by IRENE FOWLER, Contributor

“Awaken to life-giving golden sunlight and the tidal force of the silver moon;
Planetary existence reliant on a single energising, dynamic, cosmic heartbeat;
Proclaiming the sacred synergy and delicate balance of the universe;
Increasing, frightful cacophonies, drown-out harmonious symphonies of creation.”
– Irene Fowler

“We are running out of time, and we must have a planetary solution to a planetary crisis.”
– Al Gore

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Good morning everyone and welcome.

Whatever your preferred flavour of life is – sweet, savoury, spicy or somethin’ else, welcome to the melting pot. I am on West African time, so ‘servez-vous.’

Even though we are helpless to change things on a macro scale, we can in our own small ways, align with love and the positive. As we contribute our quota, we are building towards a critical mass which can force change/s for good.

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“Adults keep saying we owe it to the young people, to give them hope, but I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is.”
– Greta Thunberg

“If you really think that the environment is less important than the economy, try holding your breath while you count your money.”
– Guy McPherson

“Men argue. Nature acts.”
– Voltaire

“People of conscience need to break their ties with corporations financing the injustice of climate change.”
– Desmond Tutu

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World leaders are gearing up for the November UN COP 26 Climate Change Conference, taking place in Glasgow, Scotland, at which they will “deliver concrete actions and credible plans aimed at achieving successful COP goals and coordinated action to tackle climate change.” – unfccc.int/..

As a top priority, the Biden administration picked up the previously scorned, ridiculed mantle of US leadership, in the concerted, beyond-urgent, fight against climate change. His commonsense action in rejoining  the Paris Climate Agreement, is a boon, which  will reinvigorate the efforts of the global community, in addressing the causes of climate change, and pursuing solutions to preserve our rapidly disintegrating ecosphere.

Biden’s statesmantlike, rational response to the greatest universal threat and challenge of our time, demonstrates his gravitas and admirable leadership values. It also underscores his concern, sense of responsibility and call to duty, on behalf of future generations.  This is in stark contrast to the regressive, self-serving, myopic and staggeringly reckless, anti-science positions, of the prior administration.

Biden’s presidential electoral victory was confirmation that he is the man for the moment, in both, domestic and global arenas.  Aside from rescucing his country from further catastrophic fall-outs of venal, authoritarian leaning rule; Biden, is poised to breathe new life, and impetus, into our race to save the planet we all call home, as he commands centre stage at the summit.

There is no doubt that the world is in dire straits, as the ravages of climate change escalate at an alarming pace, all around us. If we have learned any timely, valuable, costly, or painful lessons, from the ongoing global pandemic, they should be overlaid with the irrefutable reality that we are inextricably interconnected. All humanity, together with lesser creatures, will sink or swim together.  Artificial constructs that divide humans and cause us to conquer/cannibalize our species, are nothing more than straw baskets, that hold no water.

Although Majestic Mother-Earth is violated, diminished, sapped and brought to her knees, she is not done chiding and messaging mankind. From her prostrate position, she emits a hair on fire,  lamentation of fast-approaching existential calamities. In a final act of protest, warning, and exasperation; she rents her protective, outer and inner garments.

The title of my article, “Biden’s Message To Mother Earth-Gaia-Dunia;” presumes that her vision and auditory faculties are still intact. More importantly, that her benevolent, beneficent, beating heart, has not already been ripped out of her wasted, abused sacred body.

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Mother Earth – Gaia – Dunia

by Irene Fowler

Apex-predators, archons, warmongers, vultures
Unleash mayhem, crush, grind, cannibalize
Dark, deadly deeds mock sunrays, jest at moonlight
Whole societies oppressed, harvesting hate, chaos, violence
Primed, programmed, peons, serve soulless leadership
Inured, victimised labour-force, mindless consumers, disposable cannon-fodder
Beloved, cherished, offspring; all mere  grist for the cruel mill
Gluttonous, callous, opulent global overlords
Demigods of the universe, scoff at sacred cycles, of aeons
Prophets for hire, preach perennial, perpetual, profit
Wage ceaseless, ignoble wars on prostrate Mother Earth-Gaia-Dunia
Sack, hack, disembowel, her beauteous, over-generous bounty
Ravaged nature convulses, sullied oceans wail, poisoned air chokes
Violated, demeaned, diminished, sapped
Mankind’s cash-cow nearing exhaustion, skirting ruination
Yet, not done chiding, clamouring, protesting, messaging
Heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, desertification
Melting glaciers, warming oceans, extreme floods
Famine, pandemics, societal upheaval, conflicts, wars
Mutually assured destruction; weapons of mass extinction, readied
Absent off-ramps to imaginary, viable, idyllic planets, X, Y or Z.
Total obliteration, just a button and  nanoseconds away
Awakened humanity, joins Mother Earth to lament, rail, and weep
Together, wail and sob, crying out from the depths of the deep
Reverse our course, save our progeny,  lest life, in all forms
Be damned, to eternal, lifeless, sleep.

©2021 by Irene Fowler

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