The song begins with clear lines that reaffirm that humans are custodians of the planet earth.  ‘We don’t own this place, though we act as if we did, it’s a loan from the children of our children’s kids, the actual owners haven’t even been born yet.’ The song, therefore, calls for all to be careful of how they treat mother earth, mainly because if we destroy it, the generations to come will not find anything useful in it.  Nature will punish us, and we shall not find a place to hide. If we choke the sea with plastics, sea animals will die. If we cut trees, the earth will be left bare, and water sources will dry up. We dump trash in the backyard which is then washed down the sea.

Crucial resources such as oil reserves are quickly running out as men sell to make themselves rich. As the rich continue to exploit the natural resources to satisfy their greed, the earth will be soon be depleted of its nourishing power, and all that will be left are the poor, nursing their hungry and crying babies.  The song continues to talk of the depletion of the ozone layer. ‘…there is a hole in the sky where the light pours in…’ This is brought about by global warming which exposes the skin to dangerous sun rays which cause skin cancers. As the vegetation becomes lesser, the sun scorches the earth and makes it desolate, and hunger finds people in their dwelling places.

References

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOx4Ru5o36U

We Can Run But We Can’t Hide – Live on 10/9/89 in Hampton, VA