Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The UN hopes Marshall Islands Activist Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner’s sponsored poetry readings will convince us to get rid of our cars and switch off our home heating.
Can poetry turn the tide on climate change?
JANUARY 17, 2018 by JOHN DEXTER
Poetry seems an unlikely avenue for forcing action on climate change, but Marshallese poet and activist Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner has become a figure of hope for a nation under threat of rising sea levels.
It was her address at the 2014 United Nations Climate Summit that brought wider attention to Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner as a poet and activist, as well as the peril faced by the Marshall Islands and other pacific nations. Speaking as a Civil Society Representative, Jetnil-Kijiner described the dangers faced by oceanic nations in eloquent terms and implored world leaders to act quickly on climate change.
She subsequently performed her poem Dear Matafele Peinem, written as a promise to her daughter that the world would take action on climate change. The stirring call to arms and promise to future generations received a standing ovation on the UN floor.
Jetnil-Kijiner will appear at WOMADelaide this year in a Planet Talk titled Climate Justice and the Human Face of Climate Change with Ursula Rakova, Julian Burnside, Tim Costello and Ben Doherty.
…
“The thing that people need to understand is that the Marshall Islands is only two metres above sea level,” says Jetnil-Kijiner of her island home. “Because of the rising sea level, we’re getting floods that are destroying homes and destroying crops. It’s happening more frequently but also threatening the very existence of our islands. It’s been happening in the past five years more frequently than we’ve ever seen before. It’s happening right now. With the loss of the land comes the loss of cultural identity and our home and basically who we are as a people.”
…
Read more: https://www.adelaidereview.com.au/features/general/can-poetry-turn-tide-climate-change/
If you want to see Kathy live, Kathy will speak this March in Adelaide, Capital of South Australia.
I listened to half a minute Kathy’s poetry reading to the UN (see the video clip above). I think I prefer the poetry written by the fictional green alien from The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8JJH7ZL_Fk
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I hope her poetic speech won’t be interrupted by a power blackout.
That”d be some Climate Justice.
Vomit bucket emergency …
… and crap bucket emergency.
When someone like moi, who is partial to the arts, can say something like the above, then you know something is awry.
Well ….it is going on four years now …..
have the islands been swamped or turned over yet ?
/s
Which brings up and interesting fact…
If it can tip over….it’s floating
…that would fly right over Hank Johnson’ head
Well, I have it on good authority the Marshalls will sink… it’s Guam what will turn over ’cause of all the weight of too many peoples.
There once was a Paris Climate Accord
Which the United States could not afford!
Our new President Trump
threw the Accord in the dump
And the Socialist world squealed as if fatally gored!
And so we’ve been Gored and Mann-handled too long.
And “Going Green” without “green” is going to ground.
But, beware, Oh, my friends!
They’ve not given up! No, not at all!
Watch for the next thing that sticks to the wall!
Greenies who love to harass
tossed nuclear out on its ass.
Wind turbines all rusted,
and solar is busted,
but they manage to pass natural gas.
Hey, that’s nice. They’re providing jobs for people who are otherwise unemployable.
That’s what public universities are for…
I’ve got a poem she can recite (with apologies to those who’ve already seen it)
Mother Goose on Climate Prediction
As record winds blow
Unprecedented snow,
Oh, where is our globe a’ warming?
That depends on the sun
And the ways oceans run,
Plus clouds (with complexity) forming!
Now, for quite long,
Climate models are wrong.
So, what caused the pause in the warming?
Yes, look to the sun,
The ways oceans run,
And the clouds, in complexity forming.
CO2 is “too small”
To stop temperature’s fall
When the sun, clouds and oceans together,
Begin to cause cold
In cycles so old…
No one alive can remember!
So if I do some harm
By just keeping warm,
You’ll have to kindly forgive me!
I find my solution
Makes carbon pollution;
Lest Gaia too quickly outlives me!
Very good 🙂
“Because of the rising sea level, “
Really ????
Pacific Island sea levels to 2010. Marshall Islands at the top.
http://jonova.s3.amazonaws.com/graphs/ocean/sea-levels-south-pacific.jpg
Interesting. Any theories to explain that drop in 1997 or so? That was a big El Nino time. Does that fit this?
ENSO, and the PDO do seem to have some effect on sea level variability in the Pacific.
Only to be expected.
Your chart leaves out the DQ correction.
(DQ stands for Delusional Quotient)
Otherwise, I really appreciate your sharing it!
Sorry, Where do purchase some DQ?
UniNSW climate department. perhaps.
Maybe ANU, SMH, Flannery ????? ?
Oh wait, they are already using every scrap of DQ that they have.
“Sorry, Where do purchase some DQ?”
No no…you don’t purchase DQ, you purchase from DQ.
I get my blizzards there: https://www.dairyqueen.com/us-en/Menu/Treats/?localechange=1&
http://theconversation.com/dynamic-atolls-give-hope-that-pacific-islands-can-defy-sea-rise-25436
“Our study found that most of these islands either remained stable in size or grew larger over the past few decades, in spite of rising sea levels. “
And as shown above. sea level were not rising anyway.
They were rising, if you accept a zero or negative rising.
The 17th century ‘Ballad of King Canute’ closes the final stanza with:
“King Canute is dead and gone: Parasites exist alway.” Prophetic, isn’t it?
http://www.online-literature.com/thackeray/ballads-by-thackeray/53/
19th century…. (dang finger fumbles!)
2 meters is about 6 1/2 feet…..my house is 7 ft above MHT, mean high tide….do I get money too??
at around 1.5mm/year, 7ft = 2100mm (close enough)
So we will send you a cheque in 1400 years.. is that OK , Lat ?
absolutely!!……LOL
Good thing her ancestors learned how to sail.
I’ll go out on a limb and posit that’s probably how they arrived at their present location.
There once was a climate denier
Whom everyone said was a liar
They heckled and booed
And we’re terribly rude
So he froze them and put out the fire
“Singin’ In The Rain”
Remember, Vogon poetry is only the THIRD worst in the universe.
~¿~
Only in the minds of Liberal Arts majors is this a contribution to their climate religion.
You know the climate alarmists are getting desperate when they start calling upon poets to make their case. Who listens to poets even at the best of times?
Could be worse – they could have trotted out a mime. Maybe that’s next. He could mime drowning due to sea level rise of 1.75″ or catching on fire because of a temperature increase of 1.5 degrees.
‘And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;—
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems…’
O’Shaughnessey – 1873
Yep, Vogon poetry was the first thing I thought of, even before I saw the illustration!
I thought the illustration was the poetry event at the UN.
Her poetry does not change the fact that the climate change we have been experiencing is caused by the sun and the oceans over which mankind has no control. But she need not worry because if Mother Nature has her way, based on what has been happening in the past, in a few thousand years we will be desending into another ice age and sea levels will start to lower as more ice on land accumulates. If she does not like the climate where she lives she should move to somewhere else. Maybe marginal areas would be better off left as nature preserves.
It’s just desperation – she has a college class and the assignment is a poem on something socially relevant. I know this feeling, I’ve been desperate trying to write poetry
In honor of last Monday, you could plagiarize some of the above posts.
Eric, here’s one that dates back to 2015 called “Coming Out On Climate”
Authority figures, foretelling
Hot doom (and our “myths” dispelling),
Cast great dispersions
On skeptical versions
(Which keep carbon credits from selling)!
Now, shriller and louder they’re yelling,
To drown out the doubters’ rebelling!
New taxes are “just”
When you’ve gained public trust,
So “the questioners” (quickly) they’re quelling.
I’ve arrived at this realization;
Our industrial civilization
Can only be sin
If the ‘green’ Marxists win-
On their platform of demonization!
[The mods quote Poe’s raven, “Evermore Motion!” .mod]
Could you talk Anthony into setting up a page to post scientific and climate change poetry? I think it might be fun.
Don’t forget Ruairi’s Limericks on Jo Nova’s site. They are always good.
Contact Anthony directly via submit a story – send him a climate poem 🙂
“Odyssey from Africa (and the Adventures of Ipiki)” is an epic narrative poem telling the story behind the 60,000 years-ago exodus of modern humans from Africa that populated the rest of the world.
The poem’s meter is that of American poet Henry W Longfellow’s “Hiawatha”, i.e. inverse iambic tetrameter, in his epic poem about a mythical native north American hero – both poems are a similar length. Odyssey from Africa is a rare example of an “action poem” telling a story in which the climate is a player. While not overtly political, the poem makes it clear that violent swings of natural climate change took place in ancient history, far more extreme than anything experienced or even “projected” by today’s politically/financially motivated prophets of AGW disaster.
Thus in a subversive way it makes a case for climate skepticism by putting recent climate change in historical context.
It’s available as paperback and kindle; on the kindle link (“look inside”) the first few chapters can be read for free.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/197392479X
Climate sceptic numpties should appreciate every effort being made to highlight AGW. The last three years have been the hottest trio ever seen, with 2017 the hottest year on record without the El Nino boost. In addition, 17 of the 18 hottest years recorded since 1850 have occurred since 2000.
So, the evidence is staring you in the face that climate change is impacting this planet so I raise my glass to Marshallese poet and activist Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner – at least she isn’t sitting in front of a computer flagrantly denying what is going on around her:
https://mankindsdegradationofplanetearth.com/2018/01/19/2017-was-the-hottest-year-on-record-without-el-nino-boost/
Each of the last three millenia has been colder than the one before.
That’s the more relevant statistic.
Yawn. Let me know when the North Pole melts…
Go back to sleep my friend. The best thing for you.
could be this August…
I’ll be sure to tell you
(arctic sea ice at second lowest for time of year, heading for lowest: ice thid over the pole)
Griff:
And right now, as happens for eight months every year,
Less arctic sea ice = More heat loss from the exposed arctic ocean = A cooler planet.
Ed, pay attention. ARCTIC SUMMERS HAVE NOT BEEN ABOVE NORMAL. The anomalous winter temperatures are still below freezing. The sea ice will never disappear as long as the summers stay normal and the winters stay below freezing. However, come August maybe Mr. Worrall might remind us of your prediction and review its accuracy.
I believe increased Arctic sea ice is consistent with the Greenhouse Theory. I deduce this from the fact that there haven’t been a single weather event or other phenomena that would not be predicted by Hansen in 1988 in his holy writings called ‘testimony’.
Griff, I’m ready for a bet of €500 that the Arctic does not make a new minimum in next September.
The winter is mild here. That means the seawater cools down since it is not protected by snow.
Ivan
Presumably you are a denier that climate ever changed prior to the industrial revolution. This assumption is of course implicit in the use of the phrase “pre-industrial”. That would include also your denial of ice ages. But hey – it’s only those fossil fuel industry funded geologists who invent fictions like ice ages, so “progressives” climate scientists would necessarily deny ice ages also.
When has “climate change” not effected the planet?
Ivan,
Are you trying to drum up some hits on your blog by posting a link on the most read science blog on the net?
Hey everyone,
I wasted a click to see that there’s really nothing on his blog to see that hasn’t been said already been said ad nauseam.
Yes, 2017 was a whole .04 C warmer than 2015. Too bad the error bars are .1 C, making that difference irrelevant. And I love how they asterisk the El Nino years. “2017 Hottest Year Evah*” (*except El Nino years). Except for everyone taller than me, I am the tallest person in the room.
Here is the NASA GISS temperature data. See how small the yearly differences are compared to the error bar:
https://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/graph_data/Global_Mean_Estimates_based_on_Land_and_Ocean_Data/graph.txt
Oh, lookey, dear Ivankinsman comes out from under his rock to add nothing new to the conversation. Now, in a normal conversation, I would take the time to make some counterpoint arguments to your comments, but having seen how completely, illogically blinkered you are on the subject of AGW, I will not waste my time.
I will only say this.
That’s an impressive religion you practice.
They’ll be up there on the roof bolting on the solar panes, before Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner has got half way through her Ode to a Wind-Turbine. They will be screaming out, “I’ll fit an Elon Musk battery too if she’ll just shut up now!”
WOMADelaide 2018
https://www.womadelaide.com.au/
Annual iconic 4-day festival celebrating a World of Music, Arts and Dance. Botanic Park, Adelaide, South Australia.
Give her cerdit it is a long way to swim or canoe for anyone , for I am sure that they did not use the ‘evil planet killing ‘ airplanes to get there.