They can all fit into Texas – a poem

Posted on by Opher

‘They can all fit into Texas,’

I heard someone stupidly say.

As if packing people in so tight

Would make it all OK.

 

They might all fit into Texas,

But that is not the case.

Each and every one of us

Requires a great deal of space.

 

We have to move around

Live in homes, eat and pee.

We have to warm our houses

And use up energy.

 

If we were all crammed in Texas

Eight billion of us filling it.

Texas would very soon

Be knee-deep in shit.

 

But we’re not all in Texas.

We’re spread around the planet.

Chopping, killing, living

And making a mess of it!

Opher 26.4.2019

The Train Crash – a poem

Posted on by Opher

The Train Crash

 

As the animal populations tumble

And the climate changes,

As the pollution racks up

And the mess piles up,

As the population soars

And the squalor goes berserk,

As the inequality mounts

And the wealthy do not care,

As the poverty increases

And the poor are left to starve,

As artificial intelligence

Takes all the jobs,

As mass migration

Causes mass dismay,

As racism and fear

Are pointing the way,

As populism shouts

And the fascists are on the march,

As the wars are raging

And terror stalks the streets,

As the trees are cut down

And creatures lose their homes,

As the beasts are hunted

For trophies on the wall,

As nowhere is safe

And there’s nowhere left to run,

We’re living on a dying planet

That is ruled by the gun.

 

Opher 27.2.2019

 

 

What I find most distressing are the people who are denying this is happening. There are still religious nutcases in America who are openly supporting populism, who think the world is not in dire straits, the population is not out of control and that nature can withstand this onslaught. These imbeciles are calling for larger families and are blind to the carnage around them.

Their answer to the mass migration and terrorism being created by this holocaust of nature is to arm themselves, build walls, bomb and shoot.

They don’t see that the cause is the greed of the excessively wealthy as they blithely rape and pillage in their lust as if there is no tomorrow. For huge numbers of creatures and people there isn’t. Their tomorrow is being consumed on a bonfire of greed.

Global Citizen – A planet in Crisis.

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https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/union-of-concerned-photographers-environment/?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=UK_07_Sep_2018_content_digest_alive

Overpopulation – my views.

Posted on by Opher

Overpopulation
 Probably the biggest of the lot – most other problems stem from it.
I have studied this in depths. There are cultural and religious obstacles to overcome.
What is required is:
a. Female education (a lot of 3rd World countries do not educate girls) – educated girls have less children.
b. Education in general – to educate men as well so that they understand and can progress.
c. Contraception availability
d. Medical nurses availability to explain and care.
e. A welfare system that provides when someone is ill, or in need – so one in not dependent on children.
f. A pension system that means that the old are not dependent on their children.
g. A campaign to explain to people (the current Indian one is proving quite effective – You me and two + family)
It is not by chance that the fertility rates in developed countries is much less.

Planet Earth – a poem that is an apology.

Posted on by Opher

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.

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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 Is No Time – a poem of loss

Posted on by Opher

There is no time

 

Amid the anguish and the blame,

Amid the anger and the shame,

Between the laughter and the fun,

Between the torture and the pun,

There is no time.

 

The time when antelopes ran free,

The time when gorillas had trees,

The time when elephants had room,

The time when whales were not doomed,

Has past and gone.

 

What is gone cannot come back,

What is past is history,

When time runs out,

There is no room,

When room runs out there is no space,

For even mystery.

 

Opher 13.4.2018

 

 

Not very long ago nature was dominant. Humans were few and their impact was less. Humans roamed the world in wooden ships. It was dangerous and took months and years. They explored jungles on expeditions requiring hordes of porters and discovered the heart of darkness.

Life teemed over the planet in its myriad of forms.

Yes we’d already had an impact. It seems the first sign of humans moving into an area was the eradication of the megafauna. They were hunted to extinction in no time at all. We will never set eyes on a giant sloth, giant kangaroo, mastodon or mammoth. They and the rest of their giant cousins were hunted to death.

For the rest it is taking a little longer.

Now we have planes and roads. What once took months and years now takes hours.

In such a short time the impact is massive. Time is running out. We are working our way through the tiny, medium and rare. There is no time left for many of them and the rest wait their turn.

8 Billion reasons – A poem of despair.

Posted on by Opher

8 Billion Reasons

 

8 Billion reasons why the gorillas must die

8 Billion reasons why the elephants will die

8 Billion tragedies

For all of them.

 

Opher 13.4.2018

 

 

8 Billion Human beings chopping down trees, spraying pesticide, burning wood, hunting animals, eating ivory, culverting ditches, producing sewage, filling dustbins, buying goods, mining, peeing, shopping, driving down roads, building houses, flying around the world, eating, drinking, playing and having sex.

8 Billion reasons why the rhino and elephant have no chance at all.

Dan Brown – Inferno

Posted on by Opher

I had to have a tooth out yesterday – unexpectedly. It hurt like mad.

I finished reading Dan Brown’s Inferno yesterday. I really enjoyed it. I find Dan Brown quite a gripping light read. It’s a bit contrived and daft but it is a page turner and it draws you in. Once I start I can’t put it down. I like books like that occasionally.

Inferno is concerned with the gross madness of the population explosion. It is a sickness that is destroying the natural world. Nowhere is untouched.

The book was a mystery solution to the problem that is presently destroying the planet and sending the rest of life hurtling towards extinction – how to get our numbers under control and leave room for the rest of the wonders of life that has evolved on this green gem.

My tooth and that book sent me into writing a string of poems – which I have just published here on my blog. I realised after I had written them out and put them out that they are really all just one poem.

Never mind. I will graft them together in my next poetry book.

I write poems for the wonders of nature that we might protect and nurture it and put a halt to this mad destruction that we are waging. I think there is a war going on. It is a war between the rich and the poor. It is a war that creates a relentless stupid striving for growth and profit at all costs. It is costing us our souls and the earth.

Featured Book – Anthropocene Apocalypse – why I wrote it.

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Featured Book – Anthropocene Apocalypse – why I wrote it.

Posted on May 20, 2016 by

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I have been fortunate enough to live a long life and travel the world. I have seen first hand the effect mankind has had on the planet and it greatly upsets me.

In my lifetime the human population has more than doubled. It is set to double again within my life expectancy – in one lifetime it will have more than quadrupled. It does not take a mathematical genius to know that this is unsustainable.

Common animals such as chimpanzees, tigers, elephants, rhinos, gorillas and butterflies are in danger of becoming extinct.

Everywhere I went it was the same story – deforestation, pollution, destruction, overpopulation and the slaughter of wildlife.

I wrote the Anthropocene Apocalypse to chronicle what I had seen, highlight the terrible consequences of what we were doing to nature and to suggest ways forward.

I tried to write it in an easy to read and interesting manner. I wanted it to be accessible and interesting.

It is the most important book I have written.

What I have witnessed all around the world disgusts and distresses me. We need to sort it out

We can sort it out. If we want to. It does not have to be like this. It is in our power to change it.

In Britain you can access my books on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Opher-Goodwin/e/B00MSHUX6Y/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1463753690&sr=1-2-ent

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Anthropocene Apocalypse:

Kindle Edition
£2.94 Read with Our Free App

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anthropocene-Apocalypse-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1502427079?ie=UTF8&ref_=asap_bc

In the USA:

http://www.amazon.com/Opher-Goodwin/e/B00MSHUX6Y/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1463753801&sr=1-2-ent

Kindle
$3.99 Read with Our Free App

https://www.amazon.com/Anthropocene-Apocalypse-Opher-Goodwin-ebook/dp/B00NU7WMJC?ie=UTF8&keywords=anthropocene%20apocalypse%20opher&qid=1463753991&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1