Category Archives: Environment

Earth. global warming. climate change. care for tthe planet. sustainability. harmony with nature.

Poem: Every Stone Shall Cry

Posted on by
Reply

Original art by Susan Lince - "Every Stone Shall Cry"

Original art by Susan Lince – “Every Stone Shall Cry”

The stone lies
Near the pile of boulders
In the city park
Watching over the man asleep
In his cardboard shelter
And cries.

And every stone shall cry

The stone cries
Along the roadside
As the bomb explodes
Killing young soldiers
As well as the children nearby.

And every stone shall cry

The stone knows to cry
Even before the excavator
Upheaves the earth
To take away the coal
And leaves only a ragged empty space.

And every stone shall cry.

The ancient stones
Of the wailing wall
Cry as they have cried for centuries,
Listening to the prayers
Of the sufferers
And the selfish,
The grieving,
And the greedy
That reverberate
With echoes of misunderstanding
About who has been left out
Of the Kingdom of God on Earth.

And every stone shall cry.

Every stone shall cry
Yet goes unheard,
As humankind,
With hardening core,
Pushes violence, power,
Injustice, and neglect
Rumbling across the world
Like boulders.

– Susan Lince, artist and poet, Chaska, MN.

Planetary Pledge

Posted on by
7

We pledge allegiance to the earth

that sustains humanity,

and to the land, air, water, and sun

on which our future rests:

one fragile creation

in our hands to preserve and protect,

with equality, freedom, justice,

and peace for all

.

  – Steven Shoemaker and

Joan Humphrey Lefkow,

2007

The headless chicken brigade

Posted on by
Reply

Prince Charles recently called climate deniers “the headless chicken brigade”.</p>

“It is baffling, I must say, that in our modern world we have such blind trust in science and technology that we all accept what science tells us about everything – until, that is, it comes to climate science. 

“All of a sudden, and with a barrage of sheer intimidation, we are told by powerful groups of deniers that the scientists are wrong and we must  abandon all our faith in so much overwhelming scientific evidence.

“So, thank goodness for our young entrepreneurs here this evening, who have the far-sightedness and confidence in what they know is happening to ignore the headless chicken brigade and do something practical to help.

“As you may possibly have noticed from time to   time, I have tended to make a habit of sticking my head above the parapet and generally getting it shot off for pointing out what has always been blindingly obvious to me. 

“Perhaps it has been too uncomfortable for those with vested interests to acknowledge, but we have spent the best part of the past century enthusiastically testing the world to utter destruction; not looking closely enough at the long-term impact our actions will have.”

– Prince Charles at award ceremony honoring young green entrepreneur.

Think Headless Chicken Brigade Keystone Pipeline.

 

Winston Churchill on Climate Departure

Posted on by
9

What might Winston Churchill say about climate change and the prognosis of climate departure around 2020?

“So they go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent…  Owing to past neglect, in the face of the plainest warnings, we have entered upon a period of danger.  The era of procrastination, of half measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to its close.  In its place we are now entering a period of consequences….  We cannot avoid this period, we are in it now…” 

                 – Winston Churchill, November 12, 1936

 

The Last Lion - Winston Churchill

The Last Lion – Winston Churchill

The View from the Bristlecone Pines

Posted on by
2
Bristlecone Pines photo

Bristlecone Pines photo

Clinging tenaciously to the ridgetops
and twisted by the winds,
bristlecone pines are the oldest
living trees on Earth. The oldest
of them, found only in the White
Mountains of California, are
4,600 years old. Those pines were
already 1,400 years old when the
Egyptians were building the pyramids.

The Bristlecone Pines on Windy Ridge,
Colorado (picture, taken by friend
Harry Strong) are nearly 1,000 years
old.

These gnarled trees have endured
strong winds, cold temperatures,
drought and poor soils. They learn
to grow horizontally. The sign posted
on Windy Ridge invites visitors to
“walk through these survivors and
stand watch with them over the vast
South Park.”

How will these remarkably adaptive
creatures do with the projection of
Climate Departure? Are they calling
out for help from down below, echoed
back to them in song by Pete Seeger’s
“God’s Countin’ on Me; God’s Countin’
on you”?

You might say that Pete’s life was a
reply to the Bristlecone pines, a
modern day Habakkuk whose writing
we have from the time when the Bristle-
cone Pines were just teenagers:

“I will stand upon my
watch, and set me upon the tower,
and will watch to see [God] will say
to me, that I will answer when I am
reproved. And the LORD answered me,
and said, Write the vision and make
it plain upon tablets, that he may
run who reads it.”

Pete Seeger to the rest of us

Video

2

Pete Seeger sings a song that rallies the best in us to continue his work of changing the world. God’s countin’ on me; God’s countin’ on you!

Every Stone Shall Cry

Posted on by
Reply

 

The stone lies

Near the pile of boulders

In the city park

Watching over the man asleep

In his cardboard shelter

And cries.

 

And every stone shall cry

 

The stone cries

Along the roadside

As the bomb explodes

Killing young  soldiers

As well as the children nearby.

 

And every stone shall cry

 

The stone knows to cry

Even before the excavator

Upheaves the earth

To take away the coal

And leaves only a ragged empty space.

 

And every stone shall cry.

 

The ancient stones

Of the wailing wall

Cry as they have cried for centuries

Listening to the prayers

Of the sufferers

And the selfish

The grieving

And the greedy

That reverberate

With echoes of misunderstanding

About who has been left out

Of the Kingdom of God .

 

And every stone shall cry.

 

Every stone shall cry

Yet goes unheard

As humankind

With hardening core

Pushes  violence

Power

Injustice

And neglect

Rumbling across the world like boulders.

– Susan Lince, Chaska, MN, January 26, 2014

The Perpetual Question

Posted on by
4

Yet Again, for the 21st Century:

The Perpetual Question
 
Based upon a preponderance of evidence, the question of climate change and its potential ramifications is no longer a valid debate for the 21st century.  Once again, like thunder reverberating from Genesis, comes the ancient and perpetual question:

                             “Am I my Brother’s Keeper”?

As we reach the tipping point of climate and climate departure becomes a global concern through the remainder of the 21st Century, a driving and as yet unaddressed question looms large before us:

          “In light of what we now know, how are we to be the keepers of our brothers and sisters as our world changes and climate stress affects vast populations”?

The UN High Commission on Refuges (UNHCR) and the governments of the world have not yet addressed this question nor adopted a legal definition of “Climate Refugee”.

The year 2020 is a statistical marker, more or less, when we begin to see the first indications of climate departure in the western Pacific near Indonesia.  In the ensuing 50 years or so, climate departure is projected to spread from the tropics to the poles until it becomes global.

The time is NOW to begin the discussion. 

– John Lince-Hopkins, scientist, artist, and developer of Requiem.org. (http://requiem2020.org)

NOTE TO THE READER: Please chime in here or on Requiem.org and help spread awareness and the consideration of the question. Thank you, John, for raising the perpetual question.

Twilight on the Plains

Posted on by
Reply

Three things up above tonight,
No, four: last, a star, (the kite
First reached altitude), a hot
Air balloon was second, third,
Bright against the dark-turned
Sky–precisely half a moon.

Matches lit the hurricane
Lantern and a pipe beside
Rocking chair, plants, on side
Porch. Horizon towns show light
After light: gold, yellow, white.
Flashing red antennas point…

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, January 20, 2014

The Manatees at Blue Spring

Posted on by
4

Our hearts are strangely quieted. Calmed. At peace as we watch the West Indian Manatees move through the virgin waters of Blue Spring. We are standing on holy ground.

Manatee at Blue Spring

Manatee at Blue Spring

So gracefully does the Manatee approach the spring head, the deep vertical cave through the limestone that gently empties165 million gallons of water per day into the St. Johns River from the aquifer below, enough for every resident of greater Orlando to drink 50 gallons of water a day. The Manatee knows nothing of Orlando. Nothing of Epcot or Disney World. Nothing of vacations, technology, or malls, or the Holy Land amusement park. She lives where she is . . . in this undisturbed place where she spends her winters to survive the cold by the warm water of Blue Spring.

Her movements are effortless . . . fluid and gentle, like the water around her. Her huge flat tail, like a leaf wafting in a soft breeze, moves her through the aqua blue waters of the pool. Slowly, very slowly, she inches toward the edge of the black oblong opening in the water, the deep black hole in the Earth. Her tail stops moving. She stops. She stays very still. She lowers her head, alike the Virgin Mary pondering the mystery of the Incarnation, as if to bow down to the source of her life.

Blue Spring is its own kind of Temple. A sacred place of the deepest silence where only those natural to this habitat belong. Today I was there, and the beauty of it deepened the sense of wonder of flesh and blood and water and algae and sabal palms and a natural quiet. My head bows, mellowed and calmed, joining the Manatee, bowing over the place deep below the surface from which the pure water flows.