It’s happening all over — biblical downpours in New York State, unquenchable fires in Canada — and yet humanity is not acting as if it is confronting a planetary emergency. Extreme weather is fast becoming the norm in the United States, and yet Americans tell pollsters it is a low priority, ranking 17th out of 21 national issues in a recent Pew survey,” in “As heat records break, the climate movement has the right answers — but the words are all wrong.”
— The Guardian, July 14, 2023.
We sit in front of our computers,
or holding smartphones, looking
for the app to click that promises
to save our dying earth, today
convulsed by landslides, flooded
by rivers and scorched by heat
from the sun, a planet with gaping
wounds we inflicted on its green
pastures and forests, on its bodies
of pure water, on the lands stolen
from indigenous people.
Centuries of greed commodified
what once stirred awe and wonder
in our souls was turned into brands
for rapacious markets and for the
lying salesmen of dreams we
yearned to fulfill.
We marched to the tune played
by merchants of development
and destruction, and shut down
the pleading protests from our
timid souls.
Who’ll write a requiem for humanity?