Please Save The Rain Forest...For Us

You really must preserve the emerald forests whose rain and oxygen sustain us all

Even though, with our god’s blessing, we clearcut and settled all of our own several centuries ago

You owe it to humanity to leave this vast living system of jungle synergy intact

Though, ours is but a shattered, subdivided and dysfunctional shadow of its original self

Oh, pray, can’t you see the harm all these new roads, plantations and settlements bring

You can just ignore the mess that still expands in the aftermath of our own ordained progress

Oh! The forest tribes will lose the ancient homes where they have always lived in ecological harmony

Forget about how we butchered 30 million in a holocaust that we now celebrate as manifest destiny

Save the rain forest for generations yet unborn in the rest of the already-developed world

Ignore our swinish and brutal lifestyle but take heed of our pious pronouncements

Stop the illegal logging and slash and burn agriculture before it is too late and we must condemn you

Leave those places alone and unprofitable while we continue developing every acre of our own

Let your poor live crammed in unplanned favelas without hope but let the vast sub-continent sit idle

Then watch as we industriously bring progress to every square inch of our own sacred lands

Leave the monkeys and cats, the rivers, birds and the insects in their ancient web of life

Oh, and pay no attention to this vast wasteland from which we piously exhort you to conservation

Won’t you save the ancient rain forest for us all and for all our generations to come?

In any case, our caring firms will buy any and all precious hardwoods you might care to cut and sell

Don’t convert that miraculous living canopy into massive mono-cropped factory agriculture

But if you need help, why, our agribusiness conglomerates will be there to assist you

You must preserve this natural heritage and wellspring of diversity for our planet’s future

Do as we preach and ignore the greedy reality of the wanton destruction we wreak on our own lands

Remember that our god wills that you act as good stewards of his magnificent creations

Notwithstanding, he also bids us to take dominion over our land and rend great profit from his works

You should learn and live the mystical sustainability lessons that we never even tried to take to heart

Save the rain forest because our children like to see it in high-definition on our big screen TVs

You must act quickly because the earth’s special places simply must be preserved

We need your great forests to act as a filter for all the smog and CO₂ our sainted lifestyle creates

Save the rain forest and you can feel morally correct in helping to save all of mankind

We’ll send down some tourists, missionaries, along with corporate mining and agricultural interests

You must halt the spread of rampant development which is destroying the green canopy

Look at all the pretty exotic trees we have planted in our endless rows of suburbs

You must preserve this reservoir of medicines, foods and carbon at all costs

You need to do as we did not and act upon ideals to which we give only lip service

It is our duty as moral exceptionists to the world to lecture you on proper domestic policy

Save your precious rain forest so that we can feel better about continuing upon our merry way