I like to refer to this song as an open letter to Dick Cheney.

ditto from below and below that! I've studied business at university and it sickened me to learn about how alot of environmentally responsible practises were being over-looked due to 'unpleasant' costings. Especially so with corporate business and shareholder companies, the money managers and executives play with is not at all their own, they essentially have nothing at stake in the business (apart from the fact some may have stock options or experience pleasant salaries...), but still charge forth, progressing to, no doubt, an impassable ediface which would see the environments critical limits breached irreperably. Would it actually hurt a business that much to at least take a little more care? haha oh yeah, any good business man or accountant will know that any 'excess' money (or ANY money at all) spent on Corporate Social Responsibility inititiatives to help reduce emissions, and aide in the protection of the environment can be chalked up in 'marketing expenses', 'operating expenses' or 'expenses' (i.e: tax deductions) AND would operate as good Public Relations (meaning a better consumer perception of the business = more business = more money) AND the company would gain a first mover innovation advantage from this! Is it safe to say everyone wins?
All I can say is one day I hope to do it myself, I'd prefer that people aren't choking to live.

Of course, the song is about how we need to change our ways because we're destroying the planet, but because they're Bad Religion they point to mindless faith and stupidity to be the root of this problem; they're probably right. Unreasonable religious types seem to think that anything that happens is "God's" will so it was meant to be. This kind of thinking is fucking dangerous because it totally aleviates the individual of any sense of self responsibility. There are allot of people who don't seem to realize that their existence actually does have a direct effect on everything it touches. It is as though the majority of humans walk around with a sense of entitlement to not give a shit about anything. Well, let me tell you this; that would be fine if one or two people were that way and the majority of the world was responsible, but the fact is that everyone is wreckless and wasteful, so the planet is fucked. It is true that there are millions of ways to die, and humans will be gone forever someday, but why not work for an extensive and happy existence? This life is terrible. Awful things happen every day that we can't control, but not giving a shit will not help matters. Okay, I'm done preaching; its time to practice.

I'd just like to add that "this mythologic hopeful monster" is George Bush. He's hoping that global warming is just a myth, even though there is plenty of reason to believe that it is not a myth at all. Ice caps are receding and polar bears are starting to turn up drowned. "There will be no polar ice by 2060. Somewhere along that path, the polar bear drops out." Thats what Larry Schweiger, president of the National Wildlife Federation had to say anyways. Thats why I dont understand why they still try to deny the effects of global warming. You can see it all over the world.

I believe this song was written by Brett, not Greg. It is by far the most disappointingly preachy Bad Religion song in the catalog. Greg: YOU ARE A SCIENTIST, you should know better! The Kyoto Protocol is very controversial, despite some groups attempt to make it look like "everyone agrees with it". Read up on it on wikipedia, you will quickly find that it is more political than scientific. I cringe every time I hear this song. I much prefer the politics disguised in metaphor, ie: Fertile Crescent.

I've always taken this song as a reference to the Kyoto reforms of old Japan, speaking of the revolution, not necesarrily what the revolution entailed, which I can't remember the system that was instated. I've just thought that it meant that we needed a reform now in our own time. But after reading these other translations, I figured they were more then likely correct, I just thought some of you might like to hear another possible translation, because the lyrics would work for it. I mean, it speaks of the problems, like wars based on "petrochemical plunder", and how "we're the hostages" of a capitalist war. Then it speaks about how we need revolution, and it even mentions a way to carry out the revolution, by actually going out and doing something about it, instead of just sitting around and saying that we need one.(Which is something I've found a lot of bands and songs lack, a description of how to change what it is that needs to be changed.)

Kyoto Now! is all about the Kyoto Accords, which president W. Bush didn't sign. The treaty basically says that industrialized countries will limit greenhouse gasses emitted by them. The Petrochemical Plunder and Disjointed Politics refer to why Bush didnt sign it (It is more costly to have cleaner emissions and his financial supporters (industries) didn't want to lose the money. It cant persist for long because we are polluting the air/earth. Like a double edged knife- we live our lives and we get to have nice things like cars but we have to pay the price (pollution, etc.). "The brutal sun rising on our sick horizon- our polluted earth. We cant do nothing and hope someone else will make it right": we have to do something to stop the destruction fo earth. The Mythological Monster maybe means hoping that everything will right itself.

The name Kyoto Now! may be a reference to the Kyoto legislation, but I think that the song's tenor doesn't stop there. Kyoto, as a city, is attempting to let man and nature live in harmony, and to be inter-woven between the two. A man is no better than the environment that he creates for himself. To quote from the [url=http://www.city.kyoto.jp]Kyoto City website[/url]: [i]"Any city is in need of some ideal. When the ideal is based upon an accurate evaluation of conditions in the world and upon a deep reflection on its proper traditions, and if the citizens endeavor to realize that ideal, then that city can be expected to play an important role in the historical development of the world. In this spirit we have decided to declare the city of Kyoto to be a culturally free city, open to exchange of the cultures of the world."[/i] The second to last line: "Alien, We need a fresh and new religion to run our lives" may in fact be a 2001 Space Odyssey reference. But here is another thought: the thought of a "fresh and new religion" is alien. We can't fathom changing our lives for the sake of our children or the future. We need a 'religion,' faith in each other and faith in the human race to heal the earth.

But I disagree on the meaning of the line "The balance is precarious as anyone can tell." I believe that this is referring to the United States' overwhelming influence in the decisions of the other countries involved. Just because the United States dropped out of the treaty the rest of the countries backed off and the treaty fell through. In reality, just because one country backed out then that should not have made a difference in the lasting power of the treaty. Therefore, the treaty, with each country representing ONE country has a precarious balance because somehow the United States seem to have more 'say' than all the other countries involved combined, which they shouldn't.

I agree with Amish Rake Fighter about the Kyoto Protocol given that they speak of how this problem is "Founded on petro-chemical plunder". They also speak of how "the balance is precarious as anyone can tell" meaning that the ozone layer could be tipped easily. Finally they say "this world is going to Hell" which I feel is a metaphor that work both in terms of our lack of willingness to make a difference and the effects of the heat without an ozone layer.

Well, as far as the Kyoto Treaty, I've heard that suggestion several times and I'm just not convinced that that's what it is. Kyotou is Japanese for the act of starting a political party; it fits in to the whole song perfectly. "The media parading disjointed politics, funded by petrochemical plunder and we're its hostages" is clearly a statement about the way our government works. The media does it's best to make the general populace believe that everything is ok. Our economy really boomed during the industrial age, when petrochemicals become useful for manufacturing and transportation. "If you stand to reason... this world's going to hell" is more or less a statement that if you think about it hard enough, you can easily see that the majority of our political problems lie in the fact that we have only two national parties that are taken seriously: Democrats and Republicans. How can 270 million people be governed by only 2 groups? It makes absolutely no sense. You can't define that many people with only two groups. Not on any level, let alone on the political level. Kyoto now! Start a new party. We need more options, people. We can't let 'this mythologic hopeful monster' (the idea that democracy, as it is, is the best form of government) continue to rule our lives. And we can bitch and moan about it all we want, but "we can't do nothing and think someone else will make it right". We, the people, have all the power needed to make the changes that must be made, but few of us either realize it, or care to bother with it. We're totally fine sitting back and letting the world go to hell. "You might not think it matters now..." is a way of saying that if we keep putting it off we're only going to make it worse later down the road. If they had made 4, 5, even as many as 10 different parties in the beginning we'd still have the majority of them. But having so few, so soon, and for so long has just naturally carved it into our heads that we couldn't survive any other way. But, "In your dreams..." you will always think what could be done to make a difference, but never do it. Kyoto now! We have to make some drastic changes.

This song is about Kyoto Now! a movement that wishes to stop global warming: [url]http://www.kyotonow.org[/url] The song line by line: "It's a matter of prescience / but not the science fiction kind/ It's all about ignorance, and greed, and miracles for the blind": prescience is a sort of foresight and this basically says we know what will happen if we continue to do this to the Earth. "The media parading, disjointed politics / Founded on petro-chemical plunder and we're its hostages": chemicals are killing the planet and holding us hostage. "If you stand to reason you're in the game / The rules might me elusive but our pieces are the same / And you know if one goes down we all do down as well / The balance is precarious as anyone can tell / This world's going to hell": legislation might not be a universal language, but our problems are. If we don't fix it, we're screwed "Don't allow this mythological hopeful monster to exact its price / Kyoto now! We can't do nothing and think someone else will make it right": it's up to us to fix it, we can't have some naive hope that some phenomenon will save us; take responsibility. "You might think it matters now but what if you are wrong / You might not think there's any wisdom in a fucked up punk rock song": BR's way of saying that though this is "just a punk song" it has a viable message. "But the way it is cannot persist for long / A brutal sun is rising on our sick horizon": reference to the sun's damage on our dying planet. "It's in the way we live our lives / Exactly like the double edge of a cold familiar knife / And supremacy weighs heavy on the day / It's never really what you own but what you threw away / And how much did you pay?": the way we live contributes to the problem. Our possessions aren't the problem, our waste is. "In your dreams you saw a steady bounty for eternity / Silent screams but now the wisdom that sustains us is in full retreat": the pleas of activists are falling on deaf ears, we are ignoring science for faith. "Don't allow this mythological hopeful monster isn't worth the risk / Kyoto now! We can't have vision for the future if it can't be fixed": we can't look past the present because it voids the future. "Alien / We need a fresh and new religion to run our lives": I'm not sure, perhaps almost a 2001 Space Odyssey reference of a new species evicting us in order to save the world. "Hand in hand / The arid torpor of inaction will be our demise": If we don't do anything, it's over.

This song is about George W. Bush refusing the sign the Kyoto treaty to reduce greenhouse gases for more developed countries. How can we look to the future if we do not have a future that is worth living in. We need to work together with other countries to protect the environment. 'If one goes down we are go down as well.'

This is a song in favor of the Kyoto Protocol: an agreement between developed nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Under former oil baron King George II, the United States pulled out the treaty back in March of 2001.