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

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elephant tusks 3elephants african

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.

Anthropocene Apocalypse – The Elephants.

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elephants african

When I first went to Africa twenty years ago there were big herds of elephants. The ban on ivory had been effective.

Their population has crashed from ten million to half a million. They are being poached to extinction.

The major reason for this is the movement of the Chinese into Africa. It has opened up markets for ivory.

If this is allowed to go unchecked they will be extinct in twenty years.

Friends who regularly go to Kenya report lone stragglers frequenting water-holes where a few years ago there were herds. What are the governments doing about it?

Tusks are modified teeth. Ivory is dentine. The value of it is only what price people put on it. It has no use or intrinsic worth. Once again we are butchering animals for spurious stupidity.

The traders, poachers and profiteers need locking up.

Elephants butchered elephant tusks2 elephant tusks 3 Elephant tusks

This can be halted if there is a will. There is a way to conserve nature. We can limit our numbers. We can protect animals, We can give 50% of the land to wild-life. We can prosecute traders and lock them up. We can prosecute poachers. It is not rocket science.

Nick Harper Brilliant!!! – at the wonderful Ropery in Barton 2014

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I’ve seen Nick tens of times in different venues all over the country but rarely as good as this!!

This is a new mature Nick, slightly more restrained, less chaotic and loud. A more thoughtful, humorous Nick.

Right from the start he set up a delightful relationship with the audience who warmed to his anecdotes, asides and humour.

Nick was in fine form, bending notes, doing impossible chords, mad tuning in songs, changing broken strings without pause all complete with a voice that soared into impossible heights. It was magical.

The new songs sounded great as well! And that album is out next week!

If you haven’t seen him recently – look out for him coming your way – it’s not one to miss!!

If you are unfamiliar check out his stuff on Amazon and purchase the great CD ‘Seed’ to begin with. You’ll end up with them all!

Check him out on You-Tube!

Anthropocene Apocalypse – Isaac Asimov’s vision of the Earth as a world of steel could be real.

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Back in the 1950s Isaac Asimov wrote some brilliant Sci-fi books.

In his dystopian vision overpopulation had created an Earth that was so overpopulated that there were no longer open spaces. All the natural world had been destroyed. The whole Earth was one huge city. People lived in caves of steel. A number of other Sci-fi writers have painted similar visions of the future.

It all seemed very far-fetched and futuristic. It does not seem that way now. We appear to be sleep-walking into this nightmare.

My book ‘The Anthropocene Apocalypse’ illustrates clearly the rapid speed of this approaching nightmare. There is a mammalian holocaust as a result of the rapidly expanding population of humans. This has to be addressed urgently.

Please read my book and help change things. The solutions are explained.

Anthropocen Apocalypse – Chilling confirmation!

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The chilling news that is emerging about the state of the planet’s environment is confirming the message in my book the Anthropocene Apocalypse. Scientific evidence now shows that over the past four decades:

  • There has been a global 45% reduction in invertebrates
  • There has been a global 56% reduction in mammals
  • Human beings and their pets and livestock now make up 95% of all mammalian life
  • That the destruction of forests is unsustainable
  • The destruction of wild mammals is unsustainable
  • That fishing is unsustainable
  • That pollution is global
  • That global warming as a result of human activity is undeniable
  • That human overpopulation is the cause
  • That the population of humans is out of control and catastrophic

My book is a Biologists personal observations of the devastation we are causing globally and what we need to urgently do to put it right.

Please read it and help stop this destruction from taking place.