Elevation - May 31 2023

 

Elevation

May 31 2023

You can only climb so far

before the mountain runs out.

Flee

into what remains of cold

at altitude.

Above the snow-line

which creeps higher every year.

The planet warms,

and our only refuge

is height;

squeezed

between fire, famine, drought

and unable to breathe

in the thin atmosphere

above the clouds.

We have taken our home

and burned it down.

And now, we are refugees

on a steep treeless slope,

stumbling awkwardly over

the broken scree.

No more bluebird days

of bright skies

crisp air

freshly fallen snow.

No snow of any kind.

Just grey mist

and a cold drizzle

seeping through our clothes.

A neat article. Snow flies sound fascinating. But what I really loved was “bluebird day”, so just had to steal it: so evocative; such a lovely example of elegant compression. And poetry is all about compression.

More than that, though, the piece reminds me of how some living things are managing to adapt to global heating: either moving north, or moving up. (Or, if they're clever, digging into their genetic legacy and turning on some latent abilities that might allow them to tolerate extremes in climate and season. As well, for the fast reproducers, evolution: accelerated natural selection powered by rapid environmental change. And or us, little more than the illusion that some technological deus ex machina will somehow allow us to go on living our profligate lives.)

Climate change is the most pressing existential issue of our time, and something that has preoccupied me for more years than I care to think. (It took far too long to see it being taken seriously; and far too often, it still isn't.) Unfortunately, adaptation only goes so far. Perhaps a little further for the privileged, because the rich — as always — get richer, and last a little longer in their gated sanctuaries and mountain aeries. . . . But not that much further!

Anyway, all that to explain how I got from snow flies and bluebird days to this bleakly pessimistic poem!

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2023/05/snow-flies-insects-glaciers/674240/