Climate Change Poem 13

Seed fluff, March 2007

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 13 takes its cue from "Computer modelling shows release of carbon into atmosphere" (Cordis, Sept. 15, 2011).

Feedback Loop

Our warming climate brings with it a cost
That extra vegetation can't decrease,
For locked within the planet's permafrost
Is CO2 that melting would release.

The early models lessened this effect,
But they did not account for frozen soil
That those in higher latitudes expect.
And though part of our flora's mortal coil

Includes carbon dioxide taken in,
There's so much carbon left to decompose
Into the atmosphere, it would begin
A process that the flora cannot close:

More greenhouse gas to further complicate
And make this warming trend accelerate.

Audio (1:05):

Part of the Solution website (chosen at random)
Terra Cycle, "creating national recycling systems for previously non-recyclable or hard-to-recycle waste."
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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