RANTS: IS THE END IS NIGH?

Flying to Antarctica

I always dreamed

of flying to Antarctica,

of crossing the frigid ocean

to that wind-swept place

at the end of things,

and see for myself the land of

scoured rocks, ancient glaciers,

and unbearable cold.

I’d fly low over its frozen shores

and wave my metal wings

at the parades of smiling penguins

walking in their long lines

to where it is they have to go.

Then I’d fly, like Byrd did,

over the miles-deep ice,

to the white heart of it until,

upside down at the bottom

of the world,

with all the blood

rushing to my head,

I’d point my craft to the top.

ODD LITTLE POEM. Written a number of years ago. Fun. I like it. It has a childlike quality to it that, well, reminds me of my childhood and what it was like as a young boy, and to dream heroic dreams about great journeys and epic adventures. I could have written with equal enthusiasm about the Amazon, and exploring that vast region of forest with all its mysterious terrain. The poles, north and south, and the Amazon were often in my imagination as a boy, as they no doubt were for many children of my generation. (I wonder what children today dream about? What lands they want to explore and visit? What do eight, ten-year olds make of the Arctic or the Antarctic or the Amazon rain forest today?) As a youth, I read about explorers like Shackleton and Ross, and their incredible hardships just reaching, let alone surviving, the harsh conditions of that great southern continent; or also the Amazon, where you could get swallowed up in that great mass of jungle and never return. For me growing up, those places of the earth were unconquerable; they would last unchanged until the end of time. 
So, like those eight, ten-year olds of today, I read and learn about climate change and global warming, desertification and melting glaciers. And those ‘lodestones’ of permanence that as a child gave me comfort and a mind filled with wonder and adventures became “endangered”, were “ecosystems under attack”.   
By us, primarily. By how we live. By our use of fossil fuels. By our industries. Even by our science. So I wonder what this generation’s youth dream of, and what will be in the dreams of coming generations? Where will their journeys of imagination take them?


I recently read a powerful essay by Catherine Ingram, “Facing Extinction”, published online here . As you might gather from the title, it's not an easy read. Nevertheless, it is a comprehensive analysis of where we stand and where we're heading. Her conclusions are dire, and most people would reject them as far, far too pessimistic. She envisions a world made uninhabitable for humans through climate destruction and environmental damage, though no doubt those pesky microbes will thrive like always. Just so you know, the possible extinction of the human race is a topic that is generally not a good ice breaker at parties. Believe me, I've tried! But, her analysis of the scientific data, presented clearly for the lay reader, and her discussion concerning the political and social factors that combine to create a ‘chain-reaction’ of climate instability and environmental degradation, buttress her dark conclusions.

I have been called a “doomer” with my views on the current state of things, but Catherine takes it a step further. Yet, I agree with her conclusions, particularly her thoughts on the feeble, misdirected, and self-serving political responses (past, present and no doubt future) on the part of our governments, institutions and NGOs as they for the most part fail to respond to the great existential crisis of our times. We are indeed racing towards the cliff, full-throttled. In her final analysis, she predicts the overall failure of our planet’s ecological and climatic systems within decades. There have been others with similar predictions for both near-term and long-term time frames, but I recommend her essay for its comprehensive and readable overview and it’s well-crafted prose. It is a passionate and perilous, articulate and ultimately humane eulogy for the human race.*

*I think her analyses of the ecological, political, social and technological (as well as “techno-fix”) quandaries that we find ourselves mired in are spot on. Where I might see a glimmer of hope [As I write this Tony Bennett’s “Foolish Heart” is playing on the radio. I'm not kidding you! Ed.] is in the financial system’s premature demise, and how this might ‘put the brakes on’ our rampant and destructive industrialism, coupled, of course, with the arrival of “The Four Horsemen”, who always  are there to assist a civilization gone past its due date. It is possible that rapid deindustrialization may be our only hope. 
(The proposed "Green New Deal" in the United States seems to have something for everyone and makes a great number of promises. Everything will be green, from cars to the power grid, AND we can keep everything that we have? Foolish hearts, indeed. Though I must admit that some proposals are laudable, if unrealistic.)

[The photograph is one taken by my father on his trip to northern Ontario in the late 1930s or early 1940s where he worked surveying canal and transmission line routes for Hydro Ontario. I did some Photshoppy thing to it, I guess. The original is buried in an ancient crypt, along with some mummies that I am sure are beginning to stir right about now.]