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So Here's the Thing

Stephen Chinnock

22 March 2020

So here's the thing
As my dear friend Maryanne
Is prone to say
When we old folk were born
There were only three billion souls
On this small planet
Now we are seven billion and more
Exponential growth in one lifetime

That growth required
A massive increase of consumption
Of resources which are ultimately limited
So rainforests cut down
To provide the space for cows
To eat the grass to make the hamburgers
For Maccas and others
Spreading obesity to the masses

The fossil fuel industries
Grew at a rapid pace
Raping the earth for a dollar
Leaving behind
Great holes in the surface
As if we had been hit
By thousands of meteorites

Integrated communities
And ecologies
Torn down to endless
Expanses of soya beans
Driving away the inhabitants
Into the ever expanding cities
And a life of poverty with little nutrition

Think of the earth as Gaia
One integrated entity
Bound together
By diversity
And interdependence
See how the world ruled
By corporate greed
For the benefit of the few
Has shredded away
The layers of protection
For the many

It's not right
It's immoral
And wrong
At all levels of understanding
There's no ultimate benefit
For anyone at all
When the very fabric
Of our once beautiful planet
Has been torn asunder

Gaia now suffers
A terrible contagion
Because the immune system
Of the whole planet
Has been battered and burnt
By greed and indifference
To our ultimate fate

Isolation is now a theme
But it always was
Considering our place
In the universe
We always needed
To take care of our home
Ourselves
Out here in the Milky Way!

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