Poem of Our Climate

Bridge out in Albania, one of many places all over earth that were recently deluged.    bne IntelliNews.

you don’t hear
the word “ghastly” much
anymore, but it’s how the future
is described by 17 climate experts
in a new report that speaks of “de-
clining health & climate-
disruption upheavals” producing
“steady erosion of
the fabric of
human civilisation.”

whatevs.
tell me another one,
chicken little . . .   

well, you needn’t look
to the future: even now,

16k families / 81k humans
evac’d: rising waters & “non-stop rain”
on visayas philipines last weekend;
62k evac’d in s. thailand, same cause;
11 dead in w. java landslides
record rainfall in chennai & tamil nadu,
which was 42% short on rain for jan.
until mon./tues. — now at + 2000%;

“icy flash flood destroys
vehicles in santa rosa, la pampa,
argentina - watch now!”; while t’storms,
hi winds, flash floods in mecca
(yeah, that mecca — in the desert)

seattle got 75% of avg. jan. rain
in 1st 10 days; multiple landslides,
600k w/o power in oregon & wash. in
wake of massive rains

seems like it’s rainin'
all over the world . . .

madrid still in record cold;
-13 f in c. spain; 7 humans dead +
4k living in shantytown
w/o electricity given emerg shelter

meanwhile . . .
istambul on the brink
of depleting its water reserves:
reservoirs at 19%,
rain 50% < oct-jan avg;
now they’re talking cloud seeding
(remember cloud seeding?); while
athens bakes in hottest
jan. in 160 yrs.

pollution is down in w. u.s. (yay!)
but wildfire smoke is up (boo), &
people will die of lung cancer more
slowly than they die of fire, just as
“most people do not see
sea-level rise. most people do not
ever see hurricanes. but
many, many people
will see wildfire smoke
from climate change,” sez the
earth system scientist

they say all this and
say all this and repeat it and re-
peat & nobody is
aghast — even as
we’re being a-ghosted
even as
we speak