Excursion

 


'Let's go to the beach today,'

a child asked, but was refused.

'The ultraviolet's too strong.

We'll burn, then get cancer'.

'What if we cover up?'

'Exposure is dangerous.

Instead we'll go out tonight

and try to get ice cream'.

'Aw, mom, They never have any.'

'Maybe they will this time.'

'Aw, mom. You always say that.'

'Would you rather stay home?'

'No. I want to go out.

I hate living this way.'

'Things'll get better some day.'

'That's what you always say.'








Denial is Cheaper

 


Relatively barren stretches

of the Atlantic ocean

and the Pacific ocean,

have recently expanded,

matching the warming trend

in the same regions. 

This duplicates a pattern

that scientists predict

occurs in global warming,

when warm surface waters

tend to block upswellings

of nutrient-filled water

necessary to support

plankton and other marine life. 

Corporations and government

won't allocate the cash

to repair our damaged seas,

blind to the threat to life.

It's easier to deny

the harmful effects

of global warming

than to lose profits

saving the fishes,

saving the oceans,

saving the earth.





Dead Zones, a poetic explanation

 


A dangerous process begins

when nitrogen-rich nutrients

from agriculture and sewage

spill into coastal waters

by way of rivers and streams

and stimulate the growth

of photosynthetic plankton

on the surface of coastal waters.

When organisms decay

they sink to the bottom

and are decomposed by microbes

that consume large amounts of oxygen.

As oxygen levels drop

at the bottom of the sea

most animals  cannot survive.

Dependents of the sea,

human and animal alike,

suffer the consequences

of diminishing food supplies

as our oceans become sterile.