Epitaph for a Generation
The bedroom window is open,
we listen to the rising dawn
waiting for the first bird to sing.
Two of us, father and son,
tuning in–blackbird, dunnock, robin, wren–
he identifies their song
while across the world
animals and plants are driven
to the sixth mass extinction –
ecocide, the endgame. As a child,
I wrote of Man’s destruction of Planet Earth
but no one, in power, was listening:
count the changes…
1960
World population: 3 billion
Carbon in atmosphere: 315 parts per million
Remaining wilderness: 62 per cent
2024
World population: 8 billion
Carbon in atmosphere: 424 parts per million
Remaining wilderness: 34 per cent.
In barely more than sixty years,
our carbon footprint stamped
on loss of life, of soul, of spirit.
We will be remembered
for all that we change,
now that we’ve learnt how to fight.
Author: Steve Walter
Photo: Collie Coburn on Unsplash
With acknowledgment to David Attenborough, A Life on Our Planet
– My Witness Statement and Vision for the Future
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