Global Warming and a punch on the nose!

Posted on November 10, 2019November 10, 2019 by Opher

Global Warming and a punch on the nose!

The next time I bump into a global warming denier I am going to punch them very hard on the nose.

I have just completed mowing my lawn. It was luxuriant, damp and muddy. I had to do that because the grass had become so long.

Mowing grass in November is bad enough but I had to do it in December last year – in the North of England!!! That is absurd!! The only time I’ve ever done that before was when I was living in Los Angeles!

Perhaps the deniers will start to believe now? One too many ‘once in a hundred years’ events. Perhaps they have to be flooded, blown away or burnt out before they start to see the obvious!

The Paris Climate Talks – A few random thoughts.

Posted on November 7, 2019 by Opher

Firstly – well done to Prince Charles! Being an antimonarchist does not stop me from congratulating the man when he uses his power and position to do something good. I believe he does care. He wants to protect rainforest and natural habitat around the world.

Secondly – Is it possible for a bunch of capitalists, with all their vested interests, wish for perpetual growth, lust for power, and greed, to find a way forward? How bad does it have to be for the prospects of the planet before people like this see there is more money to be made out of preserving nature rather than destroying it?

Thirdly – are we in the process of preserving wild-life and jungle merely as a tourist attraction? Is the whole world a theme-park akin to Disneyland? Are the only reasons to preserve gorillas, elephants, rhinos and chimps so that rich westerners will spend money to see them? Surely they are more important than that?

Fourthly – are even the rabid industrialists beginning to realise that global warming will create more problems than they can cope with? Will the cost of warming the world prove too much? Will it be cheaper to stop it warming?

Fifthly – Are they planning to do something about the real cause of all the problems? The problems are being caused by the huge population increases. That is priority number one!

Sixthly – Issues such as deforestation, burning of jungles, pesticides, pollution, trade in wild animals, loss of natural habitat, cruel poaching of wild animals, whaling, and a hundred and one other pressing environmental issues cannot wait. They are too in need of attention to wait. It isn’t a question of money. It is a fact that we are destroying species at an unprecedented rate. We can’t afford to wait. They need protecting now!

50% of the world for humans! 50% for everything else!

The animals and plants deserve to live too!

Poetry – Cruelty our Ecstasy – an X-rated poem

Posted on October 9, 2019 by Opher

Poetry – Cruelty our Ecstasy – an X-rated poem (not for the weak hearted) about mankind’s inherent love for inflicting agony.

You might not want to read this one.

I wrote this in response to the callous, inhumane way that the sectarian killings were being carried out. There seemed no limit to the desire to inflict pain. If someone could be tortured longer and more cruelly then that was the aim. The electric drill was the favoured tool. The only limits were those imposed by our imagination.

Humanity has a propensity for enjoying the pain and agony of others. At our worst we are vicious, callous and indescribably evil.

Every war sees its range of torture, brutality, rape and despicable violence.

We create tribes and gang up on each other. We bully, use derogatory terms, racial slurs and put-downs to upset and destroy others. We can be so nasty that we cause self-harm, suicides and destroy individuals We create stereotypes of whole races and nations that end up in wars.

The inhumanity shown to animals is almost unbelievable. I watched a film where a crew were catching hundreds of sharks, slicing their fins off and flinging the living fish back over the side. It was not possible to imagine the agony those fish suffered.

Round the world there are cock-pits, bull-rings, bear-baiting, dog fights, and badger baiting. The crowds gather to excitedly jeer.

In China they are reputed to kill the dogs by boiling them alive in their dog festival.

I don’t know how the torturers of people and animals manage to sleep. I don’t know how they manage to reconcile what they do with any code of morality, inner conscience or religious views. Some of them are doing this in the name of religion. Somehow they believe that their god sanctions such barbarity.

It almost makes me believe in evil. Except this isn’t evil. It is part of human nature. We did not get to be the dominant species by being nice. We are the biggest, meanest motherfuckers on the planet.

I believe we have to recognise this tendency and prevail against it. At our best we are altruistic, pleasant, friendly, loving and kind. That is the side we need to nurture. That ‘Evil’ side needs containing and controlling. We need laws, counselling, education and assistance to be the best we can be.

I believe we can create a better, positive zeitgeist and learn to live without needing violence, division, bullying, cruelty and evil. We can put it behind us.

We can become civilised!

Cruelty Our Ecstasy

A drill through the leg, the liver and the head.

We love it!!

A ring for the bull, the badger and the fool.

We love it!!

Agony

Cruelty

Our ecstasy.

We love it!!

Red hot poker through the eye, crush your balls to hear you cry.

We love it!!

A shock deep in the cunt, a smack with something blunt.

We love it!!

Inject the acid, burn the brain, til we’ve driven you insane.

We love it!!

Agony

Cruelty

Our ecstasy.

We love it!!

Shoot, burn, stab and kick, do it slow and never quick.

We love it!!

Gang rape the little boy, treat his sister like a toy.

We love it!!

Hunt the tiger, stab the whale; saw the head off the little girl.

We love it!!

Tease with a word, a joke, – a lie, a leer, a sneering poke.

We love it!!

Bully for you, another wog another jew,

We love it!!

Another push, another kick, another threat, another pick.

We love it!!

Display the skin, the horn the head, shoot them all full of lead

We love it!!

Cruelty

Agony

Our Ecstasy

We loooove it!!!!!

Load the nails in the grenade; imagine the mess you will have made.

We love it!!

Pull off every one of the wings, cut off the legs and all the fins

We love it!!

Cruelty

Agony

Our Ecstasy

We loooove it!!!!!

We love it!!

Opher 23.5.07

Photography – The mud flats at Spur Head.

Posted on October 7, 2019 by Opher

I like taking photos. The mud flats, home to tens of thousands of birds, have a great beauty to them.

I loved these white chalky rocks

Ripples in the sand and seaweed coated rocks.

Cockle shells in heaps.

Don’t you just love it???

Spurn Head Nature Reserve – a haven.

Posted on October 4, 2019 by Opher

The Humber Estuary opens out at Spurn Head. Spurn is a spit of land that juts out into the North Sea.

It used to have a thriving town. It used to be an important military base. Now it is a great nature reserve.

Tens of thousands of birds come to feed on its rich estuarine mud with its invertebrate life.

The water’s edge is alive with many thousands of rare wading birds.

It is fabulous to see.

Photography – Other birds and creatures at Spurn Head Nature Reserve.

Posted on September 25, 2019 by Opher

Apart from the sea-birds and waders there are many other creatures to delight in.

Join the Revolution!!! I’m with the kids!!

Posted on September 20, 2019 by Opher

Today – right across the world – people are taking to the streets to protest!!

We should all be out there with them!

Today students are leaving their classrooms in tens of thousands to protest!!

We should give them our full support!!

Today the world is suffering from climate change, from species extinctions, from pollution and overpopulation!

Unless we stop the madness there is no future!!

Today Trump is ripping up the environmental protections and opening up the USA parks and sites of wonder for exploitation. He will ruin the beauty of the natural world and massacre wildlife for a quick buck.

Today Bolsanaro is repealing laws to protect the Amazon. The result is that the Amazon is burning and millions of creatures are being slaughtered.

Today in the UK we are building on greenbelt, filling in ditches and ponds, grubbing up hedges and chopping down trees.

Today the numbers of humans continues to grow, forests are cut down, seas overfished and animals hunted to extinction.

I want a future with elephants, rhinos, whales, gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans running free. I don’t want some plastic nightmare!

I’M WITH THE KIDS!!! THIS GREED HAS TO STOP!!!! Nature matters more than providing the wealthy with more loot!

We can put it right. We need to stop this mad rush for growth, to reduce our population, to stop chopping down trees, filling in ponds and polluting the world.

We can live with nature and not against it!

Poetry – Trees – a poem

Posted on September 13, 2019 by Opher

Poetry – Trees – a poem in my Anthropocene Apocalypse series about the senselessness of deforestation.

This short-sighted destruction of the world’s great jungles is the most wicked vandalism of all. To sell the future for a handful of gold is plain stupid.

Trees are our oldest living organisms. Some are three thousand, five hundred years old. There is no respect. Thousand year old trees are senselessly chopped for profit.

Pristine rain-forest, teeming with life, is being cleared to provide food, cosmetics and beverages for a burgeoning human population. Our numbers are destroying the world. Coffee, palm-oil and short-term slash and burn farming are destroying the world.

The trees provide fruit, habitats for most of our planet’s land-based life, soil consolidation, carbon recycling, oxygen production, medicines, shade and water recycling.

Without the trees the soil is rapidly eroded, fertility declines, the wild-life dies, the oxygen is not released, the carbon is not absorbed and all life is the less.

The short-term gain is soon spent. The long-term loss goes on for ever.

Who is to say that these incredible long-lived life-forms are not sentient? Perhaps they think and dream in their own languid manner? Perhaps they feel fear and pain? Who knows?

Trees

Green sap,

Green leaves,

Oxygen, soil, fruit and shade –

Fine rewards.

Slow grow,

Tall trees,

Serene giants, majestic calm

Strong and broad.

Chain saw,

Short sight,

Dead to lumber and away

Cash in hand.

Bare soil,

Stark stump,

Arid rock, no life and now

Desert sand.

No fruit,

No leaf,

No oxygen, water, muse

Or rich life.

All poor,

No breath,

No food, animal, music

Drum or fife.

Gentle

Life-form

Savagely ripped apart

Without a thought.

Seas of

Green now

Now parched joyless rock; all life

Sold and bought.

Opher 18.7.2015

Poetry – Elefantasy – a poem in my Anthropocene Apocalypse series about the terrible tragedy occurring to the majestic elephants.

Posted on September 10, 2019 by Opher

Poetry – Elefantasy – a poem in my Anthropocene Apocalypse series about the terrible tragedy occurring to the majestic elephants.

Elefantasy

Matriarchal tribe

Even with bull

In his prime.

Gestation lengthy

Baby suckles

Loved all the time.

For the love of a tooth

Ripped from a dying head

The family too is ripped

As father’s blood is shed.

Opher 4.7.2015

Only a decade ago I was out on safari in ecstasy as I watched the herd of elephants with calves stroll around us. The big bull stood in the centre of the track with ears spread wide, watching us intently. The driver had his hand on the gear and his foot on the pedal. I was enthralled as father twitched his tail and flapped his ears. He decided we meant no harm. The herd passed through following their old female leader and the Bull followed up the rear. I watched as they melted into the foliage and disappeared from sight.

I thought they were only disappearing from sight. They were disappearing from the planet. They are being slaughtered by the thousand and hunted to extinction.

The superstition of Chinese medicine and the love of ivory carving has created a market that is as obscene as it is stupid. Ivory is exactly the same stuff your teeth are made of. It has no magic power. But rhinos and elephants are being hunted and cruelly killed. Their tusks and horns are hacked out of their heads with machetes even while they still live. It is obscene.

Poetry – Elefantasy – a poem in my Anthropocene Apocalypse series about the terrible tragedy occurring to the majestic elephants.

Posted on July 9, 2015 by Opher

Elefantasy

Matriarchal tribe

Even with bull

In his prime.

Gestation lengthy

Baby suckles

Loved all the time.

For the love of a tooth

Ripped from a dying head

The family too is ripped

As father’s blood is shed.

Opher 4.7.2015

I thought they were only disappearing from sight. They were disappearing from the planet. They are being slaughtered by the thousand and hunted to extinction.

Puffins – a few of the Puffin pics I took on the Farne Islands.

Posted on September 10, 2019 by Opher

The Farne Islands, off the coast of Northumberland, were incredible!

Here’s a few Puffin shots I took.

they are incredibly cute creatures

conservation