“Feels Like Summer”

Childish Gambino
Childish Gambino’s 2018 song “Feels Like Summer” subverts audience expectations and raises awareness of global warming. On first impression, the track’s serene nature follows the formula of an R&B ballad. The smooth, calming beat is contrasted by verses emphasizing rising temperatures, rapid population growth, water scarcity and the death of organisms’ ecosystems. In this context, the phrase “Feels Like Summer” becomes an urgent call for help.

“Big Yellow Taxi”
Joni Mitchell
An anthem of the counterculture era in the United States, “Big Yellow Taxi” serves as both an observation and a warning against rampant consumption and overdevelopment. Joni Mitchell explores an ironic result of the degradation of the environment in the face of perceived American progress. Mitchell sings, “Don’t it always seem to go/ That you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone/ They paved paradise, put up a parking lot.”

“Rocky Mountain High”
John Denver
“Take Me Home, Country Roads” may be John Denver’s most famous single, but “Rocky Mountain High” is just as powerful in its beautiful portrayal of the Colorado Rockies. Denver’s simple tale of a man enthralled by nature and opposed to its destruction contributed to a growing interest in and appreciation for the environment. The track would later become one of Colorado’s official state songs.

“Fallen Fruit”
Lorde
Ominous and uneasy, “Fallen Fruit” offers a bleak but necessary retrospective on human activity and its contributions to global warming. Lorde condemns past generations’ reliance on industrial success and ignorance to the pressing environmental crisis. She explains that no matter the socioeconomic class, we are now all “dancing on fallen fruit.” We are faced with the same consequences of climate change, and more importantly, problems to solve.