused by our collective emissions of carbon
But the person who emits is not the person emissions are harmin’
So it’s a failure of the market, everyone is incentivized
To pollute as much as they can get away with, and catch a free ride
So it’s no surprise to see emissions on the rise
When the cost of burning fossil fuel is externalized
It’s effectively subsidized, it’s paid for by the victims
Of the eventual climate impacts caused by our emissions
And Bill McKibben and the Guardian have been targeting investments
Like: "Dirty energy is the new tobacco, so keep your distance
From anybody makin' a profit off of fossil fuels"
Cool, I’m down with the boycott, I’m just boycotting myself too
'Cause I make it hot, I cause a heat wave
How about nine degrees hotter than the hottest ones these days?
I make it hot, like climate refugees
Picture a hot hundred million displaced Bangladeshis
I make it hot, split flames, rap metaphors
A five-alarm blaze killing the last redwood forest
I make it hot, what if I make it six degrees?
Causing the extinction of forty percent of species
Hot! So what are we left with?
A speeding train with no brakes? Some kind of a death wish?
A scientific consensus that we’re standing on a precipice
And a population with no idea of how to reduce their emissions
Some people do offset their footprint voluntarily
With the milk of human altruism, hope, faith and charity
But that’s not gonna cut it – it’s not counterproductive
But we have a global carbon budget that's globally busted
And there are hundreds of gigatons that you would have to offset
You might as well donate your piggy bank to the national debt
I ain’t got no spare change to donate to carbon offsetting
I don’t even want to calculate my footprint, I find it upsetting
It’s like the medieval Catholic church, back when it was indulgence-selling
If you get a big mac and a diet coke, your belly is still swelling
But here’s what I’m willing: I’m willing to pay a tax
A fee that’s calculated against my carbon impacts
And globally harmonized to switch incentives around
And make sure most of that carbon stays safely underground
But I’m not gonna pay it, not unless you all pay it too
That way I can be sure that you’ll do what you say you’ll do
How about everyone has to pay it, no free riders allowed
No international pact with the US or China left out
You can invest it in green R&D, or you can dividend it back to me
But either way I won’t be happy until the day they’re carbon taxing me
‘Cause then I can make it hot, without ever feelin’ a chill
I’m sick of the guilt trip killin’ my high when I’m feelin’ a thrill
So I make it hot, I get your emotions aroused
If we can’t make those hot, we’re not gonna keep the oceans down
So let’s make it hot, people, let’s turn up the heat
On polluters tryin’ to catch a ride on all the rest of us for free
I make it hot on the mic, and in my social life
When I agitate for my friends to agitate for a carbon price
And that’s how you make it hot
|
||||
17. |
Regulators
01:59
|
|||
Regulators, regulate…
I started rappin’ before Eminem came out
I thought I would be the first caucasian to break out
But it’s hip-hop, I respect the competition
That’s why I tend to defend capitalism
I’m rappin’ to the rhythm but it’s still your decision
Your time, your money, you can spend it on somethin’ different
Just imagine if I was government subsidized
‘Cause someone up high just loves my rhymes
So much they think everybody else needs to hear it
Now everywhere you go you’re inundated with my lyrics
No thanks! I got a sense of rhythm
But I don’t want none of that nanny state nepotism
When it comes to hip-hop, I’m straight up libertarian
Let the free market choose among variants
Let a thousand flowers bloom!
And let most of them die if it leads to better tunes
But wait a second, imagine if I made a record
That could give people brain cancer when they listen
My fans would end up in chemotherapy
"We started listenin’ ‘cause he was dope lyrically
The music was addictive!" And carcinogenic
That’s when the government regulators would step in
Get the facts straight, consult the experts
And tax my rap so fewer people get hurt
Now imagine I tried to deny the connection
How would I be remembered if I funded skeptics?
I'd go bankrupt, morally, intellectually
And eventually financially like Peabody Energy
On the flip side, if I was dedicated
To finding a solution, I’d be celebrated
Like a billionaire makin’ a public statement
That business fully embraces decarbonization
|
||||
18. |
||||
Richard Branson: We would like governments to price carbon, i.e. to tax us, effectively. And for them to then give that tax back to the public in their salary packets every year, exactly the same amount, or put it into reducing the cost of clean energy, because we believe that without a price on carbon, the world will not be saved.
Back before the crash of 2008
A few people saw the bubble and knew how it would break
It was debt obligations on top of debt obligations
Collateralized and traded, bloated and overinflated
Bad debt was bein' sold as triple A-rated assets
Hindenburg, don’t be surprised when it crashes
Well now we’ve got another bubble on our hands
And it’s a hell of a lot worse than sub-prime mortgage scams
It's the carbon bubble, a whole economic engine
On a collision course to bankrupt the climate system
Risky business, but who’s gonna give us a bailout?
This global civilization is a bit too big to fail now
The carbon economy is an insolvent bank
So the government’s gotta be part of the fix, ask Dodd-Frank
I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man
I need a carbon price to handle my business, damn
We’re livin’ in a great big carbon bubble
Oil and coal and toil and trouble
The bubble’s getting too big to ignore
When you’re betting on a future you can’t afford
Livin’ in a great big carbon bubble
About to come down in a pile of rubble
You want to cash in what you have in store
But you’re betting on a future we can’t afford
A business doesn’t have to close down to reduce emissions
It just needs a level playing field with its competition
And economic growth can continue, we don’t have to stop it
It might slow down a bit, but alternatives are catastrophic
So far the most popular is the “cap and trade” system
That’s a decreasing total limit on greenhouse gas emissions
But with tradable permits auctioned off or given away
So companies who innovate to reduce emissions get paid
Which is great, unless it’s only only big business capped and charged
That doesn’t go far enough, what about tailpipes on cars?
That’s why some countries go with a carbon tax instead
A flat rate at the source, where the fuel gets extracted
And that's when clean energy gets a lot more competitive
And revenues get dividended back to regular citizens
And some of it gets invested in the next round of inventions
To revolutionize the energy system, picture it
We’re livin’ in a great big carbon bubble
Oil and coal and toil and trouble
The bubble’s getting too big to ignore
When you’re betting on a future you can’t afford
Livin’ in a great big carbon bubble
About to come down in a pile of rubble
You want to cash in what you have in store
But you’re betting on a future we can’t afford
Ignoring climate change is like investing in derivatives
In 2007, it’s not recommended
The future is a shared resource, don’t bet against it
Bet on scientific literacy winning elections
We’re tryin’ to get to net zero emission by 2050
Anything less is just unacceptably risky
But with the right market incentives, we’ll find the way forward
Carbon pricing can even pay to protect surviving rainforests
‘Cause if you plant a new forest or close a coal-burning plant
That's atmospherically equivalent in its carbon-content
And deforestation is seventeen percent of emissions released
So the carbon price has to capture what's sequestered in trees
That price can be cap-and-trade, or a tax, or a hybrid
One or the other or both, so long as we stabilize the climate
And opportunity knocks for the future masters of business
Who embrace the evolution of capitalism
I can see your hand
It’s not too late to take a stand
So what's your plan?
Baby, take me to the promised land
We’re livin’ in a great big carbon bubble
Oil and coal and toil and trouble
The bubble’s getting too big to ignore
When you’re betting on a future you can’t afford
Livin’ in a great big carbon bubble
About to come down in a pile of rubble
You want to cash in what you have in store
But you’re betting on a future we can’t afford
|
||||
19. |
Stranded Assets
01:41
|
|||
If you invest in fossil fuels I feel bad for you son
I got ninety nine problems but that ain’t one
Now take a second to contemplate it
A fossil fuel company that's publicly traded
What’s a firm in the business of fossil fuel really worth?
The book value is based on their “proven reserves”
Not the fuel they sell to us and we burn right now
It’s the coal, gas and oil that’s still underground
Technically it’s worthless until it oxidizes
But as soon as they find it, it goes in their stock prices
The top few hundred companies diggin’ and drillin’
Are collectively "worth" more than seven trillion
But don't forget the IPCC
We got a carbon budget to limit the heat increase
And the percentage of the budget covered in proven reserves
Determines how much we can burn and what to keep in the earth
And we got five times as much underground
As we're allowed to burn while keepin' the temperature down
Which means fossil fuel’s lookin' like a bad bet
And eighty percent of it is a “stranded asset”
Like a warehouse full of Kodak film when digital
Crashed the market, causing a total loss of principle
What a lack of principles, what’s on their books
Can’t be cashed in unless the whole planet cooks
Imagine if we factored in every cost
That would set off a clean energy renaissance
Elon Musk:
What’s really needed to transition the world to sustainable energy? Is this actually possible? Is it something that is within the ability of humanity to actually do, or is it some insurmountable, super-difficult, impossible thing? It's not. This is actually within the power of humanity to do.
|
||||
20. |
||||
If we can ride electric
You can ride with me
Yeah we can get connected
And set this energy free
I’m rockin’ solar panels on my Tesla
Green tech renaissance, better catch up
Petroleum is oh so prosaic
I'm a player when it comes to photovoltaic
So three cheers for the engineers
Eighty percent price drop in the past five years
I've been to Germany, it's kinda grey
But half of their total power is solar on sunny days
Okay, it’s cheaper than coal now in twenty states
Haters hate but they can't stop the wave
Hey! And the next phase of battery tech’s
Got that solar flowin’ day and night and that’ll be it
We got a gravity battery underground
Charging up with a solar water pump right now
Every house, every car, every business, every year
Make the switch and ignition switches will disappear
I’m rockin’ solar panels on my Tesla
Solar panels on my Tesla
You's a gas guzzler? That’s messed up
I’m rockin’ solar panels on my Tesla
You got the morning sun
I’m on the evening wind
Our heat is geothermal
No end and no begin
If we can ride electric
You can ride with me
Yeah we can get connected
And set this energy free
I’m a fan of how the wind feels; windmills
Power whole cities when you put ‘em up in fields
That's the new, fossil fuel is the old way
Don't hate on wind farms, Don Quixote
What about nuclear? That’s what they askin’ me
Hell of a lot better for the planet than gasoline
Some new investments made could make it extra safe
I’m thinkin’ Bill Gates probably should investigate
Apollo moon shot, scalable renewables
We can’t expect Elon Musk to do it on his own
Cellulolytic biofuel and carbon capture
Liftin’ CO2 out of thin air just like the rapture
Gadgets to manufacture and toys to play with
Makin’ it pay when pollution poison’s abated
So come fly with me on solar Cessnas
Into a future of affordable Teslas
I’m rockin’ solar panels on my Tesla
Solar panels on my Tesla
You got coal dust up in your left lung
I’m rockin’ solar panels on my Tesla
You got the morning sun
I’m on the evening wind
Our heat is geothermal
No end and no begin
If we can ride electric
You can ride with me
Yeah we can get connected
And set this energy free
I told the lady we could ride electric
Aviator goggle-style, baby, eyes protected
But she called my bluff, yeah she lie-detected
I drive a Honda Civic, girl, I confess it
A Tesla costs a lot of freakin’ money
And I can’t get a Model 3 ’til 2020
Plus a couple panels on the roof couldn’t power it
Not with the one-half-a-mile-per-hour you’d get
Okay, so I’m a bit off with the wattage
But we can still live off the grid in a cottage
But all she wanted was a regular life
And not even with a baller, just a regular guy
Who could ride with her, without producin’ CO2 emissions
I can’t be that yet, it’s just a future vision
But I’ma call her back when I’m worthy
The same day clean is cheaper than dirty
If we can ride electric
You can ride with me
Yeah we can get connected
And set this energy free
|
||||
21. |
||||
You can get with this
Or you can get with that
Get with this or get with that
So let's try to get with the math
What's your greenhouse gas reduction target?
How about twenty tons of carbon?
That's what the average American emits
Every year, so that'll be easy to fix
The global average is only four tons
And billions of people are still tryin’ to get more stuff
Just like your stuff, which you're not givin' up
Especially not while the rest of us live it up
Everybody's stuck with the perverse incentive
Where dirty is cheap and clean is expensive
Remember, this is a physical system
It doesn't give a damn about your relative emissions
Or whether emissions come from decadent living
Or visiting relatives at Christmas
This is everything, everything we manufacture
Concrete, steel, glass and plastic
Whether or not you change your little habits
Absolute emissions is all that matters
So you can get with business as usual
With everybody wiggling through their own loophole
Or you can get with an arms control agreement
If that's what you want, act like you mean it
|
||||
22. |
Freedom Ain't Free
04:04
|
|||
Yeah
I'm one of those freestyle MCs
I freestyle for days
But this is a song about freestyle
Not in freestyle
'Cause freestyle ain't free
Nor should it be
Chasin’ happiness, life and liberty
It’s a freedom lovin’ people but the freedom ain’t free
Freedom from oppression and tyranny
Or freedom from people livin’ too freely
Too free to make a mess and leave
Freedom lovin’ people that freedom ain’t free
Too free, keep that kind of freedom on a leash
People that freedom ain’t free
My freestyle ain’t free, it’s highly regulated
That’s what keeps it elevated instead of degraded
I voluntarily restrain it, so you get something from it
It’s free but it’s not free, it needs infrastructure
You wanna hear a freestyle that’s really free?
Check it out: [Gibberish]
Yeah, I improvised every syllable in that sequence!
But was the lack of semantic content a weakness?
Okay, here’s a freestyle that’s slightly less free
[Semi-random sequence of words]
Those words came straight up off of the top of my dome!
But in retrospect they didn’t have a point, or a flow
So I suppose when I freestyle, it should really have parameters
So you can tell the difference between professionals and amateurs
It’s gotta work sonically and rhythmically and logically
It's better off with better laws, kinda like market economies
Chasin’ happiness, life and liberty
It’s a freedom lovin’ people but the freedom ain’t free
Freedom from oppression and tyranny
Or freedom from people livin’ too freely
Too free to make a mess and leave
Freedom lovin’ people that freedom ain’t free
Too free, keep that kind of freedom on a leash
People that freedom ain’t free
It ain’t free, too much freedom is dangerous
Your freedom to swing a fist ends where my face begins
Freedom ain’t free, freedom involves tradeoffs
We don’t want a banker to be free like Bernie Madoff
People, freedom ain’t free, freedom for Cecil the Lion
Means you gotta take away the freedom of dentists to buy him
Yeah freedom ain’t free, too much freedom, I’ve had enough
Of the freedom to stash money tax-free in Panama
Freedom from predators, not freedom for predators
Freedom from shaky loans promoted by shady creditors
I want you to have the freedom to say whatever you’re thinkin’
But not the freedom to drive on the highway when you’re heavy drinkin’
I want freedom from bein’ shot randomly in the streets
That freedom’s bigger than your second amendment freedom to pack heat
I just want to be free to receive medical treatment when it’s needed
The threat of medical bankruptcy is not freedom
Chasin’ happiness, life and liberty
It’s a freedom lovin’ people but the freedom ain’t free
Freedom from oppression and tyranny
Or freedom from people livin’ too freely
Too free to make a mess and leave
Freedom lovin’ people that freedom ain’t free
Too free, keep that kind of freedom on a leash
People that freedom ain’t free
Freedom ain’t free, on its own it’s chaos
I want freedom like Picasso, not like a baby with crayons
Freedom ain’t free, you want freedom of religion?
I want freedom from religious reasons to be a bigot
People, freedom ain’t free, freedom involves sacrifice
If pollution causes harm, pollution should have a price
Freedom ain’t free, you say you want a free market?
I want a market free from people dumpin’ their garbage on me
Freedom ain’t free
Hope you liked the “freestyle”
Even if it’s not entirely free
Peace out
|
||||
23. |
Stand Up
01:34
|
|||
Stand up…
Don’t stand up in a cinema, that’s rude
Sit down if you’re blockin’ the view
We gotta share this pale blue dot
With a lot of people, it’s not all about you
Stand up for the right to survive and thrive
And collect a little private property
Stand up for the principle that some things
Have still gotta to be held commonly
Stand up for the quality of the atmosphere
We can’t each have a private patch of air
Stand up for the people
Who can’t stand up to defend their share
Imagine generations lookin' back at us
Like: “Grandma, grandpa
You knew what was happening, did you stand up?
Or did you pass that chance up?”
Did you stand up
To defend the rights of a polluter?
Or did you stand up
For the planet, for humanity, and for the future?
Did you stand up
For elected officials who really get it?
Or did you stand up
For a fossil fuel company’s interests?
When everybody’s standing up
You gotta stand up if you wanna see
It’s not enough to just sit yourself down
You gotta get the rest of us to agree
|
||||
24. |
||||
All around I see the smokin’ guns
Tellin’ everyone
That it's goin’ down
We got floods comin’ up the coast
People leavin’ homes
Tell me where they’ll go now
I look around and see the warning signs
With every morning rise
See the storm and tides
Well I ain't waiting for that day
I'll change what I do today
Yeah I'll be makin' waves
Someone told me the climate is changing
And all we can do is watch as it warms
Somebody told me that we can reverse it
By changing the stuff we buy in stores
But the stakes are enormous
I'm talkin' floods and forest fires and storms
So I’m thinkin’ that we can make progress
By changing the climate of norms
The climate of what’s cool and what’s taboo
‘Cause we’ve been in this place before
It’s kinda like segregation in the South
Before MLK kicked in the door
It’s kinda like apartheid in South Africa
Before Nelson Mandela walked free
It’s kinda like gay people tryin’ to get married
In the States before 2015
Those laws all needed changing
And so do the laws we have now
Only this time the laws are passing
Oppression down to your grandchild
Now it's someone in a coastal city
In a developing nation bein’ treated unequal
‘Cause one meter of sea level rise
Displaces one hundred million people
But the cultural climate is changing too
We can feel that as social animals
Whether or not your neighbours have them
Is the best predictor of you getting solar panels
You're not gonna stop people from competing
With each other or keeping up with the Joneses
But you can channel those competitions
Into clean energy explosions
You can amplify the upside
Of heroic sustainability leadership
You can celebrate success stories
And spread the message over digital media
You can name and shame offenders
And call for the end of fossil fuel subsidies
You can make it a political liability
To give a free ride to polluting companies
And you can reduce your energy use
Yeah, that’s a luxury you can afford
So go on and flaunt that green bling
And signal other people to get on board
You can make waves in so many ways
As many as possible, just to be safe
Each of us is just a drop in the bucket
And buckets add up to a sea change
All around I see the smokin’ guns
Tellin’ everyone
That it's goin’ down
We got floods comin’ up the coast
People leavin’ homes
Tell me where they’ll go now
I look around and see the warning signs
With every morning rise
See the storm and tides
Well I ain't waiting for that day
I'll change what I do today
Yeah I'll be makin' waves
Picture the world you want, what it look like?
When the winds of change came and truth took flight
Take a second thinkin' what could what might be
Only see the grim and the good less likely
That’s why we really need a game plan now
How to get them greenhouse gasses back down
Solar power, wind mills, you already know
But CO2 is too high right now, so
How we gonna reverse the flow
Reforest the earth and let the green grow?
Sounds good, one problem, no space
Almost every acre a farm or a place
Where the cows all graze in the Amazon’s ashes
Animal agriculture surpasses
Every car and plane, truck, ship's emissions
But switchin’ to plants will free land up, listen
Hittin’ the tipping points now, we need a miracle
Find it in your kitchen for your dinner or your cereal
Keepin’ it simple, man, take it from a server
Sub out the cow for a fat bean burger
Chewin' up seeds, nuts and fruits
That grew on trees that eat CO2
So see how you can make the movement improve
Multiply the solution and send it to your friends too
Every platform every venue
Let the wave makin' continue
Let it influence every level of our lives
From the cars that we drive to the menu
Just don't let your enthusiasm
For consumer action get you distracted
You can have an impact as an individual
But there's no substitute for pollution taxes
Eyes on the prize, a price on filthiness
That way the wealthiest pay for the bulk of
The cost of transitioning, helping the helpless
And keeping us well under two degrees Celsius
Take a lesson from the major civil rights
Victories of past generations
Unjust laws have gotta be changed
It's not enough to say “please don’t be racist”
And it's not enough to ask people nicely
To embrace decarbonization
That tactic has been tried for decades
Emissions keep escalatin’
No time to waste just keep makin' waves
And takin' this fight to ballot boxes
Vote with your wallets and load up on knowledge
And all together I know we can solve this
All around I see the smokin’ guns
Tellin’ everyone
That it's goin’ down
We got floods comin’ up the coast
People leavin’ homes
Tell me where they’ll go now
I look around and see the warning signs
With every morning rise
See the storm and tides
Well I ain't waiting for that day
I'll change what I do today
Yeah I'll be makin' waves
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Baba Brinkman New York, New York
Science rapper and inventor of several novel hip-hop variants. Canadian transplant to New York. Pathological optimist.
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