Sometime, in the future, the worst of the climate changes will come to a new balance. How bad will it be for all of us throughout the planet? What changes can we take now to make the inevitable a little better? Here is a poem written in the last couple of days which relates to these questions.
On the Other Side of Turning The Tide of Climate Change
We have passed the Malthusian Peak of diversity
In this Earth Cycle,
Before us lies the death of enumerable species
Due to the success of one animal – us.
How can I help slow the tide of climate change?
In the near future when
Cities flood and are abandoned,
When massive crop failures devastate the globe,
When millions upon millions migrate to cooler spots
Both north and south,
The social fabric will rip.
Famine, war, measles and ticks
May solve the problems
Of our overpopulation of poor past decisions
Of how we communally lived,
But what a horrible destination to allow.
Or can we change now
And stop the worst,
By letting go of
The chemical economy of oil
And embrace the photonic economy
Of energy from the sun.
Can we stop the practice of killing life
To grow life
And end the numerous applications of toxins,
And instead employ
The vast biological knowledge
Collected by our scientists
Along with the tested agricultural wisdom
Of our ancestors,
And make diversity and sustainability
The foundation of our farms,
And harness the power of all forms of life
To grow life.
On my tiny patch of land
I have given more space to the wild,
In hopes that some bees and moths
Of different kinds find food and shelter,
In hopes that scattered remnants of our
Dwindling birds find safe harbor and sustenance
As they flee the lands burning to the East.
Perhaps, if we all pitch in,
A little bit of the species
We will need, will be preserved,
For our better life,
On the other side of climate change.
I walk more and drive less
And search for more adaptions
In my moment to moment daily life,
So a bleak future is less bleak
As we create, from necessity,
The new Earth Cycle
Of Sustainable Humanity.
©2019 Carl Scott Harker
You can find my most recent book of poems on Amazon here: Poems by My Cat.