Climate Culture
Songs. Poems. Literature. Quotes.
Songs
Blue Sky Mine - Midnight Oil
"And if the blue sky mining company won't come to my rescue / If the sugar refining company won't save me..."Life Is Good - Jagwar Twin
"The world's in flames / But at least we're having fun"
"Living in a lie, and we can't see the truth / Everyone fighting, tell me which side are you?"“Where did all the blue skies go? / Poison is the wind that blows from the north and south and east.”
Big Yellow Taxi - Joni Mitchell
“They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”
“They took all the trees and put 'em in a tree museum / And they charged the people a dollar and a half just to see 'em.”
Poems
“I swear the earth shall surely be complete to him or her who shall be complete,
The earth remains jagged and broken only to him or her who remains jagged and broken.”
— “A Song of the Rolling Earth” by Walt Whitman
“It must be a mistake. The world can't be that beautiful and still be broken.”
— “Planet Earth” by P.K. Page
“You are what we can’t prepare for— the blue sky rolling in with no promise, the warmth of spring devoured by blizzard.”
— “To the Weather” by Claudia Rankine
“We had everything we needed—fresh water, clean air… but we threw it all away for… convenience and money.”
—“Dear Future Generations: Sorry” by Prince Ea (Spoken word poem)
Literature
Medium: Fiction (Literary Novel)
Summary: This Pulitzer Prize–winning novel intertwines the lives of nine characters, all brought together by their deep relationship with trees and the forests threatened by human activity.
Climate Relevance: Explores deforestation, ecological interconnectedness, and activism. It’s deeply rooted in environmental ethics and makes a case for rethinking humanity’s relationship with nature.
Why it stands out: Uses narrative to foster empathy for the non-human world, especially trees as sentient beings.
— Novel: The Overstory by Richard Powers (2018)
Medium: Drama / Theatre
Summary: This two-part play (On the Beach and Resilience) is set in the UK and dramatizes political inaction in the face of climate science and the threat of coastal flooding.
Climate Relevance: Tackles governmental paralysis, the consequences of ignoring scientific warnings, and the psychological toll of impending climate disasters.
Why it stands out: Brings climate science into family drama and political debate on stage, making abstract threats feel personal and urgent.
— Play: The Contingency Plan by Steve Waters (2009)
Medium: Graphic Nonfiction
Summary: A French graphic novel that mixes the author’s own process of understanding climate science with interviews, visual metaphors, and reflection on personal responsibility.
Climate Relevance: Translates complex climate data into accessible narrative and art; explores both personal and political aspects of climate awareness.
Why it stands out: Uses visual storytelling to demystify climate science and provoke introspection.
— Graphic Novel: Climate Changed: A Personal Journey through the Science by Philippe Squarzoni (2014)
Quotations
“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”
Context: The Swedish climate activist and founder of Fridays for Future, Greta Thunberg, delivered this speech to world leaders at just 16 years old.
Impact: This quote became emblematic of youth climate outrage and helped spark a global movement. It puts moral urgency at the heart of the conversation.
—James Hansen
U.S. Congressional Testimony, 1988
—Greta Thunberg
UN Climate Action Summit, 2019
“The greenhouse effect has been detected, and it is changing our climate now. We can see it happening. It is time to stop waffling so much and say that the evidence is pretty strong that the greenhouse effect is here.”
Context: Dr. James Hansen, then Director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, in one of the earliest and most pivotal moments of climate awareness in U.S. history.
Impact: This was the first major government acknowledgment of global warming as a present, measurable reality — not just a future threat. It helped push climate change into public discourse.
