A Climate Change Playlist

Readers recommend playlist: songs about climate change From the prescient lyrics of Jackson Browne to Michael Jackson getting angry about humans destroying the Earth, here are the tunes that made this week’s playlist

Sheila Deane, 28 April 2016 (The Guardian)

“…[A playlist about climate change was selected by a Guardian reader. It includes Jackson Browne’s 1974] celebration of the back-to-the-land movement, Before the Deluge…[with] one eerily prescient verse…

Some of them were angry At the way the earth was abused By the men who learned how to forge her beauty into power And they struggled to protect her from them Only to be confused By the magnitude of her fury in the final hour

“…[The list also has] Flanders and Swann’s engaging A Song of the Weather…[and] the blackly humorous Hard Day on the Planet by Loudon Wainwright III which includes…

In California the body counts keep getting higher It’s evil out there, man, that state is always on fire

“…You can hear the grief [about human waste, emissions, extractive industries, and out-of-control population] in Tracy Chapman’s haunting song that accuses us of just standing by and watching The Rape of the World…[and the] anger in Michael Jackson’s Earth Song…[and] the profound sadness in New Model Army’s Ballad…

When they look back at us and they write down our history What will they say about our generation? We’re the ones who knew everything still we did nothing Harvested everything, planted nothing

“…[The Guardian added Corb Lund’s] The Truth Comes Out…Andrew Revkin’s Liberated Carbon…and Melissa Etheridge’s passionate anthem to personal responsibility, I Need To Wake Up… The Restarts insist there is No Escape…and French for Rabbits sing an elegy for a home Claimed by the Sea…[The list ends on a note of inspiring, never-give-up hope] with Harry Belafonte’s Turn the World Around… ef="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/apr/28/readers-recommend-playlist-songs-about-climate-change"target="_blank">click here for more

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