Despite Repeated Warnings: Sir Paul & Climate Change

 

Despite repeated warnings
Our danger's up ahead
The captain won't be listening
To what's real said

It feels that there's a good chance
That we've been misled
And so the captain's planning
To steam ahead

What can we do, what can we do
What can we do to stop
This foolish plan going through
What can we do, what can we do
This man is bound to lose his ship and his crew

Despite repeated warnings
From those who are to know
Well, he's got his own agenda
And so we'll go

We shout the loudest
We'll not always be the smartest
But they have their promised moments
Right before they fall
Red sky in the morning
Doesn't ever seem to face him
But a sailor's warning signal
Should concern his soul

How can we stop him?
Grab the keys and lock him up
If we…

 

Legendary musician Paul McCartney met John Lennon in 1957 and the rest is rock and roll. The cute Beatle is still surprisingly youthful looking at age 76 and the crazy bugger is still producing music and touring. And ya gotta love his ramble around Liverpool with James Corden in a Carpool Karaoke episode. Maybe Sir Paul's fountain of youth is his decades-long commitment to veganism.



Grist

McCartney has a new LP called Egypt Station which has been reviewed as eccentric and banal and awesome...figure that out! There is a climate change song in this collection with the title "Despite Repeated Warnings" which takes a stab at the deniers around the world, including "The Captain." The Grist magazine review by Zoya Teirstein is quite interesting and here is a portion, including the quote from a McCartney interview:

“Well, I mean obviously it’s Trump,” the singer told BBC in an interview last week. “But there’s plenty of them about. He’s not the only one.” The song touches on climate-related issues, including wildfire smoke — “red sky in the morning (What can we do?).” It’s a timely reference, as smoke from fires choked the western U.S. in August. McCartney’s song also alludes to the scientists who raised the alarm about climate change: “a sailor’s warning signal should concern us all.”
But the best part of the song, in this writer’s opinion, is McCartney’s not-so-subtle jab at climate deniers: “Those who shout the loudest may not always be the smartest.” He doubled down on those lyrics in the BBC interview. “People who deny climate change … I just think it’s the most stupid thing ever,” the second-best Beatle said...

The obviously biased writer then asks, tongue in cheek "What’s next? “Drive My Electric Car?” “Here Comes the Solar Panels?” Whatever it is, we are 100 percent here for climate-woke Paul McCartney."

As someone who's been banging a rather small gong about climate change for the better part of three decades I appreciate that someone with a far bigger drum is doing so and is willing to "speak truth to power." As much as I wish my preaching about care for Creation made a difference we need a flotilla of celebs, and other influential world figures to get involved...and practice what they preach.