Man, what have you done?
A song about how we've been treating the earth
Hi all,
Thank you for joining me for today’s song, “Man, what have you done?”, by the French group V+P (2021). If you’d like to hear the song before you read about it, I’ve included a YouTube video below the article. For Japanese students, vocabulary words in bold are provided in Japanese below. TOEIC (PBT) 450+, Eiken 2, CEFR B1.
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(699 words)
Today’s song is by a French group called V+P. The lyrics talk about how humans (Man) have been treating planet Earth and the effects that we are now feeling as a result.
The song begins with the changes in air quality. The singer says that when he was young, there wasn’t air pollution, but now it’s hard to breathe because of it.
There is a yellow bubble in the air / When I was young, it wasn't there
It's smelling funny in the scorching heat / It's scary, I can't breathe.
He wants to learn the source of the problem (and maybe do something about it?), but the people around him are not willing to talk to him.
I want to know where it's coming from / But I can't talk to anyone
For some reason we are not told, those around him are carrying guns. Is this a war zone? Is this some sort of conflict?
People are rushing everywhere with guns / I gotta run
For God's sake, Man, what have you done
We're still around but not for long
How long
The second verse talks about other kinds of pollution, beginning with the amount of trash that humans create. Many places have tried to deal with trash by creating landfills, usually in low-income neighborhoods. Plastic trash finds its way into our rivers, streams, and oceans. Eventually, it ends up in the bodies of the fish and other creatures who live there.
You dug holes to spread your trash around / You chose the baddest sides of towns
A sea of plastic floating everywhere / And, my friend, you don't care
The third verse looks at environmental destruction. Forests, in particular, have been sold to companies that pay the highest price.
There used to be jungles all around / But now the green has turned to brown
You sold our forests to the highest bids / Oh yes, you did
Finally, the song questions who has responsibility for problems such as the climate crisis. It mentions “dust bowls”. When the top of the soil has been farmed too much or doesn’t have enough water to grow plants, the soil can blow away in the wind. Next, with “pink snow”, there is a kind of algae that forms on top of snow. It looks pink, but it does have chlorophyll. This algae turns the snow a darker color, and that makes the snow melt faster. If snow melts faster, it could add to the problem of a lower water supply for streams and reservoirs in the summer.
Dust bowls, pink snow, our skin is starting to glow
Dead whales, mud slides, and not a place you can hide
The “hole in the sky” refers to the ozone layer. Ozone is a gas that has no color. It reacts easily with many other things. Ozone helps us by blocking harmful sunlight called "UV-B." High up in the sky, far above where weather happens, a thin layer of ozone stops UV-B from reaching the Earth, keeping living things safe. Every year for the past few decades, chemicals react with the ozone over the South Pole, causing it to break down quickly. This area with less ozone is called the "ozone hole."
Heat waves in Arctica, a big hole in the sky /That our politicians still deny
In Bhopal, India, on December 2, 1984, a gas leak at an American factory occurred. The gas killed thousands of people and caused health problems for many more. In Flint, Michigan, in 2014, the city changed its water supply from a supply coming from another city to water from the Flint River. The Flint River had many contaminants in it, and many people got sick from drinking the water that came through their pipes.
Bhopal was such a safe place to be / In Flint, the water was drinkable and clean
Now we listen to those wretched lies / From the powers that be
Their nuclear soup leaks in the sea
Radioactive materials have reached rivers and oceans for decades. A few examples are Kyshtym, Russia, Sellafield, UK, Handford Site, Washington state, US, and Fukushima, Japan.
For God's sake, Man, what have you done
We're still around but not for long
How long
Question:
Do you try to avoid buying plastics? When you buy clothes, do you check labels carefully and avoid buying plastics like polyurethane, nylon, and fleece (polyester)?
Vocabulary
pollution 汚染
scorching 焼けつくような
landfills ゴミ処理場
low-income 低所得
baddest - a “bad” side of town is usually a low-income area
destruction 破壊
bid 入札
algae 藻類
chlorophyll クロロフィル
mud slide 土砂災害
deny 否定
Bhopal ボパール
contaminant 汚染物質
drinkable 飲める
wretched ひどい
leak 漏れ
radioactive 放射性
polyurethane ポリウレタン
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Sources
BBC. (2024, September 17). Sellafield nuclear plant radioactive leak “slowing down.” BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c7v6646l9emo Accessed 8 October 2024.
Chronicle, A. B. O. C. (2024, September 23). Oregon officials concerned about proposal to move liquid nuclear waste, possibly through Bend. The Bulletin. https://www.bendbulletin.com/localstate/oregon-officials-concerned-about-proposal-to-move-liquid-nuclear-waste-possibly-through-bend/article_4fe2fec8-79d2-11ef-9c88-1365d26b9801.html Accessed 8 October 2024.
Denchak, M. (2024, April 16). Flint water crisis: Everything you need to know. Be a Force for the Future. https://www.nrdc.org/stories/flint-water-crisis-everything-you-need-know Accessed 8 October 2024.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. (2024, September 22). Kyshtym disaster. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Kyshtym-disaster Accessed 8 October 2024.
Hanford leaking tanks. Leaking tanks - Washington State Department of Ecology. https://ecology.wa.gov/waste-toxics/nuclear-waste/hanford-cleanup/leaking-tanks Accessed 8 October 2024.
Mohr, K. (2022, December 10). Pink snow is not a cute phenomenon-here’s why. Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/pink-snow-is-not-a-cute-phenomenon-heres-why/ Accessed 6 October 2024.
NASA. NASA Ozone Watch: Latest Status of Ozone. NASA. https://ozonewatch.gsfc.nasa.gov/ Accessed 6 October 2024.
The French sure did sell their forests, did you know all (or a horribly high percentage - I can't find the figures) raw timber here is now bought and shipped to China, sawn into planks treated, and sent back to be sold for double the price it was 20 years ago, using unimaginable amounts of fuel for the cargo ships to transport it and wiping out vast swathes of the forestry in doing so? Programs have been set up to replant and protests are in force but still it continues. It breaks my heart Louise, especially as it makes the usable timber so expensive many people are turning to laminate alternatives which contain plastics and substances which are harmful.
In answer to your question, I never use plastic bags, try to buy all my food, as far as is possible, loose and where only natural fibres and most of those are secondhand! I do my best, my daughter is even more aware of the disastrous effects to our beautiful planet of not doing so, using only natural products for hair and face too, as are many of her friends...
Sadly though there are still not enough people who are aware and there needs to be!
Love to you and mouse, my daughter is here with me this weekend, its been perfect! x