What If the Earth Had Rights? -lyrics

What if the Earth Had Rights?

(Words & Music by Christopher Kent)

It’s a great, big lovely planet
Home to our hopes and dreams
But lately we’ve got a problem—
Turns out it’s not as indestructible as it seems

We like to think of nature as a thing that we possess
That used to get us more and more—now it gets us less and less
It’s a problem of perspective—our attitude misleads us
We think that we’re in charge and then we bite the hand that feeds us
We dump waste in our rivers like it won’t have an effect
We call the world our property and then treat it with neglect
We act like it doesn’t matter what we pump into the sky
What if the Earth had rights?
That’s a concept we should try

There’s a mass extinction taking place, dozens of species a day
We’ve been at the top of the food chain—
Now the food chain’s going away
The rainforests, we’re chopping them down as the population rises
We’re running out of resources fast—
Life is full of strange surprises
Our pesticides and fertilizers, not so easy to contain
The heavy metals in our trash piles seep out in the rain
Now there’s poison in the air we breathe and the water that we drink
What if the Earth had rights?
Just think….

Bridge:
Unintended consequences that were not foreseen
Hidden in the fine print
The devil in the machine
Now these unforeseen calamities, they come to burst our bubble
Who’d have thought our idea of progress could lead to so much trouble?

What if the Earth had rights?

If the Earth had rights, we’d see it as a home that we need to protect
If the Earth had rights, we’d have to treat other life with a lot more respect
If the Earth had rights, we’d put an end to deforestation
If the Earth had rights, we’d have to stop expecting instant gratification
If the Earth had rights, no more digging up and burning fossil fuels
If the Earth had rights, no more justifying breaking common sense rules
If the Earth had rights, we’d be cleaning up the oceans and rivers and lakes
If the Earth had rights, we’d have to start thinking ’bout the consequences before we take
If the Earth had rights, we’d have to stop making endless mountains of trash
If the Earth had rights, we’d have to stop selling out our future for a little more cash
If the Earth had rights, maybe we’d have a chance to save her
And you never know—maybe she’d return the favor!