Earth Doctor / Climate Troubadour

MAKE THE ANGELS WEEP

Palisades in ashes.                           Am D
Wondering where it went.              G  C
All the fire in paradise,                   Am D
It isn’t an accident.                          Em  G7

You’re looking at a crime scene,        C D
No matter how it’s spun.                     G C
Petroleum racketeers                           Am D
Are showing you how it’s done.         Em  G7

They’re filling up their pockets,         C D
Make the angels weep.                           G C
Might have saved it all,                         Am  D
But just too damn cheap.                  G  C   G  Em

They say that it’s economics,                  Am D
They’re smarter than you or me.           G   C
But you know, without a living world, Am D
There’s no economy.                                Em G7

And they’re saying Happy New Year     C   D
While LA’s burning down,                       G   C
And arsonists in Washington                 Am D
Are planning another round.                  Em G7
CHORUS

Big oil lobbyists,                                 C    D
They love to write our laws.            G    Em
And they’ve know for fifty years    Am  A#dim
The troubles it would cause.            D    G#dim
Burn it all for money,                       Am  A#dim
Their profit is our loss.                     G     E7
You can’t count the cost ,                Am   A7
Can’t count the cost.                         D7

If you’re not drunk on power,             C    D
You can hear the little voice.               G    C
Only got an hour now but you            Am D
Can make a choice:                               Em G7

This land of milk and honey,           B7
Just let it wash away.                        Em  Em7
Yeah, trade it all for money,             A7
Or push the other way.                      D7

Don’t let ’em fill their pockets,  C   D
Don’t make the angels weep.     G   C
Might save it all,                             Am  D
If we’re not so cheap.                    G –

©Doug Hendren 2025

What’s it about? Barely a week into the new year, the most destructive fires in California’s history began in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles. As of this writing, multiple fires in LA are not yet contained.

While many politicians are trying to use this tragedy for political advantage,  the main responsibility lies with the US oil industry for actively promoting climate disruption, and for obstructing efforts to stop it over the past half century. Their organized deception has been described in detail on this website.

In the words of Jamie Henn, director of Fossil Free Media, “the fires in Los Angeles aren’t just a tragedy, they’re a crime.”

When I practiced orthopedic surgery in California in the 1990s, my patients included “smoke jumpers” who were injured parachuting into remote terrain to fight wildfires. Back then, “fire season” was only about five months each year. With increasing temperatures and decreasing humidity, it is now year-round. Fires in mid-winter are now common.

According to the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), climate change is responsible for California’s record-breaking wildfires, which have increased 500% over the past 30 years.

Early estimates of the ongoing fires exceed $100 billion. And whatever recovery is possible will be complicated by the fact that the insurance industry has been abandoning California due to the rising risks.

Global overheating from burning fossil fuels is the direct cause of the rising incidence and severity of both extreme wildfires and extreme rainfall, “atmospheric rivers” and flooding we have experienced worldwide in recent years. We are all in harm’s way as a direct result of the political power of the US fossil fuel industry. The economic costs have risen along with the temperature. According to recent figures from insurance giant Munich Re, catastrophic weather events cost the world $320 billion in 2024. Because of the heavy concentration of expensive real estate and infrastructure, and hurricane exposure, the majority of global losses occur in North America.

The incoming Trump administration has been very vocal about reducing “government inefficiency.” It they are at all serious about this, the first thing they should do is stop subsidizing fossil fuels. They are killing us all.

More  of my songs on this subject:

      World on Fire              Apocalypse Isn’t So Cheap

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