Apocalypse Isn’t So Cheap
Tell me why G D G7
Is combustion what we do best, C C/B Am D7
North or south or east or west, G G/F# Em
And physics does all the rest. D D/C D/B D/A
It don’t rain no more.
That ain’t rain, the way it pours.
What you get when your mama’s sore,
And brother, your mama’s sore.
Trouble just getting to sleep. C D Em C
Apocalypse isn’t so cheap. G D G —
From what I see,
There will never be people free
As the fossil fuel industry,
Unquenchable fantasy.
We’re burning down
From the money they’re spreading ’round
To the congressmen in this town.
Watch America burning down.
And waters getting so deep,
Apocalypse isn’t so cheap.
Ain’t it time, C
Ain’t it time now to get on board? C#° G Em
Can’t you see all we had for free? D
All the things now we can’t afford? A7 D D7
Sweet rain,
Gentle seasons and peace of mind,
All the animals in their kind.
We’re all running out of time.
What you sow is what you will reap;
Apocalypse isn’t so cheap.
It’s pretty clear
Lot of things gonna disappear,
Laying waste to the atmosphere.
Lot of things that we all hold dear.
No time for being asleep!
Apocalypse isn’t so cheap .
©Doug Hendren 2022
What’s it about? We still hear conservative voices opining that the costs of climate action are too high, and we can’t afford rapid and decisive climate action. For anyone paying attention, however, this is simply nonsense. Burning fossil fuels is a lot like smoking cigarettes. The real cost to consider is the cost not of the cigarettes, but the cost of the cancer. For fossil fuels, the real cost is the social cost of carbon. And as with cigarettes in the past, some of our most venerable medical journals are recognizing that the fossil fuel industry is a direct threat to our health and survival.
Our present cost assessments fail to fairly consider the many costs associated with fossil fuel combustion, including pollution, extreme weather such as drought, wildfires, floods and hurricanes. The costs of rebuilding our coastal cities and towns, and eventually abandoning them to the waves. The loss of food security due to unpredictable growing seasons; the northward spread of ticks, mosquitoes, and the diseases they carry; the tide of domestic and international refugees.
The fossil fuel industry has been lying to us with sophisticated and well-financed disinformation, successfully blocking the United States Congress from taking aggressive action to stop and reverse climate change. They have been lying to us for decades, and are still at it even today. And we all get stuck with the bill. The US should be leading the world by transforming to a clean energy economy, not dragging the world under out of our helplessness to rein in a predatory rogue industry.
The actual cost of losing our natural life-support system is incalculable. Climate action is not only a good investment, it is the only sound choice before us.
