For reasons known only to WordPress, I have not been able to upload photos to my blog since April 9.
This has been extremely frustrating as I am constantly being told I am most likely offline — even as I am capable of doing a wide range of other internet based activity (including searching why WordPress photos are not loading, to no avail).
It has caused no end of swearing, cursing & full-on hissy fits which have upset my poor pooch immensely who doesn’t understand why I’m shouting at the stoopid light box. (Not that he really gets why I spend so much time staring at it when I could be throwing a ball, taking him for a walk, or best of all, feeding him treats.)
However, that said, I still have been writing a new poem every day; even if I haven’t been able to load them.
Finally today, for some reason the curse has lifted, & I have been able to upload everything. So I am spending the next couple of hours trying to unclog the backlog.
A series of questions I’d like to ask climate change deniers
i. How do you know the world was hotter thousands of years ago? People have said so? Oh. What kind of people? Can you say it? Don’t worry I will then. Scientists have. So why do you believe those scientists but not the 97%?
ii. When the planet was hotter what lived then? Were humans around? You don’t know? That’s okay. The answer is — No, they weren’t! The world was dominated by a bunch of giant cold blooded lizards. Any warm blooded potential ancestors of ours were tiny little rodents scurrying around trying not to get stepped on or eaten
iii. & why did the dinosaurs reign supreme during this so-called “normal”/“natural” warmer greenhouse earth you farking deniers love to harp on about?
Because. They. Were. Much. Better. Suited. To. Such. High. Temperatures. Than. Human-like. Creatures. Like. Us. Were. Or. Ever. Will. Be.
not your friend. (projected climate change impacts in a 4°C world)
global warming is not neat. global warming’s effects will not be shared out equally. global warming will not be equitably distributed around the globe like a benevolent office Santa giving cheap gifts to the staff’s kids. global warming is not your friend.
global warming does not “get” averages. a 4 degree warmer world does not mean everywhere just gets 4 degrees hotter. some places may increase by 6, 8, even 10 degrees Celsius.
yep that’s right in this whizz -bang new high-octane (so not your friend) global warming induced
climate dystopian hot mess we’re wilfully ushering in the coolest months of the future will most likely be warmer than the warmest months of twenty years ago
i’ll say that again but softer in case you were sleeping & so those at the back can hear.
the winters of the future will be warmer than the summers of twenty years ago
Tonight was CFS (Country Fire Service) training & so I took the opportunity to pick a few of the old firies brains.
fire alarm
at training tonight there’s the usual banter & the familar stories the old hands tell about wild jobs they’ve been on
dead end gullies their captains tried to order them into
walls of flame leapfrogging roads rivers almost bare dirt to resume again in forest canopies impossible distances away
sitting in the truck reflectors down breathing apparatus on under blankets waiting for the fire to burn over hoping like hell the halo holds up* likewise hoping their sphincters do
i don’t know if climate change is the cause but i do know fire season is starting earlier lasting longer & each one feels more of a bitch than the one before
This is the poem I started writing yesterday till all the might have beens that never weremuscled its way out into the world mid-draft. I’ve gone back to it today & finished it off.
in firing range
despite insane frustration with inept governments : & debilitating rage at arrogant greedybloodhungry multinational corps’ ruthless relentless unabashed pillaging of the planet : part of me knows — i can’t really complain : for since that so long past : never forgotten : sunday : i too have failed to meet targets
failed to reduce emissions (though reducing consumption would be more benefit) : failed in every known dataset that supposedly counts : for something : in life : marriage : career : kids : success : legacy : wealth accumulation : financial security : et cetera : & : ad nauseum
for the longest time : failed to even notice i’d been trapped in a tomb : since the first of those soulharrowing three days : over three decades ago : the stone rolled back on me : unaware : unable to escape my darkness
the difference i suppose is my failure : has destroyed predominantly me : (with deepest apologies to a handful of beautiful people who were caught in the crosshairs of my grief) : whereas it is currently the world : being crucified now : & into the firing range : of the future
NB I'm really hating the new WordPress. It's repeatedly refusing to let me upload photos saying I'm not connected to the internet (even though I am & capable of opening other pages, watching youtube videos, etc. It's highly frustrating & causing the delays in posting.
This emotionally draining day usually comes along at some point during NaPoWriMo but not often this soon in (although I note I will have respite in 2024 when Easter Sunday falls on March 31). Best to get it over with early I guess.
It’s not quite tied into the Climate Change theme as, erm, intricately as it perhaps could be. That said it did come out of a poem I was working on which was more intensely linked … & you could argue that there have been a series of dates & deadlines that could have dramatically affected/lessened the potential clout of the coming temperature rise … so thematically there’s a connection … so … I’m gonna allow it! (Whew, I was worried there for a sec I wasn’t going to convince myself.)
all the might have beens that never were
today : mournday sunday is one of two : fallow days in every : whimpering year i allow myself : to truly : wallow
to weep deep : for my lost three : to wonder over all the might have beens that never : were
to let grief’s heat : blister through : the other mes other lives : other trajectories other doors : other : if onlys
all the stars that might : have burned all the constellations : that others : might have read : into that sky all the other pathways : all the other joys
I began the day working on what I thought would be a suite of short poems under the title “10 common myths about climate change”
I thought it would be quick & easy to offer a witty one or two line rebuttal. It wasn’t. It was hard hard hard. & I’m not sure how much poetry they contain. The tough thing is so many answers require nuance (so much so, I’ve considered it as a possible title of a future poem) which i) takes time to explain & ii) deniers don’t seem to really want to know about.
So what you’re getting is 5 mythpomes. The other 5 might appear sometime in the future (or not). If they do, perhaps I can choose the best 2-3 to be the actual poem. However, having essentially written 5 pomes today, I wonder if I can have the next 4 days off.
Finally, to borrow from one of the articles I read: “the myths in this list have been studied thoroughly by climate scientists and repeatedly debunked. Yet they persist, often as a result of an organized disinformation campaign waged by special interests whose goal is to raise doubts among the public and delay action on human-caused climate change.”
5 common myths about climate change
Myth #1: It’s the sun.
Sure , the sun’s changed intensity in the past causing profound climate modifications often ice ages which form over thousands of years not the few hundreds scientists are studying — that said : solar irradiance is actually down a shade from a post-war peak : so , no
Myth #2: Scientists disagree on the cause of climate change.
No , they don’t . Not climate scientists at least . Sure maybe there’s some botanists, paleontologists, seismologists & epidemiologists who aren’t convinced — but do you go to a dentist for a heart transplant ; or a podiatrist to have that weird looking growth on your back removed .
Myth #3: The climate has always changed. It’s natural.
Correct . Always has . Always will .
But . What the deniers willfully overlook is the unprecedented pace of change . Temperatures have risen 10 times faster than during the last mass extinction 56 million years ago .
Myth #4: It’s cold out. What happened to global warming?
Facepalm . This one should be easy . Weather is not climate . The end .
Surely it’s obvious that Down Under summer days can be over 40 degrees Celsius for a weeks at a time while snow falls in Cornwall .
Nor do these two diverse weather patterns preclude broad temperature shifts across the entire Earth over the course of months , years , and decades.
Myth #5: Carbon dioxide levels are tiny. They can’t make a difference.
i. True , carbon dioxide (aka CO2) comprises a minute fraction of our atmosphere less than tenth of a percent . but that doesn’t mean it’s not great at its job — ie , trapping heat ; CO2 punches above its molecular weight . For most of the past million years carbon dioxide has been below 280 parts per million yet since the revolution of industry started levels are now 415 parts per — 35% increase in a century & a half . tiny you say ?
For comparison — at 1.3 parts per million sarin gas irritates mucus membranes ; pulmonary issues begin when exposures exceed 15 parts per million ; & you’re dead in thirty min if the concentration tops 430 P.P.Ms .
it’s not the fraction that matters but the effect it has
ii. also true , CO2 is only one of many ironically water vapour is the greenhouse gas with the biggest impact ; nitrous oxide & others play their role too (however , that’s a poem for another day)
Why is it always the usual suspects that get rounded up in the weirdest theories?
conspiracy kiss
thankfully i : only have a few : in my friendship group : but why is it : the same people : who wildly warned me : exactly 12 months ago : that covid 19 : was a chinese invention : funded by bill gates : hillary’s pizza shop : & spread via 5g : designed to : : : oh, I dunno : something nefarious : involving : microchips : a new world order : & stopping trump from re-election
are the same : geniuses : who claim : human-caused climate change : is not really a thing : & call me (all of us) : sheeple : & beseech us : to : “do our own research” : which to them : means a youtube page : with several hundred views : & a blog written by : an angry : out of work : austrian geologist
me : rather than think : i’m being conned : believe instead : in the KISS theory : of understanding things : which is : if a substantial number : of climate scientists : claim we’re over : heating the world : chances are : that’s what’s happening
It’s April which means, once again, that the ghosts of Na/GloPoWriMo walk among us. Ever year I debate about whether I should participate, & every year I end up saying to myself “come on, suck it up”
Last year (you might recall) was a wee bit of a crazy one … & to reflect that I wrote every poem around the theme of corona & plague & pandemics & virus. For me at least, it worked very well. I got to explore a hot topic in a range of ways; while managing to produce 4 or 5 reasonably high quality poems on the topic, in a range of styles. So I intend trying the same trick this year — except this time the 30 poems won’t be about the world ending in plague. Whew! Everyone says.
No, this year I intend to explore heat & climate change & extreme weather events. It’s a topic I’ve already penned a dozen or so poems about; but given it really is the burning topic of the age, it’s one I’ve wanted to explore more. Indeed, it feels like there’s a moral obligation as an artist to explore it; and for the world to actually act on it.
denial of a different kind
when a thing — the threat of a thing is so — so vastly big ordinary brains (brains that are far from brilliant at even the best of times) — become bamboozled, boggled, & literally bogged into inaction — thoughts unable to move in any direction — stuck under a quick sand miasma of missed information — real & imagined
it seems all this simple mind is capable of is crawling beneath the covers & hiding from the immensity of the impending holocaust
the only apparent benefit being at least my doona-clutching cowardice won’t generate too much in the way of excess carbon costs
gareth roi poet boi 