We arrived in the early morning. It was very hot. We set off into the interior walking along trails through the tropical forests. We came across secluded pebble beaches and then headed up to the heights.
The Environment – little things can make a huge difference.
This is a hedge that has been recently flayed.
This is what it would have been like if it hadn’t been flayed – full of lush red berries for birds and animals to eat.
It doesn’t cost money or take a huge effort. If we left more of our hedgerows and verges to grow they would provide seed, fruit and shelter for wildlife.
Poetry – Get it over quick
Get it over quick
Gorillas, whales and baby seals
Rhinos, Elephants and quail
Remnants in the undergrowth
We have blasted them to hell
Forests, land and water
Air, us and sea swell
A job that’s well worth doing
For the pleasure or the sell
Caged, tortured, maimed
Hunted, poked, impaled
Badgered to extinction
Even bugs are not doing well
Why take the time to do it slow
Why not get it over quick?
Put life out of its misery
Let’s kill the planet now
Don’t just leave it sick!
Opher 16.10.98
Sometimes I just despair at the madness. We are gaily going about our lives as if there is nothing wrong. As long as our daily existence is not affected we do not have to think about it. We are not looking into the future; at the plastic nightmare round the corner.
Yet there is a relentless catastrophe taking place like a slow-motion explosion. The world population is increasing alarmingly, the environment is being destroyed, animals are hunted, butchered and hounded to extinction, forests are being eradicated, pollution is accruing, the seas over-fished, and the climate is now changing.
Welcome to the Anthropocene Apocalypse.
Yet the greed and selfishness that are fuelling this relentless pulverisation in the name of greed, profit and progress shows no sign of abating.
There are occasions when I become so distressed that I think we should just blast the planet to hell and have done. A quick end would be better than this slow, drawn out agony.
Unless something radical is done on a global scale the wild-life of this planet is doomed. Their future is a misery. The cruelty is unimaginable.
I wrote this poem way back in 1998 in a fit of pique.
Stop Killing Elephants!!
Poetry – ALL FUCKED
ALL FUCKED
Gorillas, whales and baby seals
Rhinos, Elephants and quail
Defiant in the undergrowth
We have blasted them to hell
Forests, land and water
Air, us and sea swell
A job that’s well worth doing
For the pleasure or the sell
Caged, tortured, maimed
Hunted, poked, impaled
Badgered to extinction
Even bugs are not doing well
Why take the time to do it slow
Why not get it over quick?
Put life out of its misery
Kill the planet
Don’t leave it sick!
Opher 16.10.98
As a child I climbed the trees, paddled in the ponds and streams and lost myself in the world of nature.
The jam-jars were full of newts and tadpoles. A pit down the garden teemed with frogs, toads, snakes and slow-worms.
There were aquaria of caterpillars and all the mice, guinea pigs and rabbits a boy could love.
Somewhere across the seas I knew there were jungles teeming with gorillas, tigers and rhinos. All I knew back then was that I wanted to be living in among them.
Between now and then the world has changed. Pesticides have robbed the ditches and ponds of amphibians, tarmac has stolen the grass-snakes homes and insecticides have thinned the butterflies to a scant flurry.
Across the seas it is even worse as the jungles are systematically chopped, animals hacked and driven away and nature is on the run.
The cruelty, thoughtlessness and suffering distress me. We are creating a plastic planet with no room left for the creatures I adore.
The 7 billion of us cannot even leave room for 500 tigers.
The future looks horrifying. There are times when you think – ‘Just get it over with!’
The Louisiana Bayous – Alligators, Birds, Snakes and Spiders – Photos
The Smokey Mountains of Tennessee – Photos
About eleven years ago we got ourselves a little log cabin up in the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee. It was beautiful – clean, crisp air, wildlife and scenery.
We went with our daughter, her husband and toddler and had a great time trekking through forest, climbing mountains going under waterfalls and digging nature!
The view from our cabin.
That’s me under that waterfall!!
A lot of trees had died – drought? Pollution? Caterpillars?
