By: Lorraine Heller of the Portland Raging Grannies
Tune: The Gospel Train’s A Comin’

I hear those coal cars comin’
They’re rumbling through our la-and
Spreading grit and toxins.
Coal exports we must ban!

Chorus:
Just say no to dirty coal dust
Just say no to mercury
Just say no to lead-poi-soning
Let’s keep our land pristine.

We know coal is-the dirtiest
Of the fos-sil fuels a-rou-nd.
It threatens our pre-cious pla-net.
Let’s keep coal in the ground.

Chorus

They claim coal’s cheap and cle-an,
Much bet-ter than—the re-est,
But we know it’s for mo-ney.
Big bucks foul our nest.

Chorus

I hear those coal cars rumblin’
Along the Colum-bia River.
We must stop this for- our children.
This nightmare makes us shiver! (Brrrrrr!)

Chorus

After the last chorus shout, “JUST SAY NO!

Tune: Hit the Road, Jack! by Ray Charles

CHORUS
Stop the frack, Jack, and
dontcha pollute no more, no more, no more, no more,
Stop the frack. Jack, and dontcha pollute no more!

We want clean water coming out of our wells
But you poison our water so bad it can kill
You’re turning this sacred place into a hell
So you better start packing and haul out your drills

[CHORUS]
You’re spewing out methane into the air
And speeding up climate change everywhere
You’re spewing benzine and silica dust.
Putting our infants and children at risk!

[CHORUS]

Mother Nature is angry; she’s got the shakes.
That’s why we’re having so many earthquakes
Time to stop the assault; so much is at stake
Gotta save our planet for our grandchildren’s sake!

Stop the frack. Jack, and
dontcha pollute no more (4x no more)
Stop the frack. Jack, and dontcha pollute more!
Dontcha pollute no more
Dontcha pollute no more

tune: Roll Out the Barrel

Roll out the log trucks! Even though people will yell.
Roll out the log trucks! There’s still a tree we can fell.
There’s no tomorrow—take what is easy and run.
When disaster strikes behind us, it’s okay, we’re gone!

Roll out the barrel! Sorry, it’s empty, we’ve found.
Roll out the barrel! Water is not to be found.
Forests are leveled, ruvers are muddy and slow.
Landslides, floods and NO more wildlife—people, too, will go!

They cut down the last pine tree, and they hauled it away to the mill.
Tit’s quite okay said Ralph Klein, cause those trees are all mine,
And a dead tree’s a reall good tree.

They cut down the old growth, then the soil washes into the creek.
It means that new trees won’t grow so the willlife must go,
And the LUNDscape will sure be bleak.

They cut down the old growth stands, then no tourists will come to our lands.
We’ll see the rivers choked up ‘til we can’t fill our cup,
So we must have a change in plans.

Victoria Grannies

We’ve got loverly garbage in Victoria.
Garbage of the very nicest kind.
So we dump it in the lake
Or leave it out to bake,
And hope that other people will not mind.

We’ve got stuff enough to stock a department store.
We’ve got diapers and mattresses galore.
And if another comp-
Any has stuff to dump,
We can fill a lake and shovel in some more.

We’ve got loverly sewage in Victoria.
Got so much we flush it out to sea.
Look at all those birds
Feeding off our turds.
And think how happy all the fish must be.

We’ve got waste enough to fertilize the sea.
When the tide goes out it goes out with our pee.
We don’t want you to think
There might be any stink.
Because Victorians produce it odour-free!

Tune: Bicycle Built for Two
Suggested intro: Announce the title.
Then: We’d like to tell you what it means for
the oil companies who offer so-called “clean gas”.

Fracking, fracking-
What’ll it do for you?
Lots of poisons
Fill the earth under you.
Let us do what we oughta
Or we can not drink the water!
Block the frack
Cause big oil’s back
With fracking that poisons you!

Gaggle Against GMOs
tune: Side by Side
 
Oh, we’re a gaggle of Grannies
Urging you off of your fannies,
We’re raising our voice,
We want a new choice
NO GMOs

With all the money they’re spending,
Splicing genes unending,
They’re wrecking our food
And spoiling our mood –
NO GMOs

With all of their gene splicing,
There is no way to know
What damage they are doing.
GMOS have got to go!

So, join this gaggle of Grannies!
Get up off of your fannies.
We’re telling you now
We’re angry and how,
NO GMOs

We really mean it! NO GMOs
We mean precisely! NO GMOs
We will say it very nicely! NO GMOs
Read our lips! (Mouth: NO GMOs)

• Tune: Jesus Loves Me
  Lyrics: Barbara Siefred/Vancouver Raging Grannies

Even tankers take a leak.
It may be happening as we speak.
Heavy crude sings and lasts and lasts.
They say, “There’s risk, but we can manage.”
There’s still oil from Exxon-Valdez damage.
Our coastal waters can be very rough.
Don’t they know the meaning of dangerous?

• Stop Enbridge Gateway
  Stop oil pipelines
  Stop oil tankers
  And keep our waters clean

Everybody lives downstream
We don’t want to see oil’s rainbow sheen
On coastal waters this plan must stop:
It’s clearly stupid to the last drop.
Even pipelines take a leak.
We know the havoc they can wreak.
Oil on water makes us tense – Pause

Close the Gateway on Enbridge: It’s Common Sense

• tune: Where Have All the Flowers Gone?
  Canadian Grannies

Where have all the forests gone?
We watched them passing.
Where have all the forests gone?
We ought to know.
Where have all the forests gone?
Gone to pulp mills every one.
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?

Where have all the songbirds gone?
Who saw them passing?
Where have all the thrushes gone?
Whose songs we know-ow.
Where have all the songbirds gone?
Seeking homes but finding none.
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?

Where have all the ow-wls gone?
Silently passing.
Where have all the great greys gone?
Soft-winged and slow.
Where have all the ow-wls gone?
To museums every one.
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?

Where has wilderness all gone?
To history passing.
Where has wilderness all gone?
Who let it go?
Where has wilderness all gone?
Where we’re going every one,
If we don’t ever learn.
If we won’t ever learn.

• tune: I’ve Been Working on the Railroad
  The Raging Grannies Songbook, 1993

We’ve been throwing all the garbage
In the city dump.
Don’t throw away your baby’s Pampers
‘Cause they’ll sit there in a lump.
The water’s getting real polluted,
And there’s not enough to drink.
If we sit here doing nothing,
Our world will really stink!

• Chorus:
  The Earth is so polluted
  The Earth is so polluted
  The Earth is so polluted it makes us sick!
  The Earth is so polluted
  The Earth is so polluted
  We better do something quick!

• tune: Men of Harlech
  Victoria Grannies

Here is something that we wish you’d
Take on as a vital issue.
It’s the case for toilet tissue—
The recycled kind.

It is absolutely fitting,
Whether standing up or sitting,
We decide to stop committing
Environmental crime.

Don’t go on ignoring
All that bleach and chlorine.
Shop for a recycled brand
And you will beel much better by ensuring

Purer air and purer water.
Be and environment supporter.
Let’s all do the things we oughta,
Even on the John.

• tune: Teddy Bears’ Picnic
  The Raging Grannies Songbook, 1993
  

If you go down in the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise.
If you go down in the woods today, you’ll never believe your eyes!
Cause every tree that ever was there is going away—it soon will be bare.
Oh where, oh where will the teddy bears have their picnic?

Weldwood’s taking the trees all down; the people said, “Please don’t!”
But they didn’t seem to care. Is there something we can still do?
It’s up to me and up to you, so we can save a place
For the bears to picnic.

• tune: Take Me Out to the Ballgame
  The Raging Grannies Songbook, 1993
  

Take me out to the clearcut! We’ll picnic on a few stumps.
I want you to know I’m a tree-farming nut
Who thinks like a chainsaw that’s stuck in a rut.
MacBloedel gets a Hip Hooray!
They make black picnic grounds pay.
So it’s one, makes you two, dear investors, thank you!
You have spruced up our day!

Take me out to the clearcut—the timber’s been tidied away.
It’s been sold down the stream in a businessman’s dream.
It’s swell to stand here in a landscape so clean!
So it’s off to lumbering elsewhere—I’ll lumber you and you me.
It’s the buzz of the mill that produces the thrill
Worth a million trees!

So take me out to the clearcut—who needs tall cedars, I say?
The air is depleted and so is the earth,
And that makes us realize what we are worth.
So let’s all get into the greenhouse—it’s warming to know we’re okay.
And if God wanted trees, she’d not make it so easy
To whack them away!

• tune: Roll Out the Barrel
  

Roll out the log trucks! Even though people will yell.
Roll out the log trucks! There’s still a tree we can fell.
There’s no tomorrow—take what is easy and run.
When disaster strikes behind us, it’s okay, we’re gone!

Roll out the barrel! Sorry, it’s empty, we’ve found.
Roll out the barrel! Water is not to be found.
Forests are leveled, ruvers are muddy and slow.
Landslides, floods and NO more wildlife—people, too, will go!

They cut down the last pine tree, and they hauled it away to the mill.
Tit’s quite okay said Ralph Klein, cause those trees are all mine,
And a dead tree’s a reall good tree.

They cut down the old growth, then the soil washes into the creek.
It means that new trees won’t grow so the willlife must go,
And the LUNDscape will sure be bleak.

They cut down the old growth stands, then no tourists will come to our lands.
We’ll see the rivers choked up ‘til we can’t fill our cup,
So we must have a change in plans.

We eat POP and drink POP
And breathe it each day,
Cause those cursed pollutants
Just won’t go away.

They’ve found it in orcas and birds
In breast milk and in the fish,
We fear that daily we get it
In the food that we put on our dish.

Most of our waters are polluted
Toxic sites are all around,
When will you take some action
To protect our Puget Sound?

We’re tired of waiting while you,
Do nothing and let toxics spew
It’s past time — Ban all releases,
End this poisonous stew.

Give us no more broken promises,
And lengthy prolonged delays,
Act now to protect us

• Do as a rap or make up a tune
  The Raging Grannies Songbook, 1993

Poly-chlorinated biphe-e-nols
Will fry your brain and rot your adre-e-enals,
Concentrating in our fatty tissue.
This is not a glamorous issue.
But maybe, if they bury it deeper in the ground,
By the time it kills somebody, we won’t be around.

Chloro-fluoro-carbon produ-u-uction.
Is causing ozone layer redu-u-uction.
When ultraviolet rays have seared us to the bone,
We won’t get much relief from using Coppertone!
Disposables pursue us no matter where we roam.
Who could contemplate a life without styro-foam?

We all want our comfort and convenience,
Which leaves us sitting squarely right on the fence.
These things are very difficult to believe.
It’s not the way that life’s portrayed on our TV!
Our kids might all get cancer and have defective genes,
But they will be the best-dress mutants you have ever seen.
Poly-chlorinated biphe-e-nols!
La-la-la-la, la-la-la-la-la-la-la

• tune: Someone’s in the Kitchen with Dinah
   The Raging Grannies Songbook, 1993

Now’s the time to raise our voices!
Now’s the time to stand up proud!
Now’s the time to make our choices!
Now’s the time to shout out loud!

We want a world of peaceful coexistence,
And Earth where all the creatures can survive,
Not just pieces here and in the distance—
A place where old growth forests stay alive!

• change tune: The More We Get Together

Sooo, the more we work together, together, together,
The more we work together, the happier we’ll be!
For your friends are my friends,
And my friends are your friends,
The more we work together, the happier we’ll be!

• tune: Coming ‘Round the Mountain
  B.C. Sunshine Coast Grannies

Oh, the forest’s our concern and so we’re here.
The forest’s our concern and so we’re here.
It was a lovely invitation
Asking our participation
‘Cause we do not want our forest cut and clear.

So if we can get together, all of us,
And find a plan that doesn’t cause a fuss,
We will fight for conservation
For the future generation—
That’s the one and only plan we will discuss!

• tune: Side by Side
  The Raging Grannies Songbook, 1993

Oh, we’re a gaggle of Grannies,
Urging you off of your fannies,
We’re raising our voice,
We want a new choice,
NO DIOXINS.

With the dioxins that they’re spewing
More cancers are accruing,
They’re doing us in,
It’s really a sin,
NO DIOXINS

To change this situation,
Dioxins must be banned,
Tell this administration,
They’ve got to take a stand.

So, join this gaggle of Grannies,
Get up off of your fannies,
We’re telling you now,
We’re angry and how,
NO DIOXINS
We really mean it, NO DIOXINS.
We mean precisely, NO DIOXINS
We will say it very nicely, NO DIOXINS
READ OUR LIPS: (mouth: NO DIOXINS)

• tune: Oh, What a Beautiful Morning
  Edmonton Grannies

Watch out for those blobs in the water.
Polluting in spite of the rules.
They’re not just a hazard to nature—
They’re threatening the family jewels.

When so many of us got breast cancer,
No one seemed in a rush with an answer.
But wouldn’t you know that they’re raring to go
Now that research has shown why the sperm count is low.

If your lover has trouble performing,
Remember we gave you a warning.
If you want to be fruitful and to multiply,
Fish him out of that lake and make sure he’s dry.

• tune: Take Me Out to the Ball Game
  The Raging Grannies Songbook, 1993

Take me out to the clear-cut,
We’ll picnic on a few stumps.
I want you to know I’m a tree-farming nut
Who thinks like a chainsaw that’s stuck in a rut.
Weyrhauser gets a Hip Hooray
They make paved picnic grounds pay.
So it’s one, makes you two,
Dear investors, thank you!
You have spruced up our day!

Take me out to the clear-cut
The timber’s been tidied away.
It’s been sold down the stream
In a businessman’s dream.
It’s swell to stand here
In a landscape so clean.
It’s off to lumbering elsewhere
I’ll lumber you and you me.
It’s the buzz of the mill (bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)
That produces the thrill (wriggle suggestively, here)
Worth a million trees!

• tune: Coming ‘Round the Mountain

Oh, the Earth is gonna throw up over us,
Oh, the Earth is gonna throw up over us!
We’re polluting all our water
And we know we hadn’t oughta.
Oh, the Earth is gonna throw up over us.

Oh, the Earth is getting sicker every day,
Oh, the Earth is getting sicker every day.
We’re polluting all our water
And we know we hadn’t oughta.
Oh, the Earth is getting sicker every day.

(The Raging Grannies Songbook, 1993)

• The Raging Grannies Songbook, 1993
  tune: Home on the Range

Oh, give me a home where the rivers don’t foam,
And the squirrels and chipmunks can play,
Where the lakes all have fish you can put on your dish,
And the skies are not smoggy and grey.

• Chorus:
  Home, home on the earth,
  Your beauty’s beginning to fade.
  We’ve got to act fast,
  Our luck it won’t last.
  Our home we just can’t throw away.

Those nuclear wastes are inclined to escape
When into the ground they are dumped.
We don’t want PCBs in the birds and the bees
And dioxin on our babies’ rumps.

• Chorus

Oh, give me a home safe inside the ozone.
There’s danger in those cosmic rays.
Oceans up to our neck from greenhouse effect—
Please don’t wash all this beauty away.

• Chorus

• by Lou Truskoff
• tune: Peace Train (Cat Stevens)

Now I’ve been thinking lately ’bout the dangers of the coal train
And the powerful forces that move you forward, can they be contained?
And I’ve been worried lately ’bout the dangers that you bring
Poisoning the air and water every precious living thing.

• chorus:
  So coal train of destruction comin’ down the track!
  Will we mobilize enough to turn you back?
  Yes, coal train deadly roller, got to stop the coal train!
  Woo-woo, stop that choo-choo, got to stop the coal train.

Now I’ve been thinking lately, what Bill McKibben said.
We’ve already gone way past 350, soon the planet may be dead.
So I’ve been worried lately about this situation
While our so-called leaders blather on about deficits and sequestration.

• chorus

• by Ruth Arent
  Tune: I’ve Been Working on the Railroad
  Note: tune of second verse is: first 2 lines and last 2 lines of first verse

We’ve been hearing ‘bout the coal cars
Every single day
We are shocked and we are raging
They must not have their way.
Filthy poisons, dirty profits
An environmental mess
China’s coughing up the money
And coal sharks could care less.

• CHORUS:  So-Everyone should go,
  Let the coal sharks know
  Stinking up the air is a NO! NO! NO!
  Everyone should go.
  Let the coal sharks know
  We mean it when we shout NO! No!

We are faced with green house gasses
Dioxides by the pound
We are talking ‘bout survival!
Listen up! It is PROFOUND!!!!

• CHORUS

• tune: I Love You a Bushel and a Peck
  Santa Cruz, CA, Raging Grannies

I kid you not, the planet’s getting hot
We might pretend it’s not, but the world is on the spot.
We’re really in the soup, and here’s the latest scoop—
We’ll soon be under water, ‘cause the planet’s getting hotter
It’s true….. Yes, it’s true……..
Whatever, ever shall we do?
Doodle-oodle-oodle, Doodle-oodle-oodle, Doodle-oodle-oodle-doo.

• It never snow; there’s no more icy floes
  The polar bears will weep
  Cause there’s no place left to sleep
  The penguin chicks are cheepin’
  While the waters quickly deepen;
  The Eskimos who shelter in their igloos simply swelter—
  They’re blue….. skiers too….
  The planet’s hot, we can’t pretend it’s not
  Whatever, ever shall we do?
  Doodle-oodle-oodle, etc….

Let’s build an ark in the Lincoln Park
We’ll build it in the dark, so we won’t attract a shark
We’ll furnish it with sails to withstand the mighty gales
We’ll sail it on the water, ‘cause the planet’s getting hotter.
We’ll float… In our boat….
The planet’s hot; we can’t pretend it’s not.
Whatever, ever can we do?
Doodle-oodle-oodle, etc

• Do not despair, there’s still some time to spare
  We’ll save the ozone layer—We can do it if we dare!
  Let’s make a resolution to BANISH all pollution
  Make a set of rules to dispense with fossil fuels,
  Let’s do… Me and you …..
  The planet’s hot, we won’t pretend it’s not—
  Let’s go and raise a hullabaloo!
  Doodle-oodle-oodle, etc..

• tune: Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean

We’re glad you’ve decided to shut down
FFTF for once and for all
We’ve waited for years for this message
We wish it were done by the fall.

• But we’ll prefer 2007
  To complete this reactor’s demise
  And hope you will expedite cleanup
  Of the tanks and the soil on the site.

Empty those high level waste tanks,
Vitrify seventy-five percent,
Refuse to accept any mixed wastes
Just clean up our environment

• Clean up, clean up,
  Cleanup is job number one.
  Clean up, clean up,
  That is what must be done.

• tune: She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain

Oh, we’re radical environmentalists.
We’re radical environmentalists.
We like clean air and clean water,
And our beaches in good order.
We’re radical environmentalists.

Oh, we don’t like energy from fossil fuels,
And we know that frackin’ kills-We ain’t no fools!
And we’d rather see those windmill blades
Than nuclear plants in the Everglades!
We’re radical environmentalists!

We’ve seen drilling; we’ve seen fracking in our time,
But we’ll stand against that damned XL pipeline.
We don’t want their gas and oil
Mucking up our earth and soil,
‘Cause we’re radical environmentalists!

Yes, we’re radical environmentalists.
Mess with Mother Earth, it makes us pissed!
So get out and tell the others
That the Earth is still our mother…
Then you’ll all be true environmentalists!