Environmentalism of the 1960s

Friday, September 30, 2016

Kairos in Big Yellow Taxi

Joni Mitchell wrote "Big Yellow Taxi" in 1970 during the time people were starting to understand that we need to make a change in how we treat the environment. Mitchell wrote "Big Yellow Taxi" because she rode in a taxi to a hotel in Hawaii. When she looked out the window she was able to see the real beauty that our environment is, but when she looked down all she could see was a parking lot, a long seemingly never ending parking lot, "the paved paradise put up a parking lot." When she released this, this among other things were convincing people to look more closely at environmental issues.The song was a big success because people were paying special attention to environmental issues especially in the 1960's and 1970's. If Mitchell made the realization, that heart breaking moment when she looked out the window, decades earlier the song would not have made that much of an impact and would have most likely been lost in history. Mitchell made this realization along with a lot of other people and helped others make the realization when they listened to this song. Because of the perfect timing it was released the song made an impact in the future and was often covered and kept coming back in mainstream media.

1 comment:

UnknownOctober 1, 2016 at 12:30 PM
I agree with your analysis of Kairos. The majority of the 1900's were certainly not the "greenest" era of humankind. With rapid development due to the World Wars and the space race of the Cold War, the environment and sustainability was probably one of the last things that was on the mind of the superpowers of the 20th century. That's why it was ever so important that the public became educated on the topic and cause people to actually care about the environment. You could also say much of the same for today. There are still many people that believe that global warming is simply a natural trend and is unaffected by humans. However, this stance is simply incorrect and we really need to spread awareness of the damage that is being done today and tomorrow.
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Critical Introduction

Hello reader and welcome to our blog, “Environmentalism of the 1960s”! We are a group of freshman College Park Scholars at The University of Maryland, and all highly interested in the environment and the various movements to protect it. The Environmentalist Movement of the 1960s was one of the especially big motions in our history, and of the time and therefore many works were produced pushing the environmentalist agenda. Two of these works, which we discuss more thoroughly in our blog, are the book Silent Spring by Rachel Carson and the song “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell. These two works differ greatly on the basis of presentation, syntax, general message, and more, however both support the same general stance that human’s need to protect and stop inflicting such excessive harm on the environment. Our blog explores how the differences in these works enable each author to form concrete arguments backing the Environmentalist movement. In Joni Mitchell’s song “Big Yellow Taxi” and Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, the ideas of the environmentalist movement are pushed onto the audience using strong figurative language in the former and concrete facts in the latter.

In “Big Yellow Taxi” figurative language, specifically imagery, plays an important role in expressing Mitchell’s opinions on the environmentalist movement. Using pleas such as “hey farmer farmer put away that DDT now. Give me spots on my apples but leave me the birds and the bees please” Mitchell creates a visual imagery ‘ultimatum’ for her audience, showing what is being given up for relatively unimportant benefits. Silent Spring appeals to logos and utilizes research-based statistics to instill credibility into the argument presented. The work is flooded with facts which are intertwined with Carson’s opinions on those topics. The major arguments of both works is that a greater public concentration on conservation is needed, and that without this we will surely lose things that can never be replaced. They use stases of action making it clear that unless society changes its ways and evaluates its actions, this planet and all that was once good about it will be lost.

The Environmentalist movement is one that has gained steam throughout the years, yet still has been unable to find truly effective solutions. Finding these solutions has become more difficult as society has grown and industrialization has progressed. A major issue in the 1960s and 70s was the usage of a chemical pesticide, DDT, which is explained further in our blog and the two main works referenced in our blog. Although DDT use is now largely banned, other, debatably worse, problems have presented themselves. We move closer and closer to these issues causing irreversible damage, making it clear just how essential modern environmentalist thought is. For example, air pollution is the world’s number one preventable cause of death, lending credence to the idea that the Environmentalist movement has much further to go before finding true success. With help from activists such as Mitchell and Carson and their works, this movement is able to progress and continue spreading awareness to the importance of protecting the environment.

After reading our blog, you will have gained a better understanding of this movement as a whole, and two influential pieces that supported the movement. We do not have a perfectly ordered approach, as we felt that a more piecemeal approach allows the topic to blend more efficiently and organically, with less of didactic nature. We prove our major arguments by thoroughly examining all the stases and rhetorical appeals from several angles and applying them to both texts with great efficiency and care. We hope you will appreciate the consequences of carelessness in the environment and the true impact mankind has on this one environment we have been given. A feeling that mankind is to blame for many issues should not be a rare feeling, and yet this should also be coupled with hope that we have time to fix it. Have fun reading and learning how together we can all conserve this planet!