Poetry – Consequences

Posted on by Opher

Consequences

Skeleton tree, acid lakes,

                Small changes,

                                Complex systems,

                                                Drastic effects.

Lungs of the earth,

                Trees and plankton,

                                All else

                                                Is dependant.

Fossil ice to raging torrents,

                Bare soil to naked rock,

                                Abundant life to barren dessert,

                                                It’s for real.

Flooded cities, drying land,

                Burning houses, plumes of smoke

                                Walls of fire.

                                                It’s real.

People stricken

                Animals stricken

                                Forests stricken

                                                Climate change.

Opher -22.4.2021

The ecosystem has taken billions of years to settle into this spectacular balance.

That balance is one of life, climate and weather woven into a stable rhythm.

That rhythm is being unsettled by our actions.

As we trawl the seas, cut down the forests and pour our waste into the air, the water and on to the land, we disturb that balance.

Change comes.

The delicate system is disturbed.

It is that system that gives us life.

There are consequences.

Poetry – There’s room enough

Posted on by Opher

There’s room enough

There’s room enough

On this Ark,

As long as the landlord

Does not clog up the place

With progeny.

There’s room enough

For all of life,

Unless the tenant

Fills the rooms

With loot.

There’s room enough

For all to breathe

And blossom,

Unless the director

Feels there’s

Profit to be made.

Opher 14.4.2016

There’s room enough

There should be room enough for every type of life to live. There should be more than enough space for all of life’s profusion.

The planet is not huge but it is large enough. It used to be sufficient.

It no longer fits the bill.

It is a rock flying through space. It is alone and self-contained. It has sun, water and atmosphere. There is warmth and light enough for life.

This is our Ark.

We are all on the same boat. There is enough to go around.

Except that one species wants it all.

Poetry – Disaster

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Disaster

The virus to spreading

                Out of control.

There is no antidote,

No vaccine.

It kills everything in its path.

Never has such

                A virulent strain

Mutated into existence;

                So lethal,

                So deadly,

So destructive to everything.

Never has a virus

                Threatened so many

Forcing extinctions

                Threatening

                To end

All life on the planet.

It is us.

It is us.

Opher – 13.11.2020

Life is tenuous and fragile.

It came into being just once.

It took billions of years to mutate into the wondrous myriad of forms we now have.

It has suffered 5 mass extinction events that threatened to wipe out all life on this planet. Usually as a result of an asteroid. A catastrophe.

We are the sixth.

Poetry – Living in harmony

Posted on by Opher

Living in harmony

One day a virus will come

And kill everyone.

We act like fools,

Obnoxious ghouls,

Invading paradise

Blowing it to kingdom come.

We’ve been treating animals wrong

For far too long.

Tearing down the trees,

Breeding like fleas

Becoming an ever-increasing throng.

Arrogant beyond all belief,

A strutting thief,

Rampaging around

Like drunken clowns.

Filling the world with grief.

We should treat nature with respect,

Not abuse and neglect.

Cherishing the beauty

From love not duty.

It’s time for us to reflect.

Opher – 11.11.2020

We are busy slaughtering our way around the planet, carelessly clearing habitat, butchering animals and treating the place like a rubbish dump.

We increase in numbers, chop down the forests, change the climate and kill everything in sight and have no sense of responsibility.

We’ve lost our connection. We no longer have the harmony. Nature has become an enemy to tame.

We are creating a plastic/concrete hell while mindlessly and systematically dismantling nature – the fantastic web that gives us life.

We must be mad.

Anthropocene Apocalypse – One planet – It is about time we looked after it. It’s got to last more than a lifetime.

Posted on by Opher

Anthropocene Apocalypse cover

We have a planet.

It is situated at exactly the right distance away from the sun for water to exist in all three states.

It has life.

The life is dependant on the atmosphere and oxygen.

The oxygen is produced by trees, plants and plankton in the sea.

The biodiversity has taken three billion years to build up and interrelated complexity necessary to sustain all life in a delicate balance.

Life is fragile. If we change the climate, temperature, biological balance, or atmosphere there are severe consequences.

We are now seven billion in number and increasing daily. We are reaching the number where our effect is global and catastrophic.

We are destroying the rainforests.

We are butchering the animals.

We are polluting the land, air and sea.

Oxygen is finite. Mineral resources are finite. Our rainforests are extremely finite.

To be wiped out by a major geological event, a comet, or a solar event would be tragic. To be wiped out because we are slitting our own throats is madness.

It is time we started caring for the rest of life on this planet, protecting the habitats and creatures that live in them, thinking about the long-term effects our numbers are having, and waking up to the fact that we are going to destroy ourselves.

We can live sustainably. It requires intelligence, planning and compassion. The first step is awareness of just what is going on.

Read my book Anthropocene Apocalypse and start the process. We may not have long!