Golden Beams of Yellow Paradise

“Big Yellow Taxi” – an indisputable environmental anthem. I believe that this song states
environmentally sensible lyrics that express the concern about humankind’s industrial influence in
damaging the environment. It has become an iconic protest song for environmentalists that choose to fight
the destruction of the Earth’s ecosystems by human industrialization – clearly asserting how people take
things for granted, and how you then miss them when they are gone.

The first part of the song is describing, a paved parking lot with a hotel that is pink with a spa and
swimming pool and people in it – the song writer deems to herself why they are there instead of
appreciating the nature of Hawaii. The next part is the chorus says, “that you don't always seem to know
what you got till it’s gone." – this is talking about the nature and that the more roads, building and parking
lot you build the less nature. Also, that one day all of it will be gone. The next part is my favorite as the
writer says, “they took all the trees and put them in a tree museum." – I suppose that since museums are
for articles in the past and people are cutting down trees, there trees are not growing new ones.
Subsequently, the writer talked about DDT, a chemical used to prevent marks on food such as apples. This
chemical was invented in 1874 and was banned from the UN and Canada in 1939. It was barred because it
killed animals and hurt plant and food. The last verse was confounding because it talks about a yellow taxi
coming to pick up a girl and I think it is referring to everything being pick up and taken away. Moreover, this
song is telling us not to take things for granted, such as nature.

Astoundingly, it is a song about how people forget about the beauty of the environment and all it
has to offer us by covering it in concrete and putting large un-necessary buildings on top. The song relates
to how the environment is being exploited and wasted by people, and how people sacrifice the environment
to make more money. It reminds us that we do not recognize the importance of anything around us, like
how we spray our already perfect food with poisons and chemicals just to make them appear more
appetizing. This song is important because it is informing everybody about the problems around the world.
It talks about how people are cutting trees down, that produce oxygen and polluting our only environment.