Click The song title below to see the lyrics.
(spoken)”Ah, the equatorial region.”
CHORUS
It’s the green belt on this blue ball
where it’s always warm, warm, warm, warm.
It’s where most life has evolved
and ice so rarely forms.
Long ago, the land mass separated
into the continents we know today.
That’s when the Andes elevated,
and all the rivers flowed the same way.
CHORUS
That’s how the basin of the Amazon came to be.
For 40 million years, it’s been wet.
Through the ice ages, there were islands of trees.
Those islands haven’t been dry yet.
CHORUS
And now all around the islands of the tropics,
so many kinds of corals grow
into the mighty reefs where so many fish mix.
It's a many species multicolored show.
CHORUS
CHORUS
Bio-Bio-Biodiversity,
all life living in this community.
Bio-Bio-Biodiversity,
all around and inside you and me.
Bio-Bio-Biodiversity,
spaces, species, and the family tree.
Bio-Bio-Biodiversity,
so important to the world community.
I want, I want, I want
whales in the oceans.
I want rhinos living free.
I want old forests growing.
I want Biodiversity.
We need rain forest medicine.
We need coral in the sea.
We need flower pollination.
We need Biodiversity.
Right Now!
It’s a big world we discover,
when we go out every day.
All the life forms live together,
interacting many ways.
The bees need flowers. The flowers need bees.
That’s pollinating power! fruit around seeds.
CHORUS
It’s a forest we discover,
when we’re there among the trees.
All the beetles and the mushrooms
and the worms under the leaves.
In the oceans,
fish swim and feed
amongst the coral
habitat they need.
CHORUS
In shallow waters of warm seas,
corals live, each as big as a pea.
Secreting limestone, round bodies so soft,
attached to older corals, please don’t break off.
Inside their bodies they let algae live,
getting food for the protection they give.
Extended tentacles sting like harpoons,
eating passing plankton, by the light of the moon,
light of the moon, light of the moon.
What makes coral yellow, green, or red?
Without what would the coral be dead?
ZOO-XAN-THELLAE, ZOOXANTHELLAE.
Amongst the coral, so many things hide
lobsters, crabs, snails, fish and octopi.
They carefully search for their next meal
avoiding the sharks, barracudas, and eels.
Each creature must find food or die.
So they look around and their predators try
to catch them unaware, unprotected, exposed.
On the coral reef that’s how life and death go.
That’s how it goes. That’s how it goes.
What lives within coral in symbiosis?
What provides food in daily doses?
ZOO-XAN-THELLAE, ZOOXANTHELLAE.
Creatures go to the coral reef.
Creatures grow on the coral reef.
Creatures show coral’s alive.
Creatures go to the coral reef.
Creatures grow on the coral reef.
Creatures show coral’s alive.
Have you ever seen a leaf
disappear into the ground?
It was probably a worm
pulling that leaf down.
Because, when a worm needs
something to munch
it drags a leaf down
into it’s hole for lunch.
A dead leaf for lunch.
What am I talking about?
I’m talking about worms.
And when a worm
gets done eating a leaf,
like all animals
he poops for relief.
Now talking about worm poop might sound rude
but worm poop is
important plant food.
important plant food.
And when it rains,
the water runs down
into the worms hole.
If he stays there he’ll drown.
So the worms come out
on the sidewalks and streets
to breathe some air
and get squished by feet-yeeech!
Squished by feet.
Watch those feet.
Let the worm dig his hole
and keep the ground loose.
It makes it really easy
for all the plants roots
to get air and the food
that the worm makes.
Just don’t step on those worms
that’s all it takes.
Now, plants will grow in it; farmers make rows in it;
ants go high and low in it.
Minerals store in it; beetles will bore in it;
worms make more of it.
Put your fingers in it, and move them all around.
The pigs will wallow in it; worms will swallow in it;
snakes will follow in it.
Farmers till with it; termites build with it;
forests are filled with it.
Put your toes right in it, and move them all around.
Soil, topsoil, in it so many things thrive.
Soil, topsoil, if it’s healthy, aw, it’s alive.
Soil lives. Soil gives.
Soil is what life’s built on.
Big winds blows. Rainwater flows.
Erosion shows when the soil’s gone.
To build it back takes too long.
Well, Spring tails spring on it; little birds sing on it;
kids flop and fling on it. Healthy soil.
Moles make tunnels in it; spiders make funnels in it;
roots make bundles in it. Healthy soil.
Put your face right in it, move it all around.
(Don't stick your tounge out though)
Prairie dogs hop on it; marmots stop on it;
eagles drop on it. Healthy soil.
Roots have hair in it; people put care in it;
everybody shares in it. Healthy soil.
Put your bottom in it, and move it all around.
CHORUS
Well, everybody’s heard about the dinosaurs,
and everybody knows they’re not here anymore.
Something big happened,
and now they’re gone.
It was a massive extinction.
Once again it’s going on.
Yeah, people need homes, food, and clothes.
We use natural resources to get all of those.
But nature won’t last if
we keep doing what’s been done.
There’ll be nothing left for the children yet to come.
CHORUS
Woo,Woo,Woo,Woo, Emerge and See.
We’re losing our world’s biodiversity.
It’s up to you. It’s up to me
to change this crazy human activity.
Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo
For as long as we’ve been here,
there’ve been fish in the sea
migrating up the rivers seasonally.
With hooks, nets, and spears,
we’ve caught what we could.
Because smoked, grilled, or broiled,
fresh fish tastes good.
But there are dams in the rivers
and sewage too,
coming from pigs, chickens, cows,
me and you.
Huge boats with huge nets
catch all in their wake.
There are places in the ocean
where there’s nothing left to take.
CHORUS
Now, there are places where
good things happen every day.
Where people do the right things
when they work and play.
They protect the water, soil, and air,
so the forest and fish will always be there.
But there are too many places
where this is not true.
Watch what you buy
and watch what you do.
Conserve energy, and make sure that
whatever you buy doesn’t hurt habitats.
CHORUS
Big and white and wild and free
Polar bears in the Bering Sea
on the ice they carefully
wait for their next meal
watch the water for a seal
when the seal comes up for air
all it sees is snow
but not the bear there
in Africa a Rhino roams
the great Savannah is its home
big and strong but not alone
birds ride on his back
eating ticks for a snack
birds will peck and birds will bite
free the rhino from the parasites
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that one bigger than that one, species,
that one has longer hair, species
that one has spots that one has stripes
that one flies through the air, species
species species of animals,
species of plants
species that blossom,
species that dance
come on and dance
insects here, insects there
in the water land and air
absolutely everywhere
they will lay their eggs
moving round on their six legs
help the flowers make our food
eating dead stuff
getting caught and chewed
biggest mammals in the seas
biggest critters in history
the great blue whale just wants to be
right where the krill are
that’s the blue whale salad bar
krill are small but smaller still
are the plankton eaten by the krill
CHORUS