Our Watch

The environmental challenges we face seem without end
There’s not that much at stake, some are trying to pretend
Just systems that sustain us: food, water, oxygen
Our way of life versus some nasty trends, and it’s our watch
Yours and mine – our watch
Microplastic beads in lakes, pesticides near where we’re tilling
Cities cloaked in smog, not only nice views is it killing
Heavy metal-tainted soil’s not safe to grow food when we’re willing
We treat the Earth like a dump and it’s filling on our watch
Yours and mine – our watch
Fish stocks are crashing from the Gulf of Maine to Vietnam
Monarch butterflies and most amphibians may not last long
Who knows how we’ll grow food if all the honeybees are gone
Turtles, bats, macaws, the list of those at risk goes on… and on
Being mortal means we only have some time
So what legacy shall we leave behind?
Herbicide-resistant pigweed’s choking crops throughout the South
MRSA and VRE survive antibiotics when they’re doused
New viruses from people and animals too closely housed
More lie in places we send trucks and plows on our watch
Yours and mine – our watch
There’s still a leak at Fukushima from reactor #4
And 25 years later oil from the Valdez found on shore
The Elk River spill proved some chemicals are badly stored
How many of these must we all pay for on our watch?
Yours and mine – our watch
Arctic methane freed from melting ice is serious bad news
As acidifying oceans kill corals, more than a few
Sea level rise could mean some island nations get removed
Yet we crank out more CH4 and CO2 on our watch
Yours and mine – our watch
Though up-front costs of changing course may seem tall
They’re dwarfed by those to come the longer that we stall
Will we wash our hands like Pilate and deny clear evidence?
For handing down the Earth like this there’s no moral defense
Nor excuses we need leaders with real courage and good sense
To look past the politics and represent on our watch
Yours and mine – our watch
What to do? How about all we can with what we have to find
Real solutions with our creative energies combined?
I’m scared but still believe we share the strength inside
To step up and look this in the eye on our watch, our watch
Citizen activation
Like mass demonstration
Carbon price creation
Divestment application
Waste minimization
Resource conservation
Resilient system operation
Like local cultivation
Reduced wealth concentration
A woman’s say in procreation
Big picture consideration
For all life: veneration
System interrelation
Green innovation
Peace propagation
Mass participation
And transformation
In this generation!
This hopeful movement fueled by love and anger at life’s wane
Seeking to realize more than exclusive short-term gain
Must prevail, though just in the fight there’s much to attain
Playing full-out helping others do the same on our watch, yeah our watch
Hey! It’s our watch