Life goes on
I was struck by the absence of life as I travelled around South America. Sailing days through seas devoid of life. There were no dolphins, whales or porpoises. There were a handful of seabirds. Days would go by without a single booby or frigate bird.
On land it was the insects that were missing. Apart from the flies at Cape Verde, everywhere else was quiet. I was used to the chirping of cicadas, crickets and grasshoppers, but thye Amazon forest seemed quiet. There was no profusion of life. Without insects there are not the animals that feed on insects, there are not the pollinated plants.
It felt as if I was witnessing the slow death of a planet. The buzzing meadows of my youth had turned silent. Now the rainforests were following suit. The seas were becoming wildernesses.
Everywhere we went there was poverty, people sleeping rough on the streets, in shacks and shanties, desperate for work, food or shelter. Teeming millions reaching out into the wilderness and consuming anything that moves, clearing and creating garbage filled wasteland out of pristine jungle.
Too many people; too few of the rest of life.
It did not need to be projected far into the future.
Life Goes On
The sea is all around
Without a single speck of life.
No dolphins frolic in these bow-waves.
The forests are silent
Without the buzz of insect
Rustle of creatures
Or chirp of bird.
All is garbage,
Rubbish and desolate wasteland
Baking in the heat.
Towns overflow with poverty and despair.
Life is sucked dry
By the sheer weight of numbers.
What teemed is now sterile.
What sang is now silent.
What lived is now barren.
What they call life goes on.
Opher 23.1.2016
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We have destroyed so much and continue to do so, until we wake up and STOP there will be nothing left that we recognise from our youth.
Too true. We have to really put a stop to all this slaughter and destruction. There are too many people and too much damage being done to the planet. It makes my blood boil.
So sad the next generation will miss so much.
They already are.
That is so sad, Opher. Is that the way it’s always been there, or is the life of nature truly dying off in that part of the world?
I think we are presently destroying it on all fronts, all over the world. Our numbers, encroachment, hunting, development, pollution, pesticides, deforestation, cruelty and stupidity.