song for theme #40: Environmental Economics

“The Battle Hymn of New Economics” by Stephen P. Cook

to be sung to the tune of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” by William Steffe/Julia Ward Howe / traditional

Let us join together

To enact a carbon tax¹

And to hard working poor people

Rebate this money back

Big greedy corporations

And polluters we’ll attack

Fight greenhouse gases² now

Sustainability Forever

Earth First Forever

Solidarity Forever³

United We are Strong  

Energy from renewables

More of that’s our goal

Let’s stop building power plants

Fired by dirty coal

Stop C O two from rising

That we shall patrol

Value natural capital⁴

Sustainability Forever

Earth First Forever

Solidarity Forever

United We are Strong 

Indicators should not rise⁵

As more and more we trash

Keep ignoring hidden costs⁶

And our economy will crash

Winner Take All Society⁷

Hey, that’s something rash

Work for social justice now

Sustainability Forever

Earth First Forever

Solidarity Forever

United We are Strong 

SONG—NOTES / COMMENTS

1—A carbon tax would be levied on carbon dioxide pollution that fossil fuel dependent activities of people and business put into

      the atmosphere.  Such taxes seek to factor environmental costs into the market system.

2—Most notably carbon dioxide (CO₂), whose rising levels (passing 400 ppm in 2014) gets the attention, but human activity

      (especially agriculture) releases lots of methane, which is many times as potent as CO₂. 

3—This is the title of a 1915 song written for labor unions but often used for other progressive causes.

4— Natural capital includes natural resources (air, water, soil, forests, minerals, fossil fuels, fish, etc) and the biodiversity of

       natural living ecosystems (grasslands, wetlands, ocean coral reefs, etc). 

5— Gross domestic product (GDP) is the annual market value of a country’s total domestic economic output, including all end

      goods and services purchased.  It is often used to gauge economic well-being. 

6—GDP doesn’t measure decreases in natural capital or many other things important to sustainability.

7—Seems capitalism is good at generating wealth but poor at evenly distributing it. The phrase used to characterize the disturbing

      societal trend toward greater inequality is “Winner Take All Society”. In such a society, in the words of Molly Ivins,  "A few

      people get ungodly rich, and the rest of us fall behind!"

Comment: Critics of business as usual / economic growth (theme #22A) who charge that theme represents a societal maladaptive coping strategy (see comment theme #22A) like this theme better. Some would prefer a quality of life index—which includes emotional well being—replacing % GDP growth/yr to gauge progress.