Bitumen - a song

When I set out to write a song, it's rarely to portray unhappy situations.  But sometimes a song evolves to highlight something that's important to me, and that's what happened with this one.

The song Bitumen is about the Trans-Mountain pipeline expansion, and reflects some of my concerns about the project. Here's a link to the song on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/covivant/bitumen   

covivant · Bitumen

The lyrics are:

I can see how people can be threatened by change 
And I understand that money talks
But the world is changing faster than it ever did before
So maybe we should stop and think about tomorrow

The cost of carbon on this world is one we can’t repay
Climate impact on our lives more obvious each day
Some may argue it’s just “not in my backyard”
Maybe we should stop and think about the children

When demand has gone away
When the Chinese just won’t pay
It’ll be too late to say “we were wrong”
So join me loud and sing along… It’ll be too late…

I fear the fate of all the whales when toxic oil leaks on the sea
And birds will die a horrid fate when who’s to blame but you and me
To scar the land for an ugly pipe full of black bitumen 
A leak into the river will even kill the humans

When demand has gone away
When the Chinese just won’t pay
It’ll be too late to say “we were wrong”
So join me loud and sing along… It’ll be too late…

It’s a funny word 'dilbit', like the cartoon engineer
But the meaning isn’t funny, it should really strike fear
The risk of a spill is one we all should know,
a toxic condensate makes the oil flow
Technology to clean up a toxic leak of diluted bitumen doesn’t exist
Our water, our coastline… we have to resist… before it’s too late...

The double-hulled oil tanker Sanchi holds a lesson for BC
Collided with a freighter and went down in the South China Sea
32 crew onboard were killed; nature's impact barely made the news
Couldn’t stop the flames: that’s not the future we should choose

When demand has gone away
When the Chinese just won’t pay
It’ll be too late to say “we were wrong”
So join me loud and sing along… It’ll be too late…