The earth is sick and in need of salvage

Sick Earth

The earth is sick, its lungs stuffed and
out of puff, its bones brittle near to break
cancer cells spreading throughout its crests
amid tumescent landfill dense as gas
Her womb’s barren as melting ice
all of this oblivious only to the unexamined life

There’s a stone in the kidney of the earth
waste chemicals pollute the rivers causing
inflammation, blockages and rust
intestines clogged and poisons building up—
the streams unable to wash away the blood on
tree trunks: whole forests felled for greedy fetishes

The brain of the world has shrunk
with Korsakoffs Syndrome
and the liver has a tumour in it

The earth’s heart is heavy with cholesterol-laden veins, multiple
bypass operations the order of the day—warriors and heroic
presidents and ex-presidents in whose hands we place our trust
salvaging—let us pray—from total desecration, even if only just!

© Anne Skyvington

 Some Environmental Warriors

The Paris Agreement

In the Paris Agreement, each country determines, plans and regularly reports its own contribution it should make in order to mitigate global warming. There is no mechanism to force a country to set a specific target by a specific date, but each target should go beyond previously set targets.

According to some, there is only a 5% chance that the Earth will avoid warming by at least 2C come the end of the century, according to new research that paints a sobering picture of the international effort to stem global warming.