our children need to know what we have done
they need to learn about our deadly greed
and know in their blood and bones that
living alongside wildlife is the only way
into the future that
studying the ecology of slugs may save the planet
and that facing hatred, greed and delusion is the big deal
*
we’re all in the shit if we don’t tell ’em now
*
if all invertebrates
disappeared
homo sapiens
would
become
extinct
if homo sapiens
became
extinct
all
life
would
fucking
flourish
*
our children need to know what we have done
Darwin’s Frogs no longer leap in the shrinking wetlands of Chile
the Formosan Clouded Leopard no longer hunts in the mountains of Taiwan
the Sri Lankan Spiny Eel no longer swims in the rivers of Sri Lanka
the Eskimo Curlew no longer calls over the snowy grasslands of Greenland
the Santa Cruz Pupfish is extinct kaput
the Western Black Rhinoceros no longer trundles across African plains
the Angel Shark no longer swims in the Black Sea
the Crescent Nail-Tailed Wallaby no longer lopes across the Australian Outback
the Giant Golden-Crowned Flying Fox no longer gorges on figs in the forest of Panay
Pallas’s Cormorant no longer goes fishing in the polluted rivers or toxic lakes of Russia
the Labrador Duck is extinct dead as a Dodo
the Javan Lapwing no longer flaps its wings in Indonesian skies
the Tahiti Sandpiper no longer plaintively pipes on the river banks of Tahiti
even our house sparrows are in the shit
*
there’s no time for complacency
the bottom’s fallen out of the ground
forget your satanic gun culture
don’t deny that you deny climate change
take your foul mouth some place else
(such as the asteroid belt) where you can do less harm
if you’ve never seen the devil look in a mirror
don’t pretend you can’t see our children
need to know what we’ve done what we’re doing
*
don’t give them the legacy of our single vision
smell the earth, wake up, hear the cries
now this is what we are doing
*
Note: It is frightening but true: Our planet is now in the midst of its sixth mass extinction of plants and animals — the sixth wave of extinctions in the past half-billion years. We’re currently experiencing the worst spate of species die-offs since the loss of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Although extinction is a natural phenomenon, it occurs at a natural “background” rate of about one to five species per year. Scientists estimate we’re now losing species at 1,000 to 10,000 times the background rate, with literally dozens going extinct every day . It could be a scary future indeed, with as many as 30 to 50 percent of all species possibly heading toward extinction by mid-century.
Centre For Biological Diversity
All Things Creative 