22 de abril, Dia Mundial da Terra

Em homenagem ao Dia Mundial da Terra, comemorado no dia 22, este blog coloca à disposição alguns links de postagens que, de um modo ou outro, trataram da questão ambiental. Vai aí a lista:

Todas as horas do planeta
Marina, os "ambientalistas" e os "desenvolvimentistas"
A cidade de seis milhões de problemas
Atenção: este país tem um "alarde"!
Dias Mundiais sem Carro: a partir de 23 de setembro!

Como trilha sonora, acho que cai bem o ótimo Surf's Up, lançado em 1971 pelos Beach Boys. O grupo californiano já vinha amadurecendo seu trabalho desde o clássico Pet Sounds, de 1966. No disco de 1971, além de esmero nos arranjos, há letras mais elaboradas e, de certo modo surpreendemente, engajadas, sobretudo na seara ecológica. Leia trechos de duas de suas mais belas canções:

Don't Go Near the Water
(Alan Jardine - Mike Love)

Don't go near the water
Don't you think it's sad
What's happened to the water
Our water's going bad
Oceans, rivers, lakes and streams
Have all been touched by man
The poison floating out to sea
Now threatens life on land

Don't go near the water
Ain't it sad
What's happened to the water It's going bad
(...)

Toothpaste and soap will make our oceans a bubble bath
(Ah-um dirty water, ah-um dirty water)
So let's avoid an ecological aftermath
(Ah-um dirty water, ah-um dirty water)
Beginning with me
Beginning with you
(Ah-um dirty water, ah-um dirty water)

Don't go near the water
To do it any wrong
To be cool with the water
Is the message of this song

Let's all help the water
Right away
Do what we can and ought to
Let's start today

A Day in the Life of a Tree
(Brian Wilson - Jack Rieley)

Feel the wind burn through my skin
The pain, the air is killing me
For years my limbs stretched to the sky
A nest for birds to sit and sing
But now my branches suffer
And my leaves don't bear the glow
They did so long ago
One day I was full of life
My sap was rich and I was strong
From seed to tree I grew so tall
Through wind and rain I could not fall
But now my branches suffer and my leaves don't offer
Poetry to men of song
Trees like me weren't meant to live
If all this world can give
Pollution and slow death
Oh Lord I lay me down
No life's left to be found
There's nothing left for me
Trees like me weren't meant to live
If all this earth can give Is pollution
(...)

Ouça abaixo as duas canções na seqüência.