D IS FOR DISPLACED

 

This photo of a bear at a smoking landfill was taken
by Canadian photographer Troy Moth, who said it is
the most heartbreaking photo he has ever taken.

D is for displaced: bears and wolves
flushed out of clearcut forests, skirting
the edge of town, their lives in peril;

elephants whose habitats have been

encroached upon, numbers of their herds

killed for their tusks; the snow leopard,

once the most elusive of the wild,

now so many humans high in the mountains

that his survival is at risk.

D is for Devastation: the animals of climate change,

but the humans too, all climate refugees

on the move in search of a safe place to be

they cannot find. Climate refugees might reach

1.2 billion by 2050.* What animals will survive

by then, we cannot know.

The mountain gorilla, the polar bear, the green

sea turtle, all are struggling as their numbers

are decreasing. D is for Destruction of their habitat.

D is for death, and downfall, 
caused by corporate greed and human need.
It is also for Destiny: can we envision
a world where we all
are freed?

I'm afraid I have a Dismal answer  to that question. For Rajani's climate change series.

* source: https://reliefweb.int/report/world/climate-migrants-might-reach-one-billion-2050