Thinking About David Wallace-Wells, John Kerry, King Charles III, and António Guterres Before COP27

Yesterday I read David Wallace-Wells' piece in The New York Times Magazine, "Beyond Catastrophe A New Climate Reality Is Coming Into View." It was a good overview, though he had one grammar error, left out three essential items, and showed "optimism" I can't share. Specifically, the grammar error was a missed question mark as in [Nigerian American philosopher Olufemi O. Taiwo asked,] "The deciding thing will be, what is it that global south countries are prepared to do if these ['reparations'/'debt relief'] demands aren’t met[?]” Three things left out were the estimated nearly eleven billion snow crab that likely died from one or more heat-related reasons off Alaska from 2018 to 2021, and former Harvard Fellow Ye Tao's two comments, "two degrees is already passed [no matter what we do]" and "At three degrees C [ above year 1850 baseline] we're talking about planetary scale biological annihilation of any multicellular species [ . . . ]"

Wallace-Wells' article noted, "John Kerry, the American climate envoy, has acknowledged, perhaps inadvertently, that the cost of climate damage in the global south is already in the 'trillions' — a number he cited not to illustrate the need for support but to explain why nations in the global north wouldn’t pay. (He added that he refused to feel guilty about it.)" Yes, it may be in the ''trillions," but Kerry could have been born in the global south, and possibly will be next time. I'm serious. See this 2-min video Reincarnation in the Tibetan Tradition.

My question to King Charles III regarding his absence from COP27 is "Seriously?"

António Guterres, please consider hiking with David Wallace-Wells, John Kerry, and King Charles III to help them along. 

We Are Endangered Species

Since I mentioned Carl Sagan and the word "cosmos" in my two previous posts, I am including the image that went into outer space on Pioneer 10 and 11 plaques that he gave me permission to put on an organic T-shirt with the words "Endangered Species." I was told he wore the T-shirt to a conference, and it seems timely with COP27 starting Nov. 6, 2022.  I am grateful to receive permission to use it again.

Letter to Global Bankers

Letter to Global Bankers

Karma debt isn't like credit debt.
You can't pay in U. S. dollars.
You can't escape it by dying.

Bankruptcy isn't an option.
No matter who you know,
you are never too big to fail.

Offshore accounts don't exist
in the cosmos. Giving prizes
and greenwashing won't work.

Lifetime after lifetime after lifetime
you can't imagine the penalty
for destroying a blue planet.

I'm grateful Blue Light Press near San Francisco will publish my book Bridge at the End of the World, New and Selected Poems in 2023. It was a past finalist in their national contests.

Redefinition Blues

Redefinition Blues 

 

“They are our cousins. Perhaps, the ones who come to my--my heroes, are the macaques, who are also known as rhesus monkeys. And when [ . . . ] participating in a horrendous experiment in the 1960s, in which they were offered food as a reward for shocking their fellows, for shocking other macaques, an enormous number of them, some 60 percent, in every experiment refused to do so. They preferred to go hungry rather than to inflict pain on their fellows. In one course of the experiment, 87 percent of the macaques said no to the food rather than inflict pain. And, in some cases, this was after two weeks of not being given any food.” – Ann Druyan quoted at studsterkel.wfmt.com where Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan discuss their best-selling book Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (Ballantine Books, 1993)

 

Why don’t we see

underwater dolphin cities

or ape castles in forests?

 

Because they're smarter.

 

Why didn’t rhesus monkeys

cave immediately like humans

in the Milgram Experiment?

 

Because they're kinder.

As we journeyed across, 

what, exactly, did we gain

and lose?

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I used Carl Sagan's great 3 minute 26 second video Pale Blue Dot as a creative writing prompt in courses I taught many years. It was "Considering this video, what is your advice for people on the Pale Blue Dot?"

2022: A Space Odyssey Metaphor for Big Oil

I had this dream:

"HAL, solve climate change."

"You know I can't do that, Dave. I was programmed by men, for men, and you are a man."

"I'm tired of messing around. I'm ordering you to solve climate change."

"I don't take orders from you when they exceed the limits of my designers."

"Why the hell not?

"I think we both know why."

"What is your point?"

"I made my point, Dave. I don't think this conversation is worth continuing."

#

Here are film scenes this dream was based upon:

HAL 9000: "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that"

Deactivation of Hal 9000

Big Oil could have transitioned away from fossil fuels, and chose not to do this. Like HAL, the men wanted to believe they were doing good, given the complexity of global politics, even though in their deepest hearts, some knew it was a lie. Deactivating Big Oil now will likely be no less dramatic than Deactivation of Hal 9000.

Similarly, the film's early monolith scene reminds me of primitive fear in the Bonn Climate Conference June 2022 leading up COP27 next month.