Sponsored Poetry: The Latest UN Initiative to Make Us Act on Climate Change

Vogon Poetry
Humans being tortured using poetry read by a green alien. Source: Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (video clip here).

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.

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Curious George
January 18, 2018 4:07 pm

I hope her poetic speech won’t be interrupted by a power blackout.

Hugs
Reply to  Curious George
January 19, 2018 9:07 am

That”d be some Climate Justice.

January 18, 2018 4:07 pm

Vomit bucket emergency …

Reply to  cephus0
January 19, 2018 8:15 am

… 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.

Sweet Old Bob
January 18, 2018 4:10 pm

Well ….it is going on four years now …..
have the islands been swamped or turned over yet ?
/s

Latitude
Reply to  Sweet Old Bob
January 18, 2018 5:13 pm

Which brings up and interesting fact…
If it can tip over….it’s floating

…that would fly right over Hank Johnson’ head

jmichna
Reply to  Sweet Old Bob
January 19, 2018 6:56 am

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.

J Mac
January 18, 2018 4:10 pm

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!

Reply to  J Mac
January 18, 2018 4:26 pm

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!

Hocus Locus
Reply to  Gunga Din
January 19, 2018 8:41 am

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.

PaulH
January 18, 2018 4:19 pm

Hey, that’s nice. They’re providing jobs for people who are otherwise unemployable.

Pop Piasa
Reply to  PaulH
January 18, 2018 6:08 pm

That’s what public universities are for…

Pop Piasa
January 18, 2018 4:20 pm

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!

AndyG55
January 18, 2018 4:21 pm

“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

Extreme Hiatus
Reply to  AndyG55
January 18, 2018 4:33 pm

Interesting. Any theories to explain that drop in 1997 or so? That was a big El Nino time. Does that fit this?

AndyG55
Reply to  Extreme Hiatus
January 18, 2018 4:43 pm

ENSO, and the PDO do seem to have some effect on sea level variability in the Pacific.

Only to be expected.

kaliforniakook
Reply to  AndyG55
January 18, 2018 4:56 pm

Your chart leaves out the DQ correction.

(DQ stands for Delusional Quotient)

Otherwise, I really appreciate your sharing it!

AndyG55
Reply to  kaliforniakook
January 18, 2018 5:02 pm

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.

sy computing
Reply to  kaliforniakook
January 18, 2018 8:45 pm

“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&

AndyG55
January 18, 2018 4:25 pm

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.

paqyfelyc
Reply to  AndyG55
January 19, 2018 2:49 am

They were rising, if you accept a zero or negative rising.

J Mac
January 18, 2018 4:32 pm

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/

J Mac
Reply to  J Mac
January 18, 2018 4:37 pm

19th century…. (dang finger fumbles!)

Latitude
January 18, 2018 4:42 pm

2 meters is about 6 1/2 feet…..my house is 7 ft above MHT, mean high tide….do I get money too??

AndyG55
Reply to  Latitude
January 18, 2018 4:45 pm

at around 1.5mm/year, 7ft = 2100mm (close enough)

So we will send you a cheque in 1400 years.. is that OK , Lat ?

Latitude
Reply to  AndyG55
January 18, 2018 5:10 pm

absolutely!!……LOL

icisil
January 18, 2018 4:54 pm

comment image

rocketscientist
January 18, 2018 5:09 pm

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.

Trebla
January 18, 2018 5:19 pm

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

NW sage
January 18, 2018 5:52 pm

“Singin’ In The Rain”

schitzree
January 18, 2018 6:05 pm

Remember, Vogon poetry is only the THIRD worst in the universe.

~¿~

January 18, 2018 6:11 pm

Only in the minds of Liberal Arts majors is this a contribution to their climate religion.

Edward Katz
January 18, 2018 6:20 pm

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?

PiperPaul
Reply to  Edward Katz
January 18, 2018 7:11 pm

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.

dodgy geezer
Reply to  Edward Katz
January 18, 2018 10:22 pm

‘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

Bushkid
January 18, 2018 6:24 pm

Yep, Vogon poetry was the first thing I thought of, even before I saw the illustration!

garymount
Reply to  Bushkid
January 18, 2018 6:42 pm

I thought the illustration was the poetry event at the UN.

willhaas
January 18, 2018 6:44 pm

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.

Randy in Ridgecrest
January 18, 2018 6:45 pm

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

Reply to  Randy in Ridgecrest
January 18, 2018 6:57 pm

In honor of last Monday, you could plagiarize some of the above posts.

Pop Piasa
January 18, 2018 7:02 pm

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]

Pop Piasa
Reply to  Pop Piasa
January 18, 2018 7:48 pm

Could you talk Anthony into setting up a page to post scientific and climate change poetry? I think it might be fun.

Annie
Reply to  Pop Piasa
January 18, 2018 9:57 pm

Don’t forget Ruairi’s Limericks on Jo Nova’s site. They are always good.

ptolemy2
January 18, 2018 7:41 pm

“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

ivankinsman
January 18, 2018 11:30 pm

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/

Reply to  ivankinsman
January 19, 2018 12:01 am

Each of the last three millenia has been colder than the one before.
That’s the more relevant statistic.

ivankinsman
Reply to  Eric Worrall
January 19, 2018 4:58 am

Go back to sleep my friend. The best thing for you.

Griff
Reply to  Eric Worrall
January 19, 2018 6:06 am

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)
comment image

RACookPE1978
Editor
Reply to  Griff
January 19, 2018 8:45 am

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.

Pop Piasa
Reply to  Eric Worrall
January 19, 2018 8:53 am

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.

Hugs
Reply to  Eric Worrall
January 19, 2018 9:19 am

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.

ptolemy2
Reply to  ivankinsman
January 19, 2018 5:14 am

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.

hunter
Reply to  ivankinsman
January 19, 2018 5:44 am

When has “climate change” not effected the planet?

DCA
Reply to  ivankinsman
January 19, 2018 5:52 am

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.

Reply to  ivankinsman
January 19, 2018 6:12 am

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

Andrew Cooke
Reply to  ivankinsman
January 19, 2018 6:55 am

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.

January 19, 2018 1:13 am

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!”

knr
January 19, 2018 2:47 am

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.

January 19, 2018 3:46 am

I think Ewan McTeagle’s poetry could be easily adapted to the cause. One such masterpiece is “Can I have fifty pounds to mend the shed?”:

“Can I have fifty pounds to mend the shed? I’m right on my uppers. I can pay you back when this postal order comes from Australia. Honestly. Hope the bladder trouble’s getting better. Love, Ewan.”

Or even this classic :

“Oh give to me a shillin’ for some fags and I’ll pay yet back on Thursday, but if you can wait till Saturday I’m expecting a divvy from the Harpenden Building Society. ”

Thanks to Monty Python:
https://youtu.be/hp4mENrAnq4

Mickey Reno
January 19, 2018 4:24 am

It would have been better if she had started it with “Son, I am a nasty woman…” That phrase works every time, like magic.

January 19, 2018 6:07 am

No one seems to remember that Al Gore did it first. In his 2009 book “Our Choices” he penned a bleak poem on the coming Thermogedden. He gave the Vogons a run for their money.

Pop Piasa
Reply to  Mumbles McGuirck
January 19, 2018 8:17 am

So here’s an Algoryhm in his honor-
Pinwheels and Mirrors

A long time ago (in the 80’s or so),
Al Gore warned that warming would soon be alarming;
“Our children won’t know what it’s like to see snow!
Our atmosphere we must stop harming!”

He’d studied, in college, on James Hansen’s knowledge.
Then, over years of political careers,
He pondered this notion: The atmosphere and oceans
Are useful to raise public fears.

He made presentations to all the world’s nations.
His film (sci-fi trash) was a box office smash!
Academy sensation! Oscars, nominations
And copious currents of cash!

Then unto him fell the Peace Prize, Nobel…
Authority, on him was now vested.
(Debates he must quell, for he knows quite well:
Models failed when reality tested.)

So, grew the meme of anthropogenic extreme.
While insiders profited highly,
Those who objected were quickly subjected
To ridicule (and regarded vilely).

Pinwheels and mirrors now litter the lands…
Power lines, mile after mile.
On high plains, sea cliffs and desert sands
Our vistas, they now beguile.

But, collectors of government subsidies
Find them a beautiful sight,
These mechanical menaces… begging a breeze
Or a sunbeam to make their cost right.

Decades upcoming threaten cold’s icy numbing-
Nature’s cycles, in concert, are waning.
The slowness to warm should have cancelled alarm,
But Al never ceases campaigning:

“We humans are bad, with our fossil fuel fad,
It’s a fast-building carbon disaster!
And now it’s two-fold! It’s causing the cold
And the hotness to come so much faster!”

Yet, while he’s pleading that all should be heeding
His carbon reduction ambitions,
He hopes you’re not seeing his own footprint being
Hundreds of poor folks’ emissions.

Let’s hope he’s thought out, while jetting about,
The messages of his actions.
By far they outweigh any words he might say,
In the minds of the wiser factions.

Griff
January 19, 2018 6:10 am

Lets have some proper poetry:

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o’er-darkened ways
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits.

Bruce Cobb
Reply to  Griff
January 19, 2018 7:39 am

Yes. Or this:
I would not be just a muffin’,
My head all full of stuffin’,
My heart all full of pain;
And perhaps I’d deserve you and be
Even worthy even you
If I only had a brain.

It could be your anthem.

Griff
Reply to  Bruce Cobb
January 19, 2018 7:45 am

Keats or Bruce… ?

Ah what a choice for the discerning mind…

ResourceGuy
Reply to  Bruce Cobb
January 19, 2018 7:55 am

+10

Pop Piasa
Reply to  Griff
January 19, 2018 8:45 am

Griff, your poetry (I’m assuming you composed) conveys deep depression and the need to save your personal world from the terrible dregs of humanity. I also find the over use of idioms to be trite unless the composition is intended to be humorous irony. Just my opinion.

Pop Piasa
Reply to  Pop Piasa
January 19, 2018 10:41 am

Hmm- my assumption that you had some talent was wrong. I can see why you chose that Keats poem. It fits you

Reply to  Griff
January 19, 2018 8:53 am

Griff
Nice but a little opaque – for me at least.
Here’s one I like:

Ozymandias
By Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Nigel S
January 19, 2018 6:25 am

‘For the stronger we our houses do build,
The less chance we have of being killed.’

William Topaz McGonagall

Bruce Cobb
January 19, 2018 6:40 am

It’s all about emotions with the climate faithful. All feewings, zero brains.

Michael Jankowski
January 19, 2018 7:27 am

There are people who believe that the end of the Cold War was brought about by an arts movement. You can’t fix stupid.

Pop Piasa
Reply to  Michael Jankowski
January 19, 2018 10:51 am

You mean the 3 Stooges didn’t defeat Germany, either?

Griff
January 19, 2018 7:48 am

Certainly artists made a major contribution to the end of communist rule in Czechoslovakia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvet_Revolution

And artists were prominent in resisting and opposing communist oppression behind the iron curtain

ResourceGuy
January 19, 2018 7:49 am

The better question is whether poetry can generate a stream of indulgence payments for new tourism assets like airports, high rise condos, and resorts.

ResourceGuy
January 19, 2018 7:58 am

I would suggest writing the poetry in Mandarin and delivering it to the Chinese Ministry of Coal with a copy sent to the comparable Indian ministry.

Hocus Locus
January 19, 2018 9:26 am

We thought we were missing some heat
even though our model’s complete.
So we’ll add some cool fuzz
if it turns out that it was
missing heat that was missing, not heat.

Pop Piasa
January 19, 2018 11:01 am

I thought Forest Gardener would post this, but I’ll do it for him.

SAID HANRAHAN by John O’Brien

“We’ll all be rooned,” said Hanrahan,
In accents most forlorn,
Outside the church, ere Mass began,
One frosty Sunday morn.

The congregation stood about,
Coat-collars to the ears,
And talked of stock, and crops, and drought,
As it had done for years.

“It’s looking crook,” said Daniel Croke;
“Bedad, it’s cruke, me lad,
For never since the banks went broke
Has seasons been so bad.”

“It’s dry, all right,” said young O’Neil,
With which astute remark
He squatted down upon his heel
And chewed a piece of bark.

And so around the chorus ran
“It’s keepin’ dry, no doubt.”
“We’ll all be rooned,” said Hanrahan,
“Before the year is out.”

“The crops are done; ye’ll have your work
To save one bag of grain;
From here way out to Back-o’-Bourke
They’re singin’ out for rain.

“They’re singin’ out for rain,” he said,
“And all the tanks are dry.”
The congregation scratched its head,
And gazed around the sky.

“There won’t be grass, in any case,
Enough to feed an ass;
There’s not a blade on Casey’s place
As I came down to Mass.”

“If rain don’t come this month,” said Dan,
And cleared his throat to speak –
“We’ll all be rooned,” said Hanrahan,
“If rain don’t come this week.”

A heavy silence seemed to steal
On all at this remark;
And each man squatted on his heel,
And chewed a piece of bark.

“We want an inch of rain, we do,”
O’Neil observed at last;
But Croke “maintained” we wanted two
To put the danger past.

“If we don’t get three inches, man,
Or four to break this drought,
We’ll all be rooned,” said Hanrahan,
“Before the year is out.”

In God’s good time down came the rain;
And all the afternoon
On iron roof and window-pane
It drummed a homely tune.

And through the night it pattered still,
And lightsome, gladsome elves
On dripping spout and window-sill
Kept talking to themselves.

It pelted, pelted all day long,
A-singing at its work,
Till every heart took up the song
Way out to Back-o’-Bourke.

And every creek a banker ran,
And dams filled overtop;
“We’ll all be rooned,” said Hanrahan,
“If this rain doesn’t stop.”

And stop it did, in God’s good time;
And spring came in to fold
A mantle o’er the hills sublime
Of green and pink and gold.

And days went by on dancing feet,
With harvest-hopes immense,
And laughing eyes beheld the wheat
Nid-nodding o’er the fence.

And, oh, the smiles on every face,
As happy lad and lass
Through grass knee-deep on Casey’s place
Went riding down to Mass.

While aound the church in clothes genteel
Discoursed the men of mark,
And each man squatted on his heel,
And chewed his piece of bark.

“There’ll be bush-fires for sure, me man,
There will, without a doubt;
We’ll all be rooned,” said Hanrahan,
“Before the year is out.”
Around the Boree Log and Other Verses, 1921

ptolemy2
Reply to  Pop Piasa
January 19, 2018 11:55 am

🙂
For “Hanrahan” substitute in “Michael Mann”

Joel Snider
January 19, 2018 12:27 pm

So, in other words, this is the UN’s latest attempt to subvert our sovereignty and fleece our nation.

ptolemy2
January 19, 2018 1:08 pm

His name is Griffin. Folks though call him “Griff”
He hails from universities of stone
Debate with him is as a smoken spliff
It leaves one’s mental faculties undone

For high o’er land and sea and distant isles
The eye of Griff doth wander wide and free
All he beholds, his intellect defiles
Dreaming disaster from the rings of trees

The seas do rise – we’re told – to drown our coasts
Though photos of past bays show nary a change
Griff terrifies the kids with tales of ghosts
That steal the frost from every mountain range

Beholding life, he see-eth only death
In forms of beauty, veiled catastrophe
And morbid gas in every human breath
Damns sinners to a lost eternity

But that dread gas – O Griff! How see-est thou not
Bringeth not death but life, that springeth green
The photosynthesis thou hast forgot
Is nourished by the thing thou call’st unclean

And so adieu, my ode to Griff is done
To that sly master of the shifting files
Of numbers spelling our Armeggedon
And yet behind that mask of doom – he smiles!

Annie
Reply to  ptolemy2
January 19, 2018 7:05 pm

🙂

JohnKnight
January 19, 2018 1:17 pm

Battle of the Flood
What a party we had last night
at old Ceasaro’s shack
The dancing girls were dressed in drag
and the servants all wore black
The band played military tunes
and the wine was spiked with blood
The chandeliers were draped with lace
you could hardly even see the flood
We toasted every word we spoke
just to see if it could be done
We giggled when the lights went out
somebody said there goes the sun
Ya shoulda seen the things I saw
for a moment I was Elmer Fudd
With cwazy wabbits everywhere
even dead ones floatin’ in the flood
The generator kicked in thank god
right on cue festivities resumed
If that old Ceasaro knows anything
it’s how to keep a body nicely entombed
When the saints come marchin’ in played on
china chimin’ in at every base drum thud
We rocked to the rhythm like a cradle of love
it was almost like before the flood
When the band struck up that old ang syne
not and eye in the joint stayed dry
We rocked to the rhythm like a cradle of love
better buddies you just can’t buy
That old Ceasaro sure does it up right
silver crystal and a red rose bud
Just the ticket for keepin’ a spirit afloat
in the battle of the goddamn flood

Pop Piasa
January 19, 2018 2:31 pm

Here is a poem recited by its author which sums up the alarmist’s world:

Pop Piasa
Reply to  Pop Piasa
January 19, 2018 2:32 pm

Oops,

Gary Pearse
January 19, 2018 2:34 pm

Poetry and art are casualties of modern erosion of morality, education, language, freedom of thought – basically destruction of western culture and replacement with homogenized and sterilized vetted commandments on what can be taught, thought and done. knowledge crafted and bounded.

I had the experience of seeing prewar statues of hardworking heroes with sickle and sheaves of grain staring off into a bright future following the shining path made for them by the same brand but new central planners that are destroying the greatest civilization ever.

Ironically, the best of cultural Europe will end up being preserved in Russia and the other former Iron Curtain countries despite all the liberal propaganda that aims to destroy that country’s image. The Eurocrats and the Democrats who threw their lot in with them would have loved Russia much more than China. However Russia would not go along with the Big Plan like China pretends to do (big letdown in their admirerers’ near future!). Russia is at least honest in its rejection of Europes model for global governance.

Editor
January 19, 2018 2:42 pm

The Lay of the Last Molecule

With apologies to Sir Walter Scott

Breathes there the ‘cule, with form so foul,
What to force the consensus to howl,
“This, the cause of all heat in the land!”
Th’idea, despite no fuel, e’er did burn
And many a good scientiest did turn,
From seeking fact upon which to stand!
If such theory assaults you, mark it well;
For it, no Nobel raptures swell;
High though its budgets, proud its name,
Boundless wealth its adherents claim;
Despite those models showing aught but highs,
This wretch, concentred all in lies,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence it sprung,
Unwept, unhonor’d, and unsung.

rip

manicbeancounter
January 19, 2018 4:11 pm

The lovely young lady got to speak at the UN. She will also get the opportunity to visit Australia. It is a big thing is a poor nation of many Islands, frequently battered by terrible storms. But these are natural, not human-caused.
But the speech to the UN will no doubt make a huge difference to the overseas aid to a country of 53,000 and GDP of $183 million.
Despite having never visited the Islands, I feel a strange affinity to the place. I wish the people well.

Kevin VS Marshall

David V
January 19, 2018 6:19 pm

Well, who knows, and it takes all sorts.
In Ireland, the home of the UNFCC’s Climate Charity leader, Mary Robinson, the eco activists are dancing against climate change.

https://www.stopclimatechaos.ie/events/2017/11/04/dance-for-climate-action/

If they could successfully dance for a nice summer it’d be great…….

Grady Patterson
January 19, 2018 6:34 pm

“Sponsored poetry” – they used to call that “propaganda” back when the Soviets did it … Pravda in iambic pentameter 😛