Climate Change Poem 12

Spiderweb, December 2008

Two global events are occurring on September 24, 2011:

1. Moving Planet, a worldwide rally to demand solutions to the climate crisis.


2. 100 Thousand Poets for Change, a demonstration/celebration of poetry to promote serious social, environmental, and political change.


I thought: Why not do both?

Barring an emergency, I am posting from midnight to midnight, one poem per hour (at any time during that hour). That's starting from 00:00-01:00 and ending at 23:00-24:00 Eastern Time today.

All the poems are sonnets. Each takes its cue from an article dealing with climate change. The articles had been posted beginning on September 15 -- the date of the 24-hour Climate Reality Project that inspired me to do this -- to September 19, the day I drafted the twenty-fourth poem.

The poem for Hour 12 takes its cue from "New Report Issued by the Center for Food Safety and the Heinrich Böll Stiftung Foundation Highlights Critical Links Among Food Security, Climate Change, Human Rights, and the Economy" (Center for Food Safety, Sept. 15, 2011).

The Wheel of Life

No issue is an island. Climate change
Has impacts on economies and food.
But often, as our policies arrange,
Connections are not fully understood

That link our livelihoods with human rights,
Migration, poverty, and so much more.
To keep big-picture thinking in our sights
Might mitigate the ravages of war.

Root causes need our focus. Otherwise,
The benefits from best intentions cease.
Where economic growth is on the rise,
We still have witnessed hunger rates increase.

A new report now weaves these many threads
In hopes to guide us through the times ahead.

Audio (1:12):

Part of the Solution website (chosen at random)
Living On Earth, the weekly environmental news and information program distributed by Public Radio International.
Elissa Malcohn's Deviations and Other JourneysPromote Your Page Too Vol. 1, Deviations: Covenant (2nd Ed.), Vol. 2, Deviations: Appetite, Vol. 3, Deviations: Destiny, Vol. 4, Deviations: Bloodlines, Vol. 5, Deviations: TelZodo, Vol. 6 and conclusion: Deviations: Second Covenant.Free downloads at the Deviations website (click here for alternate link), Smashwords, and Manybooks.

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