ANN says that to help the world’s human population celebrate, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has engaged the poetic assistance of Jordan Sanchez, 19, American of mixed descent, who is studying physics at Harvard University (Author Not Named, “Recreate. Reimagine. Restore! Poet Jordan Calls For A Greener World,” UNEP.org).
(images: poisoned waters[1], Poisoned Waters; “Poisoned With Love[2],” Texas Monthly; poisoned land[3], Britannica; UNEP Jordan’s image[4] inset)
If you ask me who do I think are most guilty in abusing parts of the Earth – I say, if the Land, it’s the Farmers; if the Waters, it’s the Fishermen; and if the Air, it’s the Factorymen.
Since I am an agriculturist, I will explain why I believe that it is the Farmers who are most guilty of abusing the Land. Here are some things that they do to the soils in their fields:
(1) Farmers unnecessarily disturb the field by plowing and harrowing. Farmers do not appreciate that they could successfullyfarm by minimally disturbing the soil and allowing the natural processes of growth to continue. (They do not know that they could incorporate the weeds into the soil and produce organic matter right on top of their fields!)
(2) Farmers apply chemical fertilizers on their fields, thereby poisoning the natural population of small and micro organisms that help enrich the soil.
(3) Farmers spray pesticides on their crops, and parts of the poison stay in the crops as well as in the soil.
I will now quote from Ms Jordan’s earlier poem titled “On Climate Denial” (ANN, 24 May 2021, UNEP):
Denial is the first stage of grief, but what are you grieving?
Maybe the fact that our clean air is leaving,
Our lungs constantly receiving the grey,
Ourselves slowly receding into the black.
Our blue waters we pretended to love,
Suffocated with plastic we disposed of.
Red turns the dover who flies away
With no turning back.
Back into time when I still saw –
Seeing green and gold and green and blue
Seeing is believing but I can only see
One place at a time.
ANN says:
Jordan Sanchez, the pen and voice behind this year’s evocative poem for World Environment Day, always makes sure her poetry mixes urgency with hope. While the subject matter is often serious – climate, race and gun control – she leaves listeners with a call to action and the message that things can get better. (Jordan says), “I want people to understand the situation we are in is serious but there is always something we can do, we have to remain positive and we have to act.”
With her dedicated poem, “Recreate. Reimagine. Restore!” she “calls for a greener world.”
Among other things, she says in that poem, “We are a fraction of a second in Earth’s lifetime. Yet she is our only lifeline." I will now reverse the perspective so that we will see how important we are: “We Earthlings are Earth’s only lifeline!”@517
[1]https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/reef_fish_in_peril/pdfs/Poisoned_waters.pdf
[2]https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/poisoned-with-love/
[3]https://www.britannica.com/technology/insecticide
[4]https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/recreate-reimagine-restore-poet-jordan-sanchez-calls-greener-world
No comments:
Post a Comment