Take a long hard look at this map, especially the upper right-hand corner, and then tell me why Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro deserves a dressing-down from leaders of some of the world’s most powerful countries, while Russian President Vladimir Putin, guilty of the exact same indifference towards the forest wildfires raging over what, as the map suggests, is a much larger area in Siberia and the Russian Far East, has been criticized only by Greenpeace Russia and rank-and-file Russians living in the line of the fires and the enormous smoke clouds generated by them.
What has Putin ever done to deserve this indulgence?
When you have puzzled that one out, try and explain how four [ahn-TEE-fuh] musicians from Washington, DC, wrote the anthem for the summer of 2019 way back in 1989, that is, exactly thirty years ago, when many of today’s hottest climate changers were not even a gleam in their parents’ eyes.
Anytime but now
Anywhere but here
Anyone but me
I’ve got to think about my own life
Anytime but now
Anywhere but here
Anyone but me
I’ve got to think about my own life
We are consumed by society
We are obsessed with variety
We are all filled that anxiety
World would not survive
We gotta put it out, put it out, we gotta put it out
The sky is burning
We gotta put it out, we gotta put it out, put it out
The water’s burning
We gotta put it out, put it out, put it out
The earth is burning
Outrage
But then they say…
Anytime but now
Anywhere but here
Anyone but me
I’ve got to think about my own life
Anytime but now
Anywhere but here
Anyone but me
I’ve got to think about my own life
The world is not our facility
We have a responsibility
To use our abilities
To keep this place alive
We gotta put it out, put it out, put it out
The sky is burning
We gotta put it out, we gotta put it out, put it out
The water’s burning
We gotta put it out, put it out, we gotta put it out
The earth is burning
Right here
Right now
Do it
Do it
Now
Do it
Now
Do it
Now
Do it
Lyrics courtesy of Genius.com
The Russian Reader 