Tom Toles for January 02, 2020

If you are still uncertain about the fact of climate change, I encourage you to volunteer as a canary. Obviously, we need several more.

Australia is suffering, and we’re not far behind. The mine is world-wide.

Things are only just warming up, folks. The main acts haven’t yet started…

[[ to meter-stumbling readers: – Try 4 beats for lines 1 and 4, and 2 beats for other lines. ]]

Epitaph: “Kilt by Rage” – {rhyme}

Mankind wrote their history’s last page,

where politically enraged

factions engaged, -

- rather than cooperate in actions

‘gainst carbon-extractions

and Nature’s reactions.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Along with the koalas. The driest continent on earth, with a government of climate change-denying, bible thumping, plutocracy serving, increasingly authoritarian reactionaries. Sound familiar?

The Australian coal miners must vote for the present party in power. What other country would be so stupid?

That canary has stopped tweeting. :-(

What canary? RUN!

Only in politically inspired Rovian style alt-realities is there no cause and effect, or math, or science, or common sense or climate change.

Our deputy Prime Minister thinks its all the fault of exploding horse shit. True.

{Off-topic:}

Twump’s Tweets – {Haiku: 5 syllables, then 7, then 5. Extra points if it rhymes} – A pair of Haiku verses – - -

When The Donald tweets,

confusing facts with deceits:

Sanity retreats.

…

Truth faces defeats

when often Trump’s fib repeats.

“STOP IT!!”, one entreats.

. . . . . . . . . .

That bird has flown,,,flamed.

It ain’t the coal mine that is the problem.. the problem is there are too many people wanting electricity. And.. like it or not, coal is still a cheap source for providing it.

A footnote…. Aussie firefighters have been taking vocational training from CA…

Ummm

…. looks like Aussie pols are taking vocational training from t-drumph.

Hm. Their PM is flipping everyone the bird.

Imitation of “Yellow Bird”

( Apologies to the original lyricists)

.

“Calling Canary Birds”

Canary bird, down deep in dark coal mine,

Canary bird, your death to be a sign —

.

That deadly gas fumes are in the air,

Not fair that miners get out of there

But you cannot break out and fly —

Your job was to stop singing and die!

But their turn will come very soon.

.

Canary bird, dead deep in dark coal shaft,

Canary bird, killed by a mere gaseous waft.

.

Birds of your kind are dispensable,

But what, too, is reprehensible

Is that our plight should now outrage

‘Cause we are canaries in an Earth-sized cage.

But who will our deaths nobly warn?

.

Canary bird, you were caged against your will.

But we aren’t birds, bred for bad gases to kill.

So why do we perch closed in a cage

With clever words as bars to assuage

Growing knowledge of doom?

.

We shouldn’t be like canary birds

Swinging sweetly on perches to die!

Sing defiance to false Denier words,

Fly free, don’t be canary birds!

Don’t be canary birds!

Remember, when you point out the similarities of their political leadership, both the US and Oz were originally settled by transported convicts (New South Wales and Georgia) and some of that still affects our thinking while voting.

According to wiki, in 2016 Australia produced 503 million tons (or is that tonnes?) of coal, making it the 4th largest producer in the world, and exported 77% of it. And the massive new Carmichael coal mine has received approval and is proceeding apace. Ain’t capitalism grand?

“Catastrophic” is the term I keep seeing. And just looking at the pictures is shocking enough.

The number of hectares burned in New South Wales ALONE, just since July 1, are over four times the area of the Amazon 2019 fires (which have already had a substantial and scary impact on our environment), and five times that of the 2018 California fires).

A visual map: https://myfirewatch.landgate.wa.gov.au

The relative sizes: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-50951043

The questions now begin.

Will we have a 120 degree summer with fires?

Have we let Climate Change go on for too long?

What will the next summer in Australia be like?

Obviously the Republicans don’t care at all.

{Off-topic:}

Expunge this Prez – {re Rhythm: Four beats for each of the first 4 lines, than Three beats per line}

O’er and o’er his ways he’s repeating,

e’en tho’ our nation he’s thereby defeating.

O’er and o’er his schtick he rehearses,

e’en tho’ our karma he thereby reverses.

This prez we MUST expunge

lest our nation continue to plunge.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Koalas and kanga-aroos

Are burning (it’s in all the news!)

Though taking a toll

It’s “same-ol, same-ol”

Let’s switch to cute kitties for views!

The Yellow Bird of Warming is dying

The Blue Bird of Smarming is thriving

The Yellow Bird is sensitive to the dangers

The Blue Bird is insensitive to all but its owner

The Yellow Bird is a Cassandra if not heeded

The Blue Bird twitter so loudly it drowns out the Yellow

The Yellow Bird lives to keep from dying

The Blue Bird is never alive so will not be harmed by the drying

Some humans think they are the Blue Bird when in fact they are the Yellow Bird

Reminds me of a cartoon I drew of two Gops in a mine. “Hey, the canary is dead!”

“Aw, boo hoo for the poor widdle birdie. Come on, this stuff ain’t gonna dig itself.”

the canary’s goose is cooked…

Australia is in a precarious perch right now.

What will our summer be like?

I think the point here is not so much about coal as a metaphor using the custom of putting a canary in the mine as an early warning system; the delicate bird would succumb to the air going bad before the miners, giving them time to escape to the surface. Not paying attention to warnings has obvious consequences.

{Off-topic:}

To this site’s poetry-critics: – I think of this website as our celebrating Toles’s talented insights, and not as commentaries on commenters’ comments’ qualities. Hence the following rhyme:

Just Scroll, if … – {a rhyme}

Scroll, – √ if my rhymes are under par;

√ if you’ve read much better {better by far};

√ if they’re Spam™ and not your preferred caviar;

√ if even in grade-school they’d win no gold star.

Just scroll beyond my stuff, -

- and spare me your rebuff

that my stuff is not up to snuff.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .