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Grace Mu

CAS 137H 002

Lori Bedell

11 October 2019

1970 to 2011: A Shift in Environmentalism

Beginning in the early 1960s with Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring,” the global

environmental movement has grown and evolved, spanning concerns from pollution to the

current climate crisis and disappearance of biodiversity ("Rachel Carson"). In 1970, Joni

Mitchell’s song “Big Yellow Taxi” began communicating widespread environmental awareness,

and stimulated the growth of the movement ("Big Yellow Taxi - lyrics"). According to Mitchell,

her inspiration for the song came after a taxi ride to a hotel in Hawaii, where she observed a

parking lot in the midst of beautiful green mountains ("Big Yellow Taxi - lyrics"). Nearly fifty

years later, in 2011, the non-profit German environmental agency BUND released an ad

campaign that also left its mark on the movement (Behance). An image with a bear caught

between the hands of a clock is one of three images of similarly tortured animals that advocate

for increased species conservation efforts (Behance). While Joni Mitchell’s song “Big Yellow

Taxi” juxtaposes somber lyrics with a bright tune to encourage an emergent ideology, BUND’s

“60 second” public service announcement relies upon a grim tone to convey the dominant

ideology that people have a civic duty to mitigate the environmental destruction they have

caused.

Although Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” is characterized by its contrasting lyrics and

melody, while BUND’s “60 second” publication employs an entirely dark tone, both artifacts use
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pathetic appeals to spur feelings of guilt in their respective audiences. Written in the key of E

major (Tunebat "Big Yellow Taxi"), which is the most “bright and pellucid” of the keys

according to John W. Moore’s Complete Encyclopedia of Music (Ishiguro), the tune of “Big

Yellow Taxi” is lively and cheerful. However, the lyrics convey a different message, as Mitchell

addresses issues such as deforestation with trees being “put in a tree museum,” and DDT

pollution affecting the “birds and the bees” (Mitchell). The most powerful lyrics are in the

chorus, when she 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” (Mitchell). Combined with the melody, this

chorus sounds catchy and lighthearted, yet it conveys a dark message about the finite nature of

life, and the necessity to appreciate one’s surroundings while they exist. Mitchell directly

compares “paradise” to the parking lot taking its place in an effort to emphasize the negative

impact humans have had on the natural environment, and illustrate that humans are effectively

ruining the “paradise” in which they live. The juxtaposition in melody and lyrics captivates the

audience’s attention, and forces them to acknowledge that despite life seeming joyful and

promising, there exists an underlying grim reality of frequent environmental destruction. A

feeling of guilt emerges as people begin to realize that they are the root of the cause of this

continuous destruction of “paradise.”

BUND’s “60 second” image differs in that it assumes a wholly dark and depressing tone.

The utilization of the tortured bear trapped in the clock as a character contributes most heavily to

this tone, as it is the primary focus of the artifact. The bear is shown clawing at the hands of the

clock, and is pictured with its mouth open in anguish, a single tear escaping from its eye. The

disturbing emotion shown in the bear’s facial expression personifies it, heightening the guilt the
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audience feels when they realize they are the source of the sentient bear’s pain. The dark brown,

black, and red colors that form the image’s color scheme additionally contribute to the tone,

since they incite feelings of grief and dread. The red in particular can be directly associated with

the injured bear’s blood, further emphasizing its dire situation. The critical nature of the situation

is also depicted by the clock in the background, which acts as a symbol for the doomsday clock.

The clock is suggestive of the possibility of total extinction of the bear’s species, and the concept

of “five minutes to midnight” produces feelings of fear and guilt in the audience as they begin to

realize that the time to act is rapidly diminishing.

The artifacts’ differing tones also allow them to effectively approach their respective

exigences, and enable them to take advantage of their individual kairotic moments. “Big Yellow

Taxi” directly addresses the deforestation, over-industrialization, and DDT pollution prevalent in

the 1960s and 1970s. Released in 1970, the song gained traction during the kairotic moment of

the establishment of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which required US

companies to formally assess the environmental impacts of their construction proposals ("A

Fierce Green Fire"). These events followed the release of Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” in

1962, which exposed the negative effects of DDT, and marked the beginning of the

environmental movement ("Rachel Carson"). As a result, when “Big Yellow Taxi,” was released

people were more willing to accept the existence of environmental issues. Mitchell’s song

capitalized upon this newfound audience receptiveness by subtly communicating a dark message

about environmental destruction through a catchy and memorable melody. This juxtaposition

was successful because environmental issues were still not seen as grave threats to humanity’s

global existence, so it was not necessary for the song to have a completely dark tone.
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Directly contrasting this, BUND’s “60 second” artifact uses a somber tone to express the

urgency of the exigence it is addressing. The announcement targets the extinctions of animal

species such as the brown bear due to human activities, and perfectly complements the kairotic

release of an article in 2011 regarding a sixth mass extinction. The 2011 ​Nature​ article, “Has the

Earth’s sixth mass extinction already arrived?” raised concerns about rapidly decreasing

biodiversity (Barnosky). BUND’s image used the frightening possibility of a sixth mass

extinction to its advantage by portraying the same feeling of terror through its dark tone. This

tone emphasized the insufficiency of simple awareness, because the severity of the possibility of

extinction required immediate action.

Despite their different approaches, through powerful logos, both artifacts encourage the

ideology that people are to blame for environmental destruction, and implore them to fulfill their

civic duty to mitigate it. In the case of “Big Yellow Taxi,” this ideology is emergent. Released

eight years after the environmental movement began, people were still growing accustomed to

the idea that their actions could be detrimental towards the environment. Mitchell encourages her

audience to understand the extent of their impact in her stanza about “paving paradise.” The

audience must logically conclude that they are at fault for the disappearance of “paradise,” and

that without action, the beauty of this “paradise” will disappear into a mere memory. She then

calls her audience to action when she sings, “Hey farmer farmer/Put away that DDT now”

(Mitchell). While she is addressing farmers, the conversational tone she uses allows her to subtly

address every working-class citizen in her audience. The command to “put away that DDT now”

urges her listeners to stop using pollutants such as DDT. However, through the logos, the
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audience can reasonably conclude that the line is more broadly implying that they should “put

away” behaviors that are negatively impacting the environment.

In the case of the “60 second” image, the ideology of human-caused environmental

destruction is dominant. In 2011, the environmental movement had been in existence for nearly

fifty years, so negative effects of humans on the environment were well documented. At the

forefront of public perception, the belief in species conservation was dominant. The artifact

communicates this ideology through the depiction of the bear and the clock as symbols for nature

and human intervention respectively. Through the logos, the audience is able to surmise that this

powerful image is representative of the deadly human impacts on animal species, and the

complete control humans have to decide a species’ fate. The announcement also calls its

audience to action by asserting that, “Every minute counts. Each donation helps.” The viewers,

who feel guilty for endangering the bear’s species and reducing the time it has left, are asked to

donate, and thus fulfill their civic duty to mitigate the environmental destruction they caused.

Despite their contrasting tones, both artifacts effectively address their exigences and

rouse feelings of guilt in their audiences to promote action against environmental destruction.

The lighter tone in “Big Yellow Taxi” is indicative of the fact that it was addressing an emergent

ideology during a time when environmental impacts were considered less severe. However, the

shift to a much darker tone in the BUND announcement proves that the ideology became a

dominant one, and that the exigence grew much more urgent. This shift in the tone of the

artifacts is indicative of a shift in the tone of the environmental movement itself. While the

1970’s environmental movement was more optimistic and spirited, the 2011’s movement

suggests a more pessimistic view and a desperate need for action before it is truly too late.
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Works Cited

“A Fierce Green Fire.” ​PBS​, Public Broadcasting Service, 12 Aug. 2015,

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/a-fierce-green-fire-timeline-of-environmental-

movement/2988/.

Barnosky, Anthony D., et al. “Has the Earth’s Sixth Mass Extinction Already Arrived?”

Nature​, vol. 471, no. 7336, 2011, pp. 51–57., doi:10.1038/nature09678.

Behance. “BUND: Every 60 Seconds.” ​Behance,​

https://www.behance.net/gallery/21288885/BUND-Every-60-Seconds.

“Big Yellow Taxi - Lyrics.” ​Joni Mitchell,​ https://jonimitchell.com/music/song.cfm?id=13.

“Big Yellow Taxi.” ​Tunebat,​

https://tunebat.com/Info/Big-Yellow-Taxi-Joni-Mitchell/6UkMcAA19lTdjs22jtB7o2.

Ishiguro, Maho A. Feb. 2014,

https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1561&context=theses.

Mitchell, Joni. “Big Yellow Taxi.” ​Ladies of the Canyon, ​Siquomb Pub. Co., 1970, track 10.

Youtube​, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2595abcvh2M.

“Rachel Carson.” ​Science History Institute,​ 4 Dec. 2017,

https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/rachel-carson.