It was barely a week after my post about why I love Mashrou’ Leila and the profound impact I feel they’re having on Lebanon and the region with the causes they champion and their unique way of delivering those messages.

During that time, the boys had sailed off for four days on Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior, to write and perform the song whose video I embedded at the top of this post.

For those of you who don’t know, I was a Greenpeace activist for many years in Beirut. Deep down, despite my preoccupation with mainly civil and social issues, I am a conservationist at heart, one that tries not to let the mounting environmental dangers and us getting closer to (or passing!) the point of no return bring me down. When it comes to keeping our planet habitable, I think it’s far more important we do that before or at least while embarking on colonizing other planets, which seems to be the talk of the town the past year.

So, I was ecstatic when I heard about this project, and couldn’t wait to hear what the band and the Greenpeace activists come up with. The song aims to highlight the importance and potential of solar power, and they did not disappoint!

The saddest part for me about this track, is how the witty word choice in the song kind of gets lost in translation, such as “Illi sar, mish maseer” which is an awesome way of saying it’s not too late, and what’s past isn’t necessarily our destiny.

Otherwise, I loved the video and the song and I’m so glad the boys took a few days off their hectic touring schedule to do this. We often get so caught up with our daily struggles and problems, that we forget how close we are coming to making this beautiful blue rock almost uninhabitable for us and other animals and plants that call it home. No cause is more important that the environmental one, because at the end of the day, it’s not just about an election or a law on a paper, it’s about the survival of our species and the planet we pass down to our kids and their kids.

To wrap things up and end on a more positive note in the usually gloom and doom world of environmental policy, this year, renewable energy sources have finally overtaken coal as a source of energy. There might be hope for us yet! And what better soundtrack to that struggle for survival than a good old Mashrou’ Leila track?!

Don’t forget to sign up, support and volunteer with Greenpeace! ❤