Environmental concern is not new, as seen by the poem below, which was written by a teenager in the mid 1970’s, at a time when few would have listened to that message and even fewer heeded it. What is new now is both the gravity and the urgency of the problem. On the plus side, there are social media platforms for present day teenagers such as Greta Thunberg to publicise the problem (thereby increasing awareness), scientific knowledge to prove (to politicians and others in power) that the problems are real and also the technology to confront many of the climate change issues facing humanity. It should be possible to pen another poem “The Future World” with a happier content.
The Present World (1975) Each day huge cities spring up anew, and cars group together to join a long queue. Is it in this fashion that we must lose all we’ve inherited? – And now, unable to choose In which direction we wish to progress, we face a grim future, no more, no less. Because, if we look around us with care, we can see that the world is beyond full repair.
The trees are all felled, the grass torn away, and new concrete blocks take their place every day. Large factories continue being built – and soon they pour out their chemical filth. Meanwhile, the air becomes a thick fog, of industrial smoke, care fumes – in fact, smog. Is it not possible to help at all, to reduce our pollution and bring about its downfall?