This song is very deep- riding as it did on the wave of global environmental awareness. Rob Thomas's despondency stems from the current critical mass reached about global warming and how far humanity has come only to s*w up the only planet we come. Lines like ":cars are moving at an half an hour or so" only serves to reiterate how far we've come technologically but never really going anywhere. Lines like "I beleive the world is burning to the ground" and "it was cool, cool it was just all cool" emphasise the global warming meaning again. Its also a metaphor for a world awashed in terrorism, war and selfishness. But all in all its a song about hope- cuz really we've have come pretty far as a species.