"Dive In" by Dave Matthews Band

"DIVE IN"

I saw a man on the side of the road
with a sign that read 'will work for food'
Tried to look busy, 'til the light turned green

I saw a bear on TV and his friends were all drowning
cause their homes were turning to water

A strange, kinda sad, big old bear
surely would happily eat me
he'd tear me to pieces that bear

Wake up sleepy head
I think the suns a little brighter today
Smile and watch the icicles melt away and see the water rising...
Summers here to stay, and all those summer games will last forever
Go down to the shore, kick off your shoes, dive in the empty ocean.

Tell me everything will be OK if I just stay on my knees and keep praying
believing in something
Tell me everything is all taken care of by those qualified to take care of it all.

Wake up sleepy head
I think the suns a little brighter today
Smile and watch the icicles melt away and see the waters rising
Summers here to stay, and that sweet summer breeze will blow forever
Go down to the shore, kick off your shoes, dive in the empty ocean

One day, do you think we'll wake up in a world on it's way to getting better?
and if so can you tell me
how?

I have been thinking that lately the blood is increasing
the tourniquets not keeping hold in spite of our twisting
though we would like to believe we are
we are not in control
though we would love to believe

Wake up sleepy head
I think the suns a little brighter today
Smile and watch the icicles melt away and see the water rising...
Summers here to stay, and those sweet summer girls will dance forever
Go down to the shore, kick off your shoes, dive in the empty ocean

This song off of Dave's most recent album seems to be an interesting commentary on the global warming debate. Now my views on global warming are simple, so I'll get that out of the way now: regardless of whether rising temperatures are simply correlated to rising CO2 levels by chance or directly caused by the increase of carbon dioxide, America and other industrialized nations need to make changes in the way we power our infrastructure (a.k.a. ween ourselves off of fossil fuels). I know what you're thinking... I'm a radical. tree-hugging, unpatriotic socialist, but talk to me in forty years when society as we know it has crumbled when we run out fossil fuels. By then all the oil and drilling company execs will be dead and gone, after living a happy and wealthy life spent completely ignoring the well-being future generations and reaping the benefits of delaying our movement to alternative energy. (Just in case anyone actually reads this, I'm not a bitter person, but this topic is among a few that get my blood boiling) But I digress, this song captures the feelings of people from many points of view on global warming. I think the first stanza is trying to capture how the average American kind of ignores the affects of capitalism (e.g. global warming, homeless people or others who get left in the dust). The second stanza is clearly talking about polar bears who's 'homes', or our ice caps, are melting due to warming trends. The forth stanza, or the chorus, is a satire on the entire global warming situation, saying 'hey, this global warming thing isn't so bad, lets go down to the beach and enjoy the nice weather, and have the ocean all to ourselves'. Obviously, the naivety of this statement is intended. The empty ocean implies the death of sea life due to decrease in salinity of ocean water as polar ice caps melt. The thought of such ignorance of the depth of the effects of the global warming problem would be funny, if it weren't true. The fifth stanza comes from the point of view of Americans and really anyone who believes that the government completely acts on the interest of our well-being and that of future generations. The line "those qualified to take care of it all" seems to beg the question, 'what makes them qualified?'. Their degrees from prestigious Universities? Their election to office? We would all be fools to think (no pun intended) that elected officials don't sometimes have their own interests and the interests of their cronies (in the oil industry) in mind, ahead of their people. What I'm getting at is that, if we keep depending on those 'qualified' people to take care of necessary changes, such as funding for research in sustainable energy, the change may never come. The seventh stanza seems to suggest the same thing, if we want a better world, we're not just going to wake up to it one day, we need to individually make an effort to change things, whether energy related or otherwise. The eighth stanza states more of the same: although we would like to think that 'we the people' have some sort of control over the problems facing society, many of them may just be out of our control. Whether this is speaking our governments ultimate control over what happens, or our human inability to control cycles like global warming or economic recessions, I don't know. But I do know that this song gives a great perspective on the debate of global warming, and it speaks to Americans today in a way that is very relevant. To continue to live our 'American Dream' in this fashion of consumerism, without lifting our heads from our asses to see the negative effects, would be a mistake. This mistake may not manifest itself for a few more decades, but when it does, it will most certainly mark the end of the American Dream.