This is a music video concept by [[Ben]] based on the ideas in [[Bringing life to our world#Crossing the gap]], using the song "Dawn" by Poets of the Fall. Its purpose would be to popularize the idea of a middle ground between two perspectives on environmental activism, "failure is not an option" and "it's too late, abandon all hope." The video depicts a civilization undone by environmental catastrophes, followed by the beginning of a new, more sustainable civilization that learns from the mistakes of its predecessors.
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| '''Lyrics'''
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| '''Visuals'''
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| Opening shot: Black smoke pouring out of smokestacks. Follow the smoke upward and zoom in until it fills the screen.
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| When darkness is no less
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| Fade to a dimly rudlit room with posters on the wall: a large factory, a skyscraper, a station with a futuristic train coming out of it.
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| Than everything you've built become undone
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| Pan across the posters to a woman looking out the window at a city in flames under a black sky, with a large street protest being barely held back by a wall of riot police.
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| There's no fight, and no flight
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| Follow the woman as she walks across the room, passing two more posters on the opposite wall: an aircraft carrier and a large rocket rising into orbit.
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| Disaster leaves your passion overrun
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| The woman sits down at a desk and slumps in despair. The desk is covered in blueprints, on top of which is a newspaper with headlines "FOOD RIOTS: Global Drought Worsens" and "RISING SEAS."
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| It's time to let go
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| A man puts his hand on the woman's shoulder and gently gets her to stand up.
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| Time to carry on with the show
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| They enter a hallway lit by a flashing fire alarm and start to hurry toward an exit stairway.
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| Don't mourn what is gone
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| They leave the building by a small side door and hurry away behind the backs of the riot police. Zoom in on an angry, tearful protester whose sign reads "R.I.P.: LIVABLE CLIMATE, 10 MILLION SPECIES, CIVILIZATION."
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| Be the dawn
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| Fade to white, then to sunrise over a bay.
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| And I will be standing by your side
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| Pull back to show the man and woman standing on a promontory overlooking the seaside city, which is still burning.
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| Together we'll face the turning tide
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| Fade to the same scene, but with the sea having risen to flood the streets and the fires having largely gone out, leaving burnt-out, skeletal buildings surrounded by water.
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| (Instrumental section)
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| Montage of environmental destruction: a forest fire, dead brown crops, floods, storms, etc.
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| Remembrance can be a sentence
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| Pan down from the ruined city on the horizon, past a broken-down combine harvester in a huge fallow field, to the man and woman, now older, working among others on a small organic farm plot as storm clouds mass overhead.
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| But it comes to you with a second chance in tow
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| The man and woman hurrying into a small room with torrential rain beating against the windows, drenched and looking beaten-down.
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| Don't lose it, don't refuse it
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| The woman sits at a desk and opens a book to diagrams labeled "Internal Combustion Engine" and "Coal-Fired Power Plant."
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| For you cannot learn a thing you think you know
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| The woman closes the book and pushes it aside. Its cover reads "Blueprints for Civilization."
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| A new light is warm
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| A sunbeam appears, shining through a grimy window behind the woman.
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| Shining down on you after the storm
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| Sunlight illuminates the desk. The woman gets out a sketchpad and starts drawing.
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| Don't mourn what is gone
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| The man looks over her shoulder and they both smile.
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| Be the dawn
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| Fade to white, then to sunrise over the bay.
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| And I will be standing by your side
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| Pull back to show the man and woman standing on a promontory overlooking the ruined, flooded city.
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| Together we'll face the turning tide
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| They turn to join a large group of people headed down the hill toward the city, carrying building materials.
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| (Instrumental section)
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| Montage of the city being reclaimed and rebuilt using sustainable technologies: wind turbines, solar panels, green roofs, electric boats, etc.
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| Possible final shot: Pan up from the city to follow a space-elevator climber rising up a cable into the brightening sky.
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