Happy Earth Day Sun Green!
Happy Earth Day!
Here at Thrasher's Wheat, we're observing Earth Day by playing Neil Young's Greendale. Kinda like playing ARC on April 1!
But in all seriousness, we try and make everyday Earth Day on this blog. Some may note the badge on the lower right sidebar that states that "This Blog Fights Climate Change". And we like to talk about Sun Green and Earth Brown's mission to save Alaska from time to time.
As we've argued repeatedly over the years about the vastly underrated and under appreciated Greendale, the inconvenient truth of Greendale was that Sun Green -- and Neil Young -- were right.
And -- inconveniently -- the job is bigger than saving just Alaska.
From Venice Magazine interview (February 2004) on making a difference:
YOUNG: "Well, I think it is incumbent upon me, with Greendale out there, to do everything that I can to try to live up to Sun Green's vision of what the world should be like, and the kind of changes people should make. Which is more like, "Put your money where your mouth is.
And it's slow, a painfully slow process, but one of the things that we are doing is starting to power our vehicles for this next tour with bio-fuel that has no emissions that damage the ozone, 75 to 80% less pollution than normal diesel, and we'll just try to make a statement that, "Hey, this is something you can do right now, I could be driving around in my SUV or Hummer burning vegetable oil." The thing everybody hates about those is how wasteful they are. The fact that it's big, it's in the way, it's macho, and it's polluting the fucking planet and wasting fuel while it's doing it, it's pouring gallons and gallons of gasoline through one of these things, that's what bothers people."
And that's only one reason why we applaud the LincVolt project.
The inconvenient truth of Greendale is that regardless of whether you loved it or hated it, it was "the most important album of 2003, the musical equivalent of Silent Spring".
Now that is clear that the classic capitalist economic model is seriously flawed we need to understand how best to re-engineer our societies. Because we have now reached the fork in the road and must make a serious choice -- continue in the direction were heading or choose the hidden path which is less traveled.
Mother Earth by Neil Young
Oh, Mother Earth,
With your fields of green
Once more laid down
by the hungry hand
How long can you
give and not receive
And feed this world
ruled by greed
And feed this world
ruled by greed.
Oh, ball of fire
In the summer sky
Your healing light,
your parade of days
Are they betrayed
by the men of power
Who hold this world
in their changing hands
They hold the world
in their changing hands.
Oh, freedom land
Can you let this go
Down to the streets
where the numbers grow
Respect Mother Earth
and her giving ways
Or trade away
our children's days
Or trade away
our children's days.
Respect Mother Earth
and her giving ways
Or trade away
our children's days.
Neil Young has been performing "Mother Earth" at each of his concerts over the past year or so.
Why?
So, if you never really figured out what 2003's Greendale was all about -- or if you missed the stageplay concert -- then take a few moments and watch this video of "Be The Rain".
Be the Rain. Be the Change. Be the Wheat.
“Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents; it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.”
-- Ancient Indian Proverb.
by thrasher@PermaLink: 4/22/2009 02:05:00 AM
22 comments
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22 Comments:
Right on, Thrasher! We have to keep putting the message out there to remind people that climate change is not going to go away on its own. We all have to act.
Here in the UK the initial response to global warming was "Less rain, more sun, warmer? Bring it on!", but we are now seeing the reality of it. The last two summers have been wet & miserable and heavy flooding is becoming the rule, rather than the exception. We all need to be doing the small, simple things (low energy bulbs, recycling etc) as well as supporting the bigger plans wherever possible.
On the subject of Greendale, personally I loved it. I remember seeing Neil perform it solo in London, before it was released, from start to finish and with monologues & stories inbetween. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, but I was mesmerised. I was so drawn in I remember being shocked when he sang "Granpa died a hero". He died? What the...!!!
Anyway, keep up the good work TW, and keep putting the message out there...
Thrasher -
one from my personal archives
EARTHDAY
Working all day
For my pay
Just to say
We're OK
Running all night
From the fright
Thats in sight
On Earthday
Smog chokes the air
You can't stare
Don't you care
State your say
Corporate endeavor
Spills oil
All over
Valdez Bay
Chernobyl explodes
Turning hope
And your skin
To decay
The tables have turned
As the Amazon
Burns
In its grave
Working all day
For my pay
Just to say
We're OK
Running all night
From the fright
Thats in sight
On Earthday
Trash lines the streets
Can't compete
With the heat
Ozone layer
Its time of the season
We reason
This lesion
Away
4/2/1990 & 4/17/91
SONY
Man made globAL Gore warming is a hoax. If Big Brother Al believed it, he would sell his mansion and travel by bio bus. Seriously folks, it is seriously flawed science. Remember when chicken litlle cried, 'the sky is falling, the sky is falling.' Now we have Al Gore lamenting, 'planet earth has a fever.' To cure this fever you are being asked to walk closer and closer to the edge of the cliff, and bring your children too!
Every patient with an incurable illness will ask how long they have to live. The answer goes something like this: “No one can say how long you may live, because every individual is different, but focus on the changes you observe and be guided by those. When things start changing for the worse, expect these changes to accelerate. So the changes that have occurred over a year may advance by the same degree in a few months, then in weeks. And that is how you can judge when the end is coming.”
.
Apply that thinking to climate change. When An Inconvenient Truth opened in 2006 it was generally supposed we had a window of two or three decades to deal with climate change. Last year that shrank to a decade. Last month Australia’s chief scientist, Penny Sackett, told a Canberra gathering that we have six years to radically lower emissions, or face calamitous, unstoppable global warming.
When I logged onto this blog this morning, I thrilled to see the Earth Day story.
But I thought too bad only one supportive comment and one flat-earth society denialists.
If there's any musician who's audience would be in tune with Earth Day, I would think it would be Young's.
Wake up folks! Time's a wasting. Talk the talk. Walk the walk.
Green Grrrlll
Speaking of down under, check this article from L.A. Times - “What will global warming look like? Scientists point to Australia,”
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-climate-change-australia9-2009apr09,0,7128426,full.story
Like scenes from a modern Dust Bowl, mile after mile of desiccated fields lie fallow, rows of shriveled trees that once bore peaches and pears are now abandoned orchards, and small businesses are shuttered, fronted by for-sale signs. The dingy brown of the landscape rearranges in a cloud of dust with every hot wind that blows.
Farmers who once grew 60% of the nation’s produce are walking off their land or selling their water rights to the state and federal government. With rainfall in the region at lower than 50% of average for more than a decade, Australia is witnessing the collapse of its agricultural sector and the nation’s ability to feed itself.
In rural Victoria, one rancher or farmer a week takes his own life. Public health officials say hanging is the preferred method.
“Fourteen dairy farmers in the valley have committed suicide in the last five years,” Eddy said matter-of-factly, staring at his hands at his long, wooden dining room table. “Hangings, they are common but they are not made public. It’s really depressing, it’s really tough going.
“Fruit growers are abandoning their orchards. It’s their life’s work, and it’s gone to dust. They are at their wits’ end. The small growers haven’t got the money to replant. Haven’t got the time to wait five years for a return. The machinery they have is not salable. They have thrown their arms up and walked away. They are broken people.”
How nice to wake up to Be the rain-
love greendale and will never get enough of it...
thanks Neilster for getting the word out as you always have
Thanks!
I'll go and dig out my greendale and give it a spin. haven't listened to in awhile. actually maybe since it came out i'm ashamed to say.
but this seems to be a good day to rediscover.
That is such a beautiful song, and a beautiful performance. Thanks for bringing me back to 2003, Thrasher. I saw that concert, and it was a spine-shiver inducer. This video brings a tear to my eye. What a wonderful song, from such a great album.
Regarding Al Gore.
Maybe you should find someone else to trash besides someone who was in Congress for 20 years, chaired a Science Committee, was a U.S. V.P., won an Academy Award and a Nobel prize.
What are your credentials? High school dropout?
Is there a Live DVD of the Greendale tour other than the Aquistic one?
Leni
The earth has been cooling and warming since the beginning of time.To say man has anything to do with it is up for debate.I remember a few years ago Al Gores documentary was to be played at a high school and some parents objected to the point it went to court.The judge;s rule was that it could be shown with the condition that the students were to be told that there are 13 lies or misleading information in the film.In my opinion globing warming is a political scare tactic to get the masses behave in a certain way, and we will see more of that in the coming years,and it will happen by the high cost of energy imposed by this administration.Cap and Trade,no drilling here and more taxes will put gas at $5.00 right where they want it.I know many will attack me on this,and many want gas that high to force people to drive small cars that they don't want and are unsafe.Even Neil realizes people in this county like big cars, and I love the concept of Linc-volt.but until there is a viable clean energy and an infrastructure to support it(long way away) we still need cheap energy to get the economy stronger in the long run.
Lauren
Didn't he also invent the internet?
what exactly does "be the rain" mean? other than it being the title of a neil young song.
The debate of global warming origin can go on and on and on..........past the time we're all outta here.
But the other aspects of the 'green' movement centers on the 'waste' of natural resources, the (in)efficiencies of energy use, the pollution of air/water and earth and, I think, man's arrogance relating to his 'dominion' on and over the planet.
"A natural beauty should be preserved like a monument to nature"
Care and consideration for and of things shared by populations and generations should be more in focus in education and everyday awareness.
What did your grandma say? Waste not want not?
Oh,Please!, Al Gore's so called documentary has since been exposed to be so flawed and inaccurate that it is an embarassment to those in the scientific community who sincerely believe that global warming is a legitimate concern whom, by the way, is but a small group of doomsday fanatics while the majority of scientists are in agreement that mankinds contribution to global warming if indeed there is such a thing, pales in comparison to the effect that natural phenominal events such as volcano's and forest fires etc. have on the planet which by the way has been occuring since the dawn of time.Since the envirementalists seem to want to use this site as a soapbox to expose their beliefs, let me add that an all powerful and all knowing God is weeping in his corner fearing that we have finally gotten so out of control that we are destroying His creation beyond it's own inherrant ability to heal itself as it has been doing for thousands of years is far more harder for me to accept that the thought that our selfish generation is responsible for the demise of the planet as we once knew it especially after just living through one of the coldest Michigan winters in recent history must have been a glitch? so install your squiggly light bulbs and burn crisco in your car while you applaud a leader who condones the murder of innoocent babies and approves of same sex unions as if that has become the norm ? I think we need to rethink our priorities and maybe then our planet can experiance some real healing!
So I check back a few hours later and see lots of comments on this post.
My heart flutters hopefully. The I read some of these comments and I think, these are Neil Young audience?!
Oh no?! Are they for real in their denial of the calamity we face if we continue business as usual?
What we have is not only a failure of imagination but a failure to beelive in science.
If someone fails to beleive in evolution than they're pretty hopeless to reason with.
Green Grrrlll
about as far as evolution enters the equation is in the Earths ability to 'evolve' in the sense of adapting to whatever situation it has come up against since time began in it's own subtle way's ....It seem's to have been doing fine long before politition's decided they, along with every other government and tax dollar funded special interest group decided that they would get into the planet healing buisness
"If someone fails to beleive in evolution than they're pretty hopeless to reason with."
Well I ain't no monkey, man. And it's not a necessary benckmark for the conversation anyhow.
Aren't we talking sustainability here? Cause and effect? It's the rate of consumption and renewal that are now more out of balance than ever.
It's about caretaking. Its about selfishness, greed and power. It still revolves (I didn'tsay evolves!) around profits, process, technology, efforts, recognition.
HOW BIG DOES THE F@#$%ING FOOTPRINT HAVE TO BE?!!
What do they say......"Never work with politicians, children or animals".
Here is a great "handbook" on CO2 and "global warming".
http://joannenova.com.au/global-warming/
I'm not saying we should stop caring about the environment, but we are just approaching it the wrong way...
RE; Al Gore. Twenty years in Congress is not something I would consider noble. After all, these are the people that brought our country 12 trillion dollars in debt. VP, Nobel Prize, These all belong to the Global Elite. If you think these people have anything but their self interests in mind and in heart, well, I pity you.
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