As I wrote yesterday, climate denial is growing more sophisticated as the science is becoming more & more accepted. Inactivists are changing their modus operandi from outright denial to more subtle tactics — downplaying — deflecting — dividing — delaying — & despair-mongering. The poem I was playing with yesterday has, as I predicted, fragmented into more manageable pieces. This poem is a result of that (& is the first in suite of poems about the above-mentioned topics).
The Poetic Factoid started with a fun pun (one of my favourites) but sadly went in a more sombre direction than I had intended following some research.
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the softening of denial
i. even hard core : denial becomes unviable : when relentless evidence : piles up : of extreme weather events : daily impact them : via : headlines & news feeds : social media & tv screens : as well as real time : beyond the windows : in their : backyards & gardens : over the fence : down the road : next door : the next state : friends & family in other parts of the country : overseas : round the world : even the fates : of complete strangers : poorer : differently hued : cultured : begin : to impact
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Day 27 — TIL about the shrinking Nile
more than an Egyptian river
60 feet 60 feet every year so shrinks the delta shoreline
50 percent 50 per cent over the current century the standard deviation the flow likely to increase by
doubling the likelihood of flooding doubling the likelihood of drought
increasing water scarcity endangering food security
does that make it a zero-sum loss or a double zero-sum gain
either way, won’t be long before we say — De Nile was a river in Egypt
How many Anzac Day poems can I write during NaPoWriMo? The theme of “climate change” overlayed on “Anzac Day” is challenging. I like the poem. It’s a first draft. My brain is pretty much fudge.
And the Poetic Factoid poem that was gonna be wow-kapow! short & simple … has ballooned out of control & may now be the beginning of a suite of 28 poems. Though not tonight.
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declaration
By continuing to megalomaniacally pursue corporate profit over planetary health fossil fuel companies have declared (& are continuing to declare) ! War ! with every new extreme extractive project they announce using ever riskier technologies
They are declaring ! War ! on the arctic on the Amazon, on Antartica too before long ! War ! on far off out-of-the-way places on our own backyards
! War ! on the oceans (in countless ways) on freshwater supplies everywhere rivers, groundwater, aquifers on our drinking water on the atmosphere
! War ! on nature on trees, forests, wetlands on every living creature
on us
they have declared !! WAR !!
only we — refuse to admit — they have
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Day 25 — TIL about the 28 LIVE conflicts in the world right now (20 odd more than I presumed)
too many conflicts
1. The Argument as we solemnly remember our participation in wars dating back 114 years plus it’s probably productive to pause a moment & realise there are currently 28 live conflicts around the world right now
some you will have heard of israel’s annexing of palestine perhaps russia’s invasion of ukraine syria, afghanistan, myanmar, iraq et cetera et cetera et cetera
my initial concept for this poem was to write haiku length potted histories of 5 or 6 current conflicts in the world — this before realising there were so so many
i mean i thought i was relatively up to date with what’s going on. i wasn’t. i would’ve score half. on a test. maybe. but this poem is already too long so instead all i’m going to do is list all 28 conflicts. as they appear. on the global conflict tracker website & request you to take the time to read each one. perhaps even visit the site to learn more.
(& keep your eyes out, for my potted history suite, forthcoming)
2. i. Americas Criminal Violence in Mexico Instability in the Northern Triangle Instability in Haiti Venezuela Crisis
ii. Asia Instability in Afghanistan Territorial Disputes in the South China Sea North Korea Crisis Instability in Pakistan Conflict Between India and Pakistan Confrontation Over Taiwan Civil War in Myanmar
iii. Europe and Eurasia War in Ukraine Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict
iv. Middle East and North Africa Conflict in Syria Instability in Iraq Instability in Lebanon Conflict Between Turkey and Armed Kurdish Groups Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Civil Conflict in Libya War in Yemen Civil War in Sudan Violent Extremism in the Sahel Confrontation With Iran
v. Sub-Saharan Africa Conflict in the Central African Republic Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo Instability in South Sudan Conflict With Al-Shabaab in Somalia Conflict in Ethiopia
These guys have been in my poetic sights ever since I first read This Changes Everything. I regularly cite the key tenet of this poem in discussion with CC deniers.
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Heartlessland
i. one of the most strident climate change deniers is american conservative
think tank — & i use those words advisedly — the heartland institute
by rabidly rejecting the scientific consensus on climate change it has done
perhaps more damage than even the trillion dollar fossil fuel corporations
that put us here
ii. to the surprise of no one this organisation took the coin of tobacco giant philip morris
spent the 90s discrediting smoking’s health impacts, the risk of secondhand smoke & fighting smoking bans
i guess that says it all
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Day 12 – TI Wrote some heart poems as easy as shooting fish in a barrel
miles & litres
supposedly my heart pumps almost 7 litres of blood around
the over 60, 000 miles of blood vessels in my body
every. single. minute.
& i’ve driven each. & every one of them twice. looking for the slightest signpost that you still love me
BONUS #1 — above average
the average heart beat of a woman is (on average) 8 beats a minute faster than a man’s — assuming it beats at all
(i always said you weren’t average)
BONUS #2 — all I want for Xmas
each year more heart attacks occur on Christmas Day than any other
Monday, likewise, has more cardiac assaults than any other day of the week
Lookout 2028 emergency rooms when Christmas falls on a Monday!
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 