Skarsvag
looks like
the kind
of place
that might
be just
about
as far
away
as you
can get
from the
madness
of the
World.
Skarsvag
looks like
the kind
of place
that might
be just
about
as far
away
as you
can get
from the
madness
of the
World.
Plumes of smoke
on a cold
Winter’s day
bring thoughts
of warmth and
community
and human
busyness and
achievement.
Plumes of smoke
on a hot
Summer’s day
bring thoughts
of destruction
and terror
and loss and
anger and
failure.
If you think after
Coronavirus,
corporations
will stop
exploiting
workers,
will stop
trashing
the world,
will stop
supporting
wars,
will stop
buying
elections,
will start
paying
taxes,
you’re living
in a parallel
universe.
The human race
is in the
position the
dinosaur race
was in some
25 years
before the
impact of the
Chicxulub
meteor.
I weep
bitter tears
when drought
breaking rain
is forecast
and I get
just a little
bit less than
bugger all
There is a real world
described by science;
and then there are
many imaginary worlds,
described by religion,
and politics,
and astrology,
and the media,
and psychics,
and economists,
and ideology,
and common
sense.
The fog
of war,
the smoke
of climate
change
Politicians
and journalists
always demand to
know, and then
reject, the cost of
measures to conserve
the environment.
But neither ever
ask the cost
of war.
This is the way the world ends,
with the bang of a
million trees exploding,
with the whimper of a
thousand koalas dying,
and unbreathable smoke,
and blowing dust,
and drying earth,
and drying rivers,
and a howling wind,
and a bloody Sun,
and a feeling of
utter helplessness.
Whodathought?
(Not me).
That the same
people who
damaged the
world by
flooding it with
carbon dioxide,
now say they can
solve the problem
by flooding it with
radioactivity?