By Saul Myhre, Alliance Intern from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities ’21
“Don’t it always seem to go, That you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone?” This powerful line from Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi (see video) perfectly encapsulates the devastating truth of eco-anxiety in our society. ”Paradises,” such as our coral reefs — now covered 90% in plastic according to Science — are being “paved over” by our over-consumption and corporate malpractice. Shockingly, we already have enough parking lot surface area to “pave over the entire state of Connecticut,” according to CNN.
We should have taken more drastic measures when artists like Mitchell were preaching messages in the 70’s, but we can now! At the Alliance, we strongly believe artists’ messages are crucial to the sustainability movement because they can touch, inspire and warn us. “They took all the trees and put ’em in a tree museum, And they charged the people a dollar and a half to see them,” cuts deep at our capitalist roots and reminds us that an eco-dystopia such as this isn’t far from the realm of reality. We must not take for granted the earth that sustains our lives.
Big Yellow Taxi
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel *, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
They took all the trees
Put ’em in a tree museum *
And they charged the people
A dollar and a half just to see ’em
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
Hey farmer farmer
Put away that DDT * now
Give me spots on my apples
But leave me the birds and the bees
Please!
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
Late last night
I heard the screen door slam
And a big yellow taxi
Took away my old man
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
© January 7, 1970; Siquomb Publishing Corp