"Big Yellow Taxi" by singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, was released in 1970 — the same year as the first Earth Day. The song helped inspire a generation — my generation — to become involved in the environmental movement.
"They paved paradise and put up a parking lot" was a protest about urban sprawl replacing trees. It was true then. And years later, it's even more relevant — in ways Mitchell probably didn't anticipate.
We have paved paradise. We have covered riparian wetlands — low-lying lands along streams and rivers — with impermeable pavement. We've removed the trees and shrubs that once bordered our waterways and replaced them with fertilized lawns that shed water instead of filtering it.
We've paved wetlands that once held water like sponges, storing rainfall and releasing it gradually over time. We've also added fill to wetlands that once absorbed pollutants and trapped debris before it could reach streams and lakes.
Wetlands have always been beneficial, but in an era of more frequent and intense storms, they've become even more valuable — and many have been lost beneath pavement.
“They paved paradise and put up a parking lot…Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.”
