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.
