NO SALMON FOR BROTHER BEAR

source Rolf Hicker PNG

No salmon for brother bear;

the Salmon People,

diseased by fish farms,

reduced by warming seas,

are not returning

in numbers enough

to feed bears, wolves

whales and people.

The future is here:

climate change is accelerating.

When starving bears

roam the shores,

when tropical sea turtles  arrive

in Port Alberni,

confused by the warming currents,

when polar bears shrivel down

to just their skin,

how much louder can 

the wild ones speak,

and why are we 

so slow to hear?

I am so distressed by the starving bears, while the politicians babble on about economic growth and jobs, as the planet goes to hell. We need fish farms out of Clayoquot Sound, and the Broughton, and everywhere else where they are contaminating wild salmon. They can be moved inland - though who would want to eat farmed salmon is a mystery. 

First Nations have been taking salmon to feed some of the starving bears. On the news, a man opined that he "prefers to let nature take its course." Nature IS taking its course - because of us, and how we have raped  the earth, the animals are starving. And when they wander into town in search of food, they are shot.

Humans suffer, also,  yes. But we have voices; we can access resources. The animals depend on us to ease their suffering, to live in such a way that the world can continue with enough resources for all. The situation grows exponentially worse and STILL nothing happens. We have elections going on right now. My vote goes to the ones who recognize the days of fossil fuels are past, that the crisis is urgent, and that tough measures must be LEGISLATED NOW. Because many won't change their ways until it is legislated.

"But people might be uncomfortable if asked to give up too much," the TV announcer says. How uncomfortable will we be when the entire coast is swept away, when the forests burn, when agricultural land lies underwater, when there is no food, no more clean air? Switching from fossil fuels to clean energy would employ the entire country. LOTS of jobs in the clean energy field. 

We need to apply pressure to politicians at every level of government, to respond to the climate crisis.

No jobs on a dead planet. Do we have to grow as skinny and desperate as the bears to get the message? Argh.