The Most Unexpected of Mashups? Glee + Oil Spill Footage

On Wednesday, one day after President Obama's Oval Office address left the nation feeling a little underwhelmed about our plan for the BP oil spill, the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund offered a shot of optimism in the form of this YouTube video, which you should really stop everything to watch right now.*

Video courtesy of the Environmental Defense Fund.

EDF executive director David Yarnold says he was inspired to make the video when his 13-year-old daughter Nicole started playing music from the season finale of Glee while he showed his family photos from his recent trip to the Gulf. From his blog post:

With all these horrific images on the screen, [Nicole] had turned on the show’s final song of the year, “Somewhere Over The Rainbow.” The song, a slow, sweet, ukulele and guitar-driven version, couldn’t have added a deeper sense of tragic irony.

I choked up. And then that resolve kicked in: I wanted anyone/everyone to see what our addiction to oil had done to the Gulf and to contrast that with the sense of hope and possibility that “Somewhere” exudes.

Tragic irony is right. The song choice is just this side of schmaltz, especially as sung by Glee's defender-of-misfits, imparter-of-life-lessons, and quintessential bleeding heart Will Schuester, who spends the season finale getting so frequently misty-eyed, you wonder if actor Matthew Morrison is perhaps just plagued by particularly irritating contact lenses. (His nemesis, Sue Sylvester, calls him out for "tearing up more than Michael Landen in a sweeps week episode of Little House on the Prairie." Thank you.)

I admit, on first viewing, I thought the video was smart activism, because tons of people who might not otherwise identify as green (many Fox TV viewers, musical theater loving tweens, etc) will watch it. But I also wondered if the whole thing wasn't just a wee bit manipulative — tugging at our heart strings in "For God's sake, won't somebody please think of the cute animals?!" way, that offers a whopping dose of green guilt without any concrete solutions.

The problem being, of course, that there aren't any easy solutions. Which is why we're all feeling frustrated and hopeless, and starting to reach that saturation point where eyes begin to glaze over the endless CNN footage of oil-covered birds and talking heads debating the finer points of Obama's speech. This is when we become jaded and think, there's nothing I can do, anyway, so why try? Which is why this is exactly the moment when we need to be galvanized. We need our heart strings tugged, if only to keep our heads in the game. Over on Alternet, Devona Walker asks, "Could the BP Oil Spill be the Rosa Parks for Real Environmental Change?" and argues that we're reaching critical mass, "a pivotal moment in history where fundamental change is, not only possible, but necessary for our survival."

If we're going to ignite a movement for real environmental change, Walker says, we need to feel angry and disgusted with the status quo. Check. And maybe, at the same time, we also need to listen to more songs about rainbows, to help keep our (sappy, sure, but also essential) sense of hope and possibility alive.

Go here to share the video with your community. And while you're at it, go here to join EDF's email campaign and tell your Senators why now is the time to choose a clean energy future.

*Full Disclosure: I first learned of this video via my husband, who works for EDF. Infer from that what you will about my pro-rainbows position.

Read more of our coverage on the Oil Spill in the Gulf.
The Week in Pictures: Pac-Man Ship Eats Oil Spills, World Cup Carbon Footprint, Pedal-powered Porsche, and More (Slideshow)
Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill: The What, When and Where [UPDATED] ... and How You Can Help
BP CEO's Infuriating Congressional Testimony in 4 Minutes (Video)