Why Do Bears Sing?

Surely the most pertinent question for the inhabitants of Planet Earth right now and the one most deserving of a straight answer is not strictly to do with national determination, the rise of populism, religious/sectarian strife, cynical capitalist machinations or even one's favourite festive food (from a supermarket your choice). The big concern ought to be global warming  - although it informs and is impacted  by several of the afore-mentioned issues.

That global warming is happening is an undeniable fact - unless you're unfortunate enough to have a head like a trumpkin. The questions (actually a multiplicity) and eagerly sought answers relate to causes, effects and potential remedies. Here, then, a bit of a rhetorical Q&A; nothing that hasn't been said before, but I feel it's worth re-iterating in light of the most recent warnings from the IPCC (the UN's Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change) of imminent environmental catastrophe unless behaviours change.

Q: Is the steady rise in global temperatures that we have witnessed in the last fifty years due mainly to the actions of mankind?
A: All the informed scientific evidence is that this is the case and the principal catalyst has been the rapid increase in 'greenhouse gases' around the world from fossil-fuel burning factories, power-plants and motor vehicles.

Q:Is the rise in temperatures triggering climate change as a result?
A: Again, this appears to be irrefutable. Ice-caps are melting, sea-levels are rising, flooding of low-lying areas is becoming more prevalent. Wind and rainfall patterns are changing as the oceans warm, leading to an increase in arid deserts in some parts of the globe and more extreme weather conditions (hurricanes, typhoons) in others.

Q: Is any of this necessarily dangerous?
A: It certainly is for low-lying or arid regions which will become uninhabitable. Human suffering and population migration on a mass scale are likely to result. It could also mean that lands that are currently prime food-producing areas cease to be so or to be as productive as they currently are.

That UN IPCC report warned that we've only got just over a decade in which to act decisively in order for global warming "to be kept to a maximum of 1.5C, beyond which even half a degree will significantly worsen the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people... But the greatest difference would be to nature. Insects (which are vital for pollination of crops) and plants could lose half their habitat if temperatures rise by even 2C."

The latest informed estimates from climatologists is that average temperatures could rise by as much as 5C over the next fifty years if the targets of the Paris accord are not met. The implications are truly frightening.

Q: Is everyone but the scientific community and the 'green' think-tanks and pressure groups still under-estimating or dismissing the severity of the problem?
A: That would appear to be the case and is the most worrying aspect of the issue. At a governmental level there is a collective dragging of feet, even to conform to the agreed to legislation and the agreed-to timetable to implement it to reduce carbon emissions and reliance on fossil fuels... and then there are the governments that appear to be paying lip-service to agreed limits or are threatening to renege on agreements they signed.

Q: Is there any difference that individuals can make?
A: Of course we can all try and be good citizens by recycling waste, reducing our own energy use and influencing the markets in the way we shop (avoid air-freighted produce, buy local etc). Any initiative is better than none - but the quantum changes will only happen when green policies become mainstream - so maybe that sort of seismic political change is the next logical development, the greening of the political climate, a burgeoning Green Party, something to be actively encouraged and signed up to? (I'm just thinking out loud now.)

Anyway, my head hurts. Time for a poem and to answer the question about bears singing. Last week's effort was a bit on the bleak side and so although the issue of global warming is mighty serious (and no mistake), I've tried to leaven the poetic baguette with the yeast of humour. (Warning - this is a work in progress and definitely not yet in its final form.)

Sleeveless In Seattle
No wonder
all of nature's got its knickers
in a twist - it's December
and we're sleeveless in Seattle
for fuck's sake;
while down the coast
swathes of California are toast
and across the continent
low-lying lands are sinking
under ice-melt.

Time to rewrite the book of lore -
those country saws
mean nothing anymore.
Ne'er cast a clout?

We're sleeveless in Seattle
and from shore to sandy shore
it's springtime before Christmas.
The best exotic marigolds
will flower for New Years - in fact
they've not been out of bloom for seasons.

Non-hibernating bears sing loud for honey,
but the bees all got too hot and died
and so there isn't any...hear them howl.

Nor will there be fruit swelling
in those fabulous southern orange groves
nor any cereals soon
from the breadbin of the nation.
That old harvest moon
becomes redundant
once the dustbowl settles
and the hungry droves migrate out west
to overcrowd our temperate home.

Nature's clearly out of sorts,
severely out of synch.
Sure she'll get the reasons figured
in due course. Meanwhile,
rattled rightly to our very bones
we'll ration hope, do what it takes,
notch our belts more tightly
to stop the trousers
slipping off our skinny arses
and sleeveless in Seattle
out sing the howling bears
in praying this climatic nightmare
of our own devising passes.


Thanks for reading guys and gals, S ;-)