PLANET NOTES
An International Playlist
Environment and Society - An Unfair World
While the Americans are bothered by obesity, children in Africa are suffering from the lack of enough nutrition; while European kids are going to school on clean streets, boys in India might be playing around the harbor full of boats carrying radioactive and toxic wastes - human beings are not isolated from the environment, but are part of it. Our human society bears a lot of environmental problems: pollution, uneven distribution of resources and wastes, unfair land use such as invasion into the territory of indigenous people, over consumption of resources which leads to scarcity in the future, cheap labor etc. We don’t see any damage caused by our unsustainable lifestyle happening in front of us never means the destruction doesn’t exist, instead, it’s always happening somewhere around the world, or it will happen sometime in the future. In this part you’ll see how some insightful musicians discern this problem.
WHERE THE CHILDREN PLAY
Cat Stevens
My mum once told me about the colorful entertainment she had during childhood: rolling over an endless meadow, picking wild berries, swimming and catching fish in the rivers, etc. As a generation grew up in the city, surrounded by concrete buildings and asphalt roads, these activities sounded to me like old, melancholic and idyllic poems which only exist in books. Urbanization and the accompanying ecological destruction has no doubt changed our way of life, and this can be seen in the diminished access to nature that children have today. In this song, the British folk musician Cat Stevens expressed his concern about this problem and lead us to think about the question: should industrial development be put before the benefit of our future generation?
LATINOAMÉRICA
Calle 13
This song can be seen as strong critics on western force and influence within Latin America, as well as an emphasis on the shared experience and collective force of the Latin Americans. The content of the lyrics are formulated into three layers: the first part tells the oppression on the people, the second part emphasizes that the landscape belongs to the Latin Americans - lakes, rivers, mountains which are now probably taken by the western force and transformed into their source of wealth; in the last lines, the musician asserts the unity and determination of the Latin Americans for defending their mutual home. The song itself features very strong themes about the historical, social and ethical developments within Latin America.
AUX ARBRES CITOYENS
Yannick Noah
Pop songs don't necessarily need to be about love, it can also tell us something about environment and sustainability, that’s what Yannick Noah, who is constantly voted as one of the most popular singers in France, did in Aux Arbres Citoyens. The lines express the musician’s deep concern about the degradation of the environment and appeal us to take action to change our unsustainable lifestyle before it is too late. At the same time, he stresses that the earth is shared by all human being. Therefore, causing damage to the environment is also being irresponsible for others. Instead of arguing about who’s to blame, we should work together to make the world a better place to live. After all, the planet is the home for everyone, across time and space.
ON N'A QU'UNE TERRE
Stress
The message delivered by this song is clear - what kind of future do we want to build for the next generations? A heavily polluted world suffering from the lack of resources and biodiversity and experiencing continually increasing extreme weathers? or should we take action now to protect the environment instead of regretting later? The musician emphasizes our responsibility for the future generation: they should by no means be the sacrifice of our unsustainable development strategies. “The climate goes in a spin (i.e. like a falling airplane). What are you waiting for?”
送给不懂环保的人
Beyond
This song might sound very exotic, but it still shares the same idea - the development of society has changed our environment dramatically. The clear blue sky became rare to see, factories replaced farms and became our hometown, the air is no longer pleasant to breathe, the green countryside seems to be so far away… The band expresses its remembrance of the lost nature in a melancholic way and points out the antiphrastic effect of economic development - environmental degradation. For those who don’t understand environment protection, just think about what do you experience now and how was the situation before, you’ll see why is it so important to take some actions.