Sunday, August 25, 2019

Tale Of Two Wildfire Responses


In a tale of two fire responses the differences could not be more clear
In California where homes, businesses and people in midst of the forest appear
A wildfire brings out the fire trucks and water dropping planes
Even sometimes smoke jumpers to fight inaccessible flames
No effort is spared to halt the fires
Even convicts on cheap wages are hired
No limit to the dollars to save people from their own mistakes
Building homes nestled in among the trees without adequate fire breaks
Like building next to rivers prone to overflow their banks
Or homes on beaches when hurricanes overcome a home’s sandbagged flanks
But in Brazil in the Amazon whose rain forest’s contribution to environment we should treasure
Speed and alacrity in response is in weeks and efforts so hard to measure
No houses in the Amazon are found with pools
Only indigenous natives in an environment harsh and cruel
Thank God for social media and internet
Abandonment to fire the civilized world will not soon forget
Shamed into action Brazil finally brings its military into the act
The G-7 Meeting will not be a complete failure and the nations will aid in the fires’ attack
Home to mass quantities of our planet’s need biomass
Finally we are energized to not let these fires last
Maybe if we are lucky as we mourn over the charred embers
We act on the disastrous impact of uncurtailed logging that we will not forget but remember.
© August 25, 2019 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet  

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