The biggest poaching incident ever. This beautiful intelligent animals slaughtered by poachers!
Global Citizen – A planet in Crisis.
My Book on the Environment – Please take a look!!
My book on the Environment – Anthropocene Apocalypse.
As a Biologist I have travelled the world and seen what is going on – the habitat destruction, the hunting, the pollution. This is the story.
If you are interested with the environment then this is the book for you.
In the UK:
In the USA:
Leaf and Scale – a poem about how precious life is.
Leaf and Scale
Leaf and scale
Eye and tail
Precious Precious
Protoplast
Chloroplast
Precious Precious
Bud and tree
Petal and bee
Precious Precious
Fin and feather
Fawn and heather
Special Special
Whale and ant
Fauna and plant
Special Special
Brain and brawn
Shrimp and prawn
Special Special
Limb and life
Husband and wife
Special Special
Awe and wonder
No kill or plunder
Precious Precious
Planet and sky
Sun on high
Precious Precious
Forest and air
Bluebell and bear
Special Special
Water and rock
Hen and cock
Special Special
Earth and worm
Virus and germ
Precious Precious
Warmth and light
Oxygen and sight
Precious Precious
Biosphere
Centromere
Precious Special Unique
Opher 25.6.2018
The whole of our biosphere is one amazing event and utterly unique. Every bit of it is special and precious.
If only we could stand back and see how miraculous it is and worship every last piece of this incredible jigsaw of life.
Instead we treat it with disdain and destroy it with derision, contempt and callous disregard.
The Alphabet of Life – a poem in celebration of life.
The Alphabet of Life
Each letter, each word,
Each sentence, paragraph and chapter
Is precious.
Any loss leaves a hole
In the telling of our tale.
We become as impoverished
As empty
As the blank pages
We create.
What profiteth a man
When he has gained
The whole sterile globe
But lost
More than he will ever know?
Opher 25.6.2018
The Alphabet of Life
I was thinking about the incredible DNA molecule that spells out the alphabet of life. Back in the beginning that first amazing molecule started the ball rolling. We have all descended from that. We are all related. Every single cell of life is wondrous, precious and miraculous.
Yet we are destroying life at an increasing rate, driving species after unique species into extinction. Yet every single species is precious.
We should certainly respect it more!!
Every Stroke Kills – a poem about destruction of life.
Every Stroke Kills
In the wake of every stroke
Lies the ruins of many lives.
In the wake of every gouge
Lies a community destroyed.
Letter by letter
The epic story is untold.
Letter by letter
The greatest story is unwritten
Until the blank pages
Tell a different tale
Of what once was and is no more.
25.6.2018
We do not value the incredible miracle of life on this planet. We may be unique in this most enormous universe. Every single form of life may be utterly unique – every single cell the most amazing miracle. The utter improbability of life means that we should cherish every single cell.
Yet we treat life with such disdain. Insects, animals and plants are destroyed without thought. Every tree houses a community. Every stream and wood provides a million homes.
We chop down the trees and gouge up the soil without thought to the communities we destroy.
We are unwriting the greatest story ever written. It is becoming less by the minute. I wish we would change and learn to cherish every bit of it.
The Big Green Ball – A poem about the world
The Big Green Ball
Big green ball
To kick around
It’s just a game
Too soon and gone
The wear and tear
Such a shame
Opher 25.6.2018
Big Green Ball
While I was driving around the country I had plenty of time to think. What we are doing to the planet, the loss of so many species, the ravaging of our rainforests, the overpopulation – it all drives me mad.
In the course of my lifetime the world has changed enormously. Nature has been devastated. What I used to take as granted is being eroded every single day.
Living creatures are being wiped out and their interests ignored. If there is money to be made they come in a poor second.
Many people are so cruel. Recently I read of reports of attacks on orangutans. On three different occasions orangutans have been found dying or severely injured riddled with air-gun pellets. One had 140 pellets, including 70 in its head. One died after being riddled with 107 pellets, another had 137 pellets and lost its sight. Which crawl maggots would do such things to such intelligent gentle creatures?
What are we doing to the world? We are kicking the life out of it.
Planet Earth – a poem that is an apology.
Planet Earth
It is the thirteenth of June 2018
On a warm summer’s day
That I have spent writing and reading.
It was a pleasant day.
Yet there were no swifts in the sky this afternoon.
I am sorry for that.
My garden is full of flowers and the grass is mown
But there is no room for nature.
I am sorry for that too.
What are we doing to you?
How can you bear it?
As we dig and chop,
Fence and rip,
Sterilise and sanitise.
Is this what you want?
That we should tame and reduce?
Tie you in knots?
And reduce your complexity
To our simplicity?
How long will you put up with it?
Mother Earth
Are you powerless?
Planet earth can you hear me?
I am talking to you.
You gave me so much
And I value it all.
But this is becoming less by the day.
How can you bear to see so much destroyed?
So many creatures killed?
So much cruelty and pain?
Planet Earth
Is it alright if we cause you to bleed like this?
Planet Earth
You’ve given me a full life
Laden with stars, sunsets and rainbows
Rocks, trees and seas,
Creatures of all kinds,
Plants and wonders
Always wonders –
How can I repay you?
You’ve been my home for 69 years –
An endless time of love and change.
All I can do
Is say thank you.
I am so sorry.
Opher 13.6.2018
I do not happen to believe in Gaia – that the planet is really alive and has consciousness. At least I don’t think so. That type of mysticism is attractive but fanciful.
But I did find it an interesting poetic idea to talk to her as if she was alive.
So what is there to be said?
It seemed to me that the most important thing was to apologize for the mess we are making.
Life is so obviously the jewel in the crown. Life, in all its forms, is a marvel. Yet do we hold it sacred? No we do not. We are destroying species after species, ravaging habitats with impunity and treating life with disdain.
There is an arrogance about mankind that insists that humans are the only worthwhile life upon the planet. That is risible. All life is important. We all started from that same one miracle cell. We’ve all evolved for the same length of time. We all fit together in this remarkable jigsaw puzzle of life. Yet that is the jigsaw puzzle that we are dismantling. We are throwing away piece after piece. Soon we will lose sight of the big picture.
We need to start appreciating it.
I’m sorry Planet Earth. We’re acting like spoilt brats.
It takes Billions – a poem about destruction overpopulation.
It Takes Billions
Billions – it takes billions.
5 Billion to evolve,
8 Billion to destroy,
How many Billion to put right?
Billions – it takes Billions.
First you have to wake right up.
First you have to realise.
First you have to value it.
First you want to try.
Billions – it takes billions.
5 Billion to evolve,
8 Billion to destroy,
How many Billion to put right?
Billions – it takes Billions.
If 8 Billion were to become 4
There wouldn’t be a problem
Any more.
Opher 13.4.2018
There are 8 billion of us sharing this lifeboat of a planet with all the myriad types of life. 8 billion of us taking up room, killing, flattening, cultivating, building, taming, simplifying, reducing and eradicating.
The effect is dramatic.
The teeming masses of which we are part, from which we came, from which we draw our sustenance are being reduced by the minute.
5 billion years of evolution, slow step by step, is being undone in mere decades.
But if 8 billion was trimmed to 4 then we could all have room to live in harmony and all of us would be winners. We would all have our lives enriched.
There’s no Space – a poem about the demise of nature.
There’s no space
Amid the debris and the trash,
Scummy water,
Oil and fumes,
There’s no space.
Amid the bare rock and sand,
Scavenged land,
Concrete blocks,
There’s no place.
Amid the dreams and schemes,
The planning office,
And the plans,
There’s no space.
Amid the smoke and acid rain,
Climate change,
Effluent and crime,
There’s no place.
Amid the gunfire and the fire,
Bulldozer tracks,
Chainsaw and mire,
There’s no space.
Among the houses and the roads,
Amidst the cities,
Fields and farms,
There’s no place.
Opher 13.4.2018
There’s no space for Nature to live and there is no space for us to grow. The wilderness is managed. The revitalizing spaces are going.
We have no space to be free in, no space to breathe and they have no space to live.
It all comes down to the lowest common denominators. We only have space for rats, seagulls, pigeons, crows and foxes – the ones that can live off our garbage.