The Big Yellow Taxi and the Environment
The song “Big Yellow Taxi” was first written by Joni Mitchell in the 1970s and was recently
recreated by the Counting Crows featuring Vanessa Carlton in 2002. The new song was not
popular and was hidden song on the counting crow’s new album Hard Candy. The song became
famous when the song was featured in the movie Two Weeks Notice which is also about the
environment. The song addresses the issues of the environment and how the population around
the world is destroying nature. The population is destroying the planet by tearing down the trees.
The song talks about the economy and the inflation of many products. The song also discusses
the problem of pollution. The issues of deforestation, inflation, and pollution are not only a
concern to the society but to the political figures as well. Many acts and laws have been passed
to make the country a better living place. The song however, is not pointing fingers to any
country in particular but to all the countries. The song “Big Yellow Taxi” sung by the band
Counting Crows featuring Vanessa Carlton illustrates the concerns of deforestation, inflation,
and pollution within today’s society; the government has adopted many of these issues into laws.
Deforestation
The song first addresses the issue of deforestation. The song’s main lyric is “you paved paradise
and put up a parking lot/with a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swingin' hot spot” (Crows &
Carlton, 2002). This is attacking business men who repeatedly tear down the trees to build
shopping centers and other major corporations. Tearing down the trees is not the only issue; to
build a new structure wood is needed. The world’s major timber supply is exported from the
trees in the forests. For instance, in developing countries tropical deforestation is becoming
recognized as a serious environmental problem (Gorte, 1987). An organization was set up
between many countries to promote international trade in tropical lumber. Greater deforestation
has resulted to the expansion of trade between counties, despite possible savings from improved
utilization (Gorte, 1987). This suggests that many nations are trading tropical timber yet,
deforestation is still being caused. The problem of deforestation is huge and needs to be
controlled, if that means one less mall, well the world will still live. Deforestation is causing
many more problems than the main concern of tearing down the trees. According to Foley
(2003) with the population increasing and the dependency of Earth’s limited natural resources
flourishing the natural resources are straining under the demand. The destruction of the Amazon
forest brings more pressing issues; the damage to the forest is hurting to the ecological systems.
The greatest threat of deforestation is causing biodiversity to the tropical forests, causes the
potential for changes to the climate system. The changes of water, energy, and momentum
fluctuations between land and atmosphere have been linked to the deforestation in tropical
regions (Foley, 2003).
Increase in Lumber Costs
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The issue of deforestation is not the only point in the song. The song also talks about the
increase in product costs, only suggesting wood in the song. The song adds the lyrics, “They
took all the trees, and put em in a tree museum/and they charged the people a dollar and a half to
see them” (Crows & Carlton, 2002). This lyric implies that the song is pursuing the topic of
inflation in products. Lumber prices have severely jumped in price by not just cents but dollars.
According to Weiker (2010) of The Columbus Dispatch, two-by-fours and framing lumber has
risen 42 percent since May 2006. The cost of plywood has also skyrocketed jumping 62 percent
since October of 2005 (Weiker, 2010). The economic market is already down and prices are
persistently increasing. This is causing an issue for many families, especially ones trying to
build new homes.
Pollution
Another issue brought up in the song is pollution. Pollution is one of the most crucial topics in
today’s society. The song says, “a big yellow taxi took my girl away” (Crows & Carlton, 2002).
The taxi has two meanings with the song. First, the image of the taxi within the song is
comparing losing a girl to losing the trees. The girl parallels the tree, the taxi is comparable to a
bulldozer; the girl is taken away by the taxi just as a tree is taken away by the bulldozer. The
person watching the girl being taken away by the taxi is like the environmentalist watching the
trees being bulldozed. The second meaning of the taxi is pollution. When thinking of taxi’s
New York City automatically enters the mind, over the city of New York City is a huge cloud of
smog and pollution. The taxi is simply a metaphor describing the bond between taxis and
pollution. Pollution takes place all over the world. However, one country’s pollution in turn,
affects the world. For example, The North Pacific and most of North America experiences
distributions of wind-blown dust from the deserts of Mongolia and China. Within the dust
samples found in North America and the North Pacific are lead concentrations. The lead
concentration is due to China’s industrialization. In the North Pacific waters the lead has
considerably increased since the 1980s (Ewing, Christensen, Brown, Vancuren, Cliff, & Depaolo
2010).
Pollution Causing Health Problems
Not only is air pollution bad to the environment but it is also causes health issues. Many city
residents are experience health problems due to pollution. It is not just the main cities in the
world either; smaller cities have been affected as well. For example, Corpus Christi, Texas has
issues of its’ own relating health and pollution. One of the major issues Corpus Christi deals
with is pollution. The town falls second on the pollution scale behind Houston, Texas; one of the
most polluted and over populated cities in the nation. In 2000, Nueces County in Corpus Christi
was ranked 6th in the Texas and 40th in the nation for toxic pollution linked to cancer (Metzger,
2003). In effect to the pollution Corpus Christi holds the highest percentages of babies born with
birth defects in Texas. “If a baby is born in Corpus he/she has a 17% more likely chance to have
a severe birth defect, and around twice as likely to have any birth defect at all” (Isla, 2002).
Corpus Christi also has the highest percentage of residents with asthma in the state, due to
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pollution from the power plants as well. The dirty air is causing many problems. Pollution
continues to concern residents in Corpus Christi, Texas. To add to the turmoil the city of Corpus
Christi is trying to pass a bill to bring in a Houston company to build a power plant. The
Houston Company is planning a $3 billion petroleum power plant. The coal-fired plant will also
produce 78 million new tons of carbon dioxide each year which will cause an 85 percent increase
in pollution (Chen & Rubin, 2008). The town made a green step forward by supplying its’
residents with free recycle bins, but the addition of this plant would be a significant step
backwards.
Two Weeks Notice
Songs are not the only heard voices, more evidence is seen in other types of media as well. The
song “Big Yellow Taxi” has a music video which also incorporates clips from the movie Two
Weeks Notice. The song and movie, Two Weeks Notice go hand in hand with one another.
Adding the clips from the movie to the music video makes the song more influential. The movie
is about a woman, environmental tree hugging activist, who ends up working for the man who
destroys the buildings she is trying to save. She influences him to do good with his money and
shows him how important the buildings are to not only her but, to the community as well. This is
like the song except instead of tearing down buildings the song talks about tearing down the
trees. The movie also gives a visual look to what the activists do. Activists do not just choose
something they want to save, either a tree or building. The tree hugging woman in the movie had
to do a lot of research to persuade the man she was working for, why the buildings were good to
the community. The woman used statistics and other research to prove her point to keep the
buildings standing. There are activists just like the character in the movie trying to save the
trees. Therefore, the relationship between the song and the movie is imperative.
Music Video
The music video describes a lot about the song and uses accurate visuals to describe the song. In
the music video, the artist is singing in many different places. He sings in the city, at an
amusement park, and on a beach with a boardwalk. Vanessa Carleton, who also features in the
song, sings while walking down a street with buildings on each side. The setting is important to
the song because the song is talking about cutting down the trees and building hotels and
skyscrapers. So the fact that they are in the city and by places where there once were trees is
relevant and meaningful. The music video and the song also compare losing the trees to love.
The music video helps show the metaphor of losing the trees to losing someone he/she loves.
The taxi in the video is taking away the person he/she is losing, the taxi is important to the song
because the taxi has two meanings. First the comparison of losing the trees and second
paralleling pollution. The music video is very insightful and helps visualize the song.
Society today is now becoming more aware of environmental problems through music, movies,
and other forms of art. The government is becoming more involved in our planet and doing their
best to keep it clean through new laws. The government has passed pollution laws, water laws,
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littering laws, and many more. The government is also supporting scientists to discover organic
alternatives to gasoline. Many people including environmentalists are creating a difference in
our world. The song makes many political statements about the environment. The band
Counting Crows takes a stance on the subjects of deforestation, inflammation, and pollution.
The band does an excellent job using imagery within the song creating visuals, such as the music
video, to help explain the topics.
References
Chen, C., Rubin, E.S. (2009) CO2 control technology effects on IGCC plant performance and
cost. Energy Policy, 37 (3), 915-925. Retrieved from http://0newfirstsearch.oclc.org.portal.tamucc.edu/WebZ/FSQUERY?format=BI:next=html/recor
ds.html:bad=html/records.html:numrecs=10:sessionid=fsapp6-35454-gkblw8xlw52nq2:entitypagenum=2:0:searchtype=basic
Ewing, S. A., Christensen, J. N., Brown, S. T., Vandcuren, R. A., Cliff, S. S., & Depaolo, D. J.
(2010). Ph Isotopes as an Indicator of the Asian Contribution to Particulate Air Pollution
in Urban California. Environmental Science & Technology, 44 (23), 8911-8916.
doi: 10.1021/es101450t
Gorte R.W. (1987). Tropical Deforestation: The International Tropical Timber Agreement.
Environment and Natural Resources. Retrieved from http://0-web.lexisnexis.com.portal.tamucc.edu/congcomp/document?_m=baf11f12f42ee72d4f8d52008b68
4add&_docnum=1&wchp=dGLbVlbzSkSA&_md5=9bd9477bd670ebe9b096afc39853478b
Ilsa. (2006)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364
x1623062
Metzger, L. (2003) Texas Ranked 1st Nationwide in Toxic Pollution Linked to Cancer and
Neurological Problems Toxic Pollution Shifts From Rustbelt to Sunbelt, Southerners
Face Health Impacts. Retrieved from http://www.environmenttexas.org/newsroom/
other-news/other-news/texas-ranked-1st-nationwide-in-toxic-pollution-linkedto-cancer-andneurological-problems
Mitchell, J. (1970). Big Yellow Taxi. (2002) Big Yellow Taxi. [Counting Crows and Vanessa
Carlton]. Big Yellow Taxi (2002)..
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Snyder, P. K. (2010). The Influence of Tropical Deforestation on the Northern Hemisphere
Climate by Atmospheric Teleconnections. Earth Interactions, 14 (4), 1-34. doi:
10.1175/2010EI280.1
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