“A Warming World” (a warning on the state of Mother Nature)

This poem is part of a new series, “Poetic Science”, presenting all proses, poems, and other pieces of creative writing on the state of the scientific world around us. Want your poems posted? Email teenlyticalnews@gmail.com.

 

By Teenlytical Content Team

The causes and consequences of global warming are far more than merely automobile emissions and rising sea levels, respectively. Melting permafrost — frozen soil, gravel, or sand bound by ice — releases gases as it collapses due to the ice in its vicinity thawing from warmer air. A terrifying reality is that an increase of 3 degrees Celcius “could melt 30 to 85 percent of the top permafrost layers that exist across the arctic region”, which would inevitably damage the equilibrium in the existing ecosystems by suddenly changing the habitats of animals residing in those areas. And, melting permafrost isn’t a detriment to only polar bears and wolves, but it is a detriment to human society too. From the release of ancient micro-organisms like bacteria and viruses to the destruction of infrastructure like roads, permafrost could place Arctic societies in as much risk as their ecosystems.

Hence, the point is, global warming is multi-faceted. It doesn’t solely affect the animal kingdom, or induce the sea to rise. It doesn’t merely melt the glaciers. Its causal factors are not limited to factories and cars. To spread awareness of the unfortunate diversity of impacts global warming has had on our Earth, I wrote a poem, titled “A Warming World“: 

I used to believe that Earth
Would always remain a natural wonderland
Where life flourished from within
And on top of the brown palm
And in the blueness of the sea roamed joyous creatures
But now my certitude is crumbling
I look out the window and see
A roaring red ravaging ancient trees
Glaciers losing their brothers and sisters, one by one
The ravenous ocean lusting for more land to swallow
Hurricanes ravaging homes with their deep breaths of destruction

A lifeless grey masking vibrant colors of coral like a shroud

Flooding in the south, droughts in the north
Lakes with scaly skin and wrinkles, its life dried out
The last of species, whimpering on the cliff of extinction