Outstanding Album by Melissa Etheridge

http://www.melissaetheridge.com/

The lyrics to I NEED TO WAKE UP.

http://www.onlylyrics.com/song.php?id=1006418


I Need To Wake Up

- Melissa Etheridge

Have I been sleeping?
I’ve been so still
Afraid of crumbling
Have I been careless?
Dismissing all the distant rumblings
Take me where I am supposed to be
To comprehend the things that I can’t see

Cause I need to move
I need to wake up
I need to change
I need to shake up
I need to speak out
Something’s got to break up
I’ve been asleep
And I need to wake up
Now

And as a child
I danced like it was 1999
My dreams were wild
The promise of this new world
Would be mine
Now I am throwing off the carelessness of youth
To listen to an inconvenient truth

That I need to move
I need to wake up
I need to change

I need to shake up
I need to speak out
Something’s got to break up
I’ve been asleep
And I need to wake up
Now

I am not an island
I am not alone
I am my intentions
Trapped here in this flesh and bone

And I need to move
I need to wake up
I need to change
I need to shake up
I need to speak out
Something’s got to break up
I’ve been asleep
And I need to wake up
Now

I want to change
I need to shake up
I need to speak out
Oh, Something’s got to break up
I’ve been asleep
And I need to wake up
Now

I never liked her voice or music at all until I heard "I Need to Wake Up" in "An Inconvenient Truth". Wow. WOW, is all I can say. The lyrics are just absolutely perfect and convey that the solution to this global climate crisis needs to start with each individual.

Weird that you posted this today, as I just have been reflecting on what it means to have signed the Live Earth pledge, and what changes I can make--I NEED to make--in order to be the kind of global citizen I want to be.

After taking a long hard look at myself and my lifestyle, green though I fancy myself, I realized that I have work to do in order to reduce my carbon footprint.

Job 1: Was to call the city today and find out how I can recycle my plastic seltzer water bottles. Good lord, I probably have single-handedly destroyed the planet, given how much water I drink. I used to drink a brand of sparkling mineral water, which comes in glass. But it simply got too expensive to continue that habit, so I switched to Publix (supermarket brand) Seltzer at .69 cents for a two-liter PLASTIC (bad) bottle. On a weekday, I drink about one of these. On weekend days, I can down two per day. That is a LOT of plastic I'm contributing to landfills. BAD! My city is wonderful and progressive in many ways but one thing we do not have, to the consternation of many citizens, is a curbside recycling program. However, there is a way to recycle my plastic bottles and shame on me that I am only now getting around to finding out the specifics. What I really should do is give up the seltzer entirely and switch to tap water but honestly I am so wedded to fizzy/carbonated water. The spectre of living the rest of my days on flat water really seems bleak. I wish I were rich enough to install an old-time soda fountain in my home and I could produce my own carbonation in the tap water. Wonder how much energy that would use. Make that a solar-powered soda fountain! But, failing that, I decided to find out TODAY (not a moment too soon!) how to recycle my plastic seltzer water 2-liter bottles. PERIOD. And if somehow it can't be done, then I'd switch to tap water. PERIOD.

These are the kinds of self-evaluations and changes we all can do. It sounds trite, but if we all do one, two or several things differently, we can really change the overall human load on the planet.

Well, p.s., that took ONE phone call. I'm only ashamed to my core that I didn't find this out long ago. The recycling site is really close to my house and all you do is take your bottles there and you're done. How easy is that?!!

Like I said, I'm just ashamed that I didn't look into this ages ago instead of "meaning to". Meaning to doesn't git 'er done! I am green in many ways but that was one big way that I have not been. That changes as of today, as from now on, all my plastic bottles will be recycled.

Seems like a small thing but actually it isn't. Can you imagine if we all did one small thing like that? Another example is, I live in Florida where it is very hot and humid for half the year. When my old a/c system gave up the ghost, I actually went without any for 3 or 4 YEARS. I have no clue how I did that, but last year I decided enough was enough, as the heat and humidity down here are as debilitating as the cold would be up north with no heat in winter, ya know? So, anyway, instead of replacing the old Freon system with a new one, I first TRIED to find a company who would install solar heat and a/c for me, but there were exactly ZERO here in Florida. Sad. But I did switch to a Puron system. Again, another little thing that adds up if we all do it.

I love the lyrics in the song because it makes the point that it has to start with each of us. Like a new take on that old hymn "Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me", now is the time for "Let there be respect for earth, and let it begin with me."

I've been a champion of greenness for many, many years. However, after 7/7/07 and the pledge, I took a sincere look at myself and realized: room for improvement!!! If we all do this, that's how we can turn this thing around.

...Of course, we have to get corporations and governments to do it, too, but let's start with ourselves and do that concurrently. Let there be respect for earth, and let it begin with me.