I'm too busy to do anything about this
Each time we cut down a rainforest, And we plant that area to crops, annual crops, To remove 'our produce' we make roads and railways, As we burn fossil fuel, as we burn biomass, we make Nitric Oxide (NO) And on that land which once was forested When, On that land once clothed with forest goes our waste, -Jim Knight With thanks for the idea to Barbara Kingsolver(The Poisonwood Bible) and Tony McMichael (Human Frontiers, Environments & Diseases)
Each time we cut down SOME forest
It is as though we were removing some hair; some fur
From a living animal
And the Earth howls!
And we harvest those crops,
Or our cattle,
Or our sheep, eat that pasture we've planted,
It's as though we are removing the skin from that animal,
That still living animal,
Piece by piece
And the Earth howls!
We clear strips for telephone lines
We clear strips for power lines
We clear strips for pipelines
It's as though we lacerate that animal's flesh
And the earth howls!
Which is both a greenhouse gas and an ozone-destroying gas
It's as though we are asphyxiating that poor still living animal
And the Earth howls!
We spread synthesised nitrogenous fertiliser
This is fixed nitrogen
Which along with other 'nitrogen-fixing actions' of us
Creates acid soil, helps make algal blooms.
It's as though we burn that animal's feet
And the earth howls!
Oh when will we have some empathy, some compassion,
Meanwhile -- but not yet loudly enough
The Earth howls!
Into the once pristine air and sky above it goes our waste
The toxic waste
The non-organic waste, alien to nature,
The man-made waste
It's as though we had defecated all over that poor animal
The Earth's howls grow weak,
Grow weak, Its howls grow weak.
(an old bloke who lives on the edge of a forest
and is trying to extend it a little.)