Earth Day canceled

I've got Title Glut over here: "Earth Day canceled due to lack of interest" has a nice ring to it; "Earth Day canceled on account of rain" is a bit more subtle, but both potential titles indicate the sort of mentality that has brought us to our present state. And what state is that? Unless you've got yur' head buried deeply up yur' butt you already know the answer. If you actually need more guidance checkout the recently released Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, but frankly: haven't we been talking about the state of the Earth for decades now? Does the World Scientists' Warning to Humanity sound familiar? That plea from 1,700 of the world's leading scientists, including the majority of Nobel laureates in the sciences, was issued in November 1992. It was a dire warning that went mostly unheeded, even by so-called progressives and liberals whose lifestyles, along with those of most of their fellow citizens in the U.S., continue to reflect a suicidal disregard for the very planet that sustains them. The scientists warn:

"We the undersigned, senior members of the world's scientific community, hereby warn all humanity of what lies ahead. A great change in our stewardship of the earth and the life on it is required, if vast human misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievably mutilated."

This is not Jor-El sounding the home planet Krypton's impending doom, it's not fiction at all, it's the real thing. The vast majority of the world's population labors under the Shakespearean illusion that "all the world is a stage" intended solely for the purpose of their own personal drama. That mindset could not be further from the truth.

In any case, the world scientists noted:

"No more than one or a few decades remain before the chance to avert the threats we now confront will be lost and the prospects for humanity immeasurably diminished."

Check the calendar, do the math. All the political, social justice and peace work we do will come to nothing on a planet that will no longer sustain us. If our efforts in what ever cause is our calling does not involve an ecological element, then we have a real problem. As an example: removing far-right zealots from government is good for the Earth.

On to the poetics:

When God controlled the weather

When God controlled the weather
we knew when we'd gone wrong, when
Widow Goody's crops turned black we
knew her sins had grown, with fortunes
tied to "our Lord", the favors under
the mattress, in the eyes of the chosen.
But now the weather's changed, somewhat,
proclamations from the Great House, from
high on the hill, call for further study.
Inquisitors cast men of science into the
moat to see if they will float. The ice
in your drink is melting, sir. The desert
creeps up on us in the night as another
five hundred thousand dreams of power
and manufactured self-worth roll off
the line.

Dear Aunt Sara,
We hope to be able to visit before too long.
We saved all our travel coupons and submitted
all our applications. They say there should
be a break in the weather in the next few years.
Food is running low. The water is bad. The baby died.
Love,
the children