Climate Change Poem 19

Orchid, February 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 19 takes its cue from "Conservatively speaking, the climate threat is real" (Misha Schubert, The Sydney Morning Herald, Sept. 18, 2011).

Environmental Conservatives

Debate on climate change is sometimes framed
As liberal against conservative.
That rift is not as deep as some have claimed.
More leaders say that something's got to give,

Like Cameron (1) and Merkel (2), Sarkozy (3),
And Reinfeldt (4), Rasmussen (5), and Lee Myung-bak (6),
A bit from Abbot (7), more so from John Key (8).
They're looking at a race against the clock

And all are said to be at center-right
Of politics. And yet, they can agree
With leftward-leaning folks, without a fight,
That carbon must be cut. Across the sea,

Some North Americans seem out of phase
With cautions that their global neighbors raise.

(1) Prime Minister, UK
(2) Chancellor, Germany
(3) President, French Republic
(4) Prime Minister, Sweden
(5) Former Prime Minister, Denmark
(6) President, South Korea
(7) Opposition Leader, Australia
(8) Prime Minister, New Zealand

Audio (1:15):

Part of the Solution website (chosen at random)
Clean Techies, serving the clean technology community.
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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