Earth, Victim
It was reported in the ‘70s
That we had enough nukes to
Melt the crust off planet
Earth
And in 2016 campaigning in the USA
An uninformed remark
Was made: Why do we make nukes
If we don’t intend
To use them?
We’ve learned how to recycle
Trash and plastic
We can even scrub the skies
To good—
Saving—
Effect
Against ages of waste and disposal
From age-old stability of the
Earth itself,
Our efforts are nascent
Yet
We have humanity in two minds:
One mind mutters, doesn’t matter; I’ll
Be rich and dead and gone
By then
The other mind considers the catastrophe
And asks what might I do
How might I repair
My tongue, my thought, my profit
So that
There’s an Earth-home
In which to have all good
Meanwhile the
Earth itself
Blows out hurricanes our
Way because
It’s losing breath
And also torrents of rain
Because it
Weeps
Earth bleeds through the crust:
We can rise to help everything that’s wounded
Or
We can fall
The way the planet’s falling
Failing
Now
C L Couch
TYSON: There are people who have cultural, political, religious economic philosophies that they then invoke when they want to cherry pick one scientific result or another. You can find a scientific paper that says practically anything and the press, which I count you as part of, will sometimes find a single paper and say “Here’s a new truth.” But an emergent scientific truth, for it to become an objective truth, a truth that is true whether or not you believe in it, it requires more than one scientific paper. It requires a whole system of people’s research all leaning in the same direction, all pointing to the same consequences. That’s what we have with climate change as induced by human conduct. This is a known correspondence. If you want to find the 3 percent of the papers or the 1 percent of the papers that conflicted with this and build policy on that, that is simply irresponsible. How else do you establish a scientific truth if not by looking at the consensus of scientific experiments and scientific observations. Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president, signed into law in 1963–a year when he had important things to be thinking about–he signed into law the National Academy of Sciences. Because he knew that science mattered and should matter in governance.
clcouch123 
September 21, 2017 at 3:26 am
Hi Cl, I’m glad you stopped by my blog. I hope you’re doing well. 😀
September 26, 2017 at 6:04 am
Emotionally and descriptively a very effective message and poem. The reactions of the earth to our abuse and failure to make it better, not worse are. Wonderfully put. I too wonder about the nukes, why we need them. But it’s too late I guess, as if we got rid of ours, how do we know others got rid of there’s? In Russia, Korea, etc. We should rightly all dismantle them and leave their shells & take out the nuclear chemicals but would others commit to the action if the U.S. and Western world did?
I like your message on the importance of science. It’s a good point. I’m undecided on global warming. We can look at all the studies people have done but we also know in science many people have all hypothesized wrong throughout history. That people will believe something b/c they do not know or had no way of knowning some other answer is true. We once all believed the sun revolved around the earth, or that the earth was flat. Common examples but we don’t know that the atmosphere doesn’t repair or b/co thinner naturally in some places while in others it naturally b/co’s thicker as I’ve read in a few scientific articles. I’m not sure despite that explanation at the end. What about Darwinism in general? I don’t believe most of its theories b/c many others do. I just know the theory I hold may include parts of evolution but is mostly creation based as God knows better.
Sorry for the long reply but you got me thinking and I’m sure that was your point in this effective piece 🙂
September 26, 2017 at 7:27 pm
Thanks so much, Amanda, for your thoughts. Smart, clear, and effective. I sometimes think it might be better to believe in some of everything. I don’t mean in matters of faith as much as in the matter of climate control as well as evolution and science overall. Does the Earth naturally go through drastic climate cycles over centuries and ages? I think so. Do we contribute to planet-changing pollution and catastrophes that come from this? Yes. I grew up with religion and science in harmony. God created everything. The theory of evolution explains well species adaptation. I think your long reply is great. Thanks, again, so much.
September 26, 2017 at 9:58 pm
Thanks Christopher. I very much agree that the two theories compliment each other as well. And yes I think cycles happen as well, hot spells, and ice ages. Your welcome!