We immediately headed off into the interior to check out the nature and beauty away from people.
Kew Gardens – the wondrous patterns of plants.
Poetry – Waking Up
Waking Up
I woke today to a blue sky
And bright sunshine.
Pink and white blossom
Gaily gleamed on the trees.
Bright green buds,
Responding to the warmth,
Opened,
Spilling forth their nascent green
To dress the bush and tree
In fresh verdant uniform.
All so bright and cheerful,
So new and fresh.
Today it felt as if the world had woken up.
Opher – 12.5.2019
I love the reawakening of nature. The birds are singing, nesting and the world feels fresh.
It is as if we have a new start.
I wish we could wipe the slate clean and really begin again. What a great world we could make.
The Eden Project – Fabulous paintings
Poetry – Oblivious
Oblivious
Oblivious to what is going on.
Uncaring towards the victims.
Callous towards the cruelty.
Living apart from the action;
Caught in their own bubble.
At best indifferent.
But also, complacent.
Certain that it will all come good.
Nature is resilient.
Except nature is nowhere near as resilient as they would have us believe.
The proof is in front of our eyes.
Opher 5.5.2019
I am haunted by conversations with three individuals on an American site, who are not only incredibly in denial as to any environmental damage going on but really do not care even if it was. As far as they are concerned the immense harm being done to biodiversity, the reduction in animal populations and global warming are political lies produced to make them pay more. All evidence put forward is seen as political scaremongering. They believe nature is some infinite, resilient pool of life that we can used, abused and destroyed without any real impact.
I am haunted by my trip to South America. Out in the wilderness of Patagonia, Brazil and Tierra Del Fuego we were expecting to see plenty of wildlife. The first wooden whalers had encountered a land of plenty. They had harvested turtles, sea lions, seal, penguins and all manner of birds. They had visited the breeding grounds, slaughtered for fun, loaded up ships with hundreds of tons of fresh meat, boiled eggs and carcasses for oil.
In their wake are the vestiges, clinging on. What once was plentiful is now scarce. We had to search for signs of life among an emptiness that shouted at us.
Poetry – Once
Once
Once the land lived.
It hummed
With a trilling of wings.
A rustle of green leaves
And the thud of many hooves.
Now it is only the wind
That hums
And rustles brown leaves
And the only thud
Is that of tree trunks.
Opher 1.5.2019
I truly despair at the massive destruction we are causing all over the world as we casually cut down the rainforests for profit.
Places so full of life are reduced to deserts.
Taiwan – the fabulous Taroko Gorge
Poetry – How many trees?
How many trees?
How many trees does it take
To make a human being?
How many fields to fill our stomachs
So we can go on breathing?
How many creatures lie
Under our tarmac roads?
How many deaths will it take
Before the planet implodes?
Yes – how many trees does it take?
Opher 26.4.2019
There are currently approaching 8 billion of us on this planet and each one of us is busy consuming – consuming land, water, air, finite mineral resources and killing plants and animals. Just by living.
The planet is not infinite. It is a finite web of life – tenuous and fragile.
We are a catastrophe.
Poetry – Hard Times are Coming
Hard Times are coming
From the waterworld to the droughts –
Hard times are coming.
From the Sahara ocean to the Artic desert,
Hard times are on their way.
Growing crops on mountain tops –
Hard times are coming.
From the arid Amazon to the flooded Gobi,
Hard times are on their way.
Fishing over Holland, trawling Bangladesh –
Hard times are coming.
Our cities under water our fields now sea,
Hard times are on their way.
Opher 24.4.2019
If we allow climate change to occur we will unleash forces that will devastate our civilisations and bring an end to everything we have.
In the past, when we were small in number and nomadic hunter gatherers, we simply moved to higher ground. Not so easily with eight million and the infrastructure and agriculture on low lying land. Not so easy with the need to feed eight billion.
Hard times are coming.
Poetry – Overpopulation is the Cause
Overpopulation is the cause
Overpopulation is the cause of the pain.
Eight billion mouths to feed.
Sixteen billion feet head off in search of food.
While the population breed.
They are chopping down the trees
Killing everything that moves.
Providing for their children and
Ignoring anyone who disapproves.
But there’s only so much wilderness
So many creatures to eat.
They are battling against nature
And inflicting a defeat.
Opher 24.4.2019
We can’t go on chopping down the forests and killing everything. There are limits.
With eight billion mouths needing feeding, huge numbers of fish to be dragged from the water, massive amounts of land cleared and used for agriculture, we are reaching the limit.
Our sheer numbers are destroying the world.