{"id":7630,"date":"2021-07-07T17:13:27","date_gmt":"2021-07-07T17:13:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/?p=7630"},"modified":"2021-07-07T20:17:11","modified_gmt":"2021-07-07T20:17:11","slug":"anonymous-arsonist-this-civilization-is-already-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/?p=7630","title":{"rendered":"ANONYMOUS ARSONIST-“…this civilization is\u00a0already dead.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Is the world on fire or does it just seem that way? It’s on fire and fuck you climate change deniers. I’ve always been intrigued by the town of Lytton, how it’s situated at the junction of the Thompson and Fraser Rivers. I like to stop and snap a few photos of the picturesque town on my way up to the Cariboo. Always a hot spot with high temperatures, this freaky summer it’s been devastated by forest fires. Whether intentional or not, naturally humans are involved and I’m reminded of this New York Times article, Learning How to Die in the Anthropocene<\/em><\/a>, by Roy Scranton. Penned nearly ten years ago, it is sadly still apropos, its sound message still ignored.<\/p>\n

“Yet the reality of global climate change is going to keep intruding on our fantasies of perpetual growth, permanent innovation and endless energy, just as the reality of mortality shocks our casual faith in permanence.” “The biggest problem we face is a philosophical one: understanding that this civilization is\u00a0already dead. The sooner we confront this problem, and the sooner we realize there\u2019s nothing we can do to save ourselves, the sooner we can get down to the hard work of adapting, with mortal humility, to our new reality.”<\/p>\n

I wrote a poem, which doesn’t change anything but I don’t know what else to do.<\/p>\n

ANONYMOUS ARSONIST<\/strong><\/p>\n

Supercharged ambiguity,
\nuncertainty in overdrive,
\nthe opacity of a long summer
\nof corrosive smoke<\/p>\n

obscures identities
\nas we mince toward disaster,
\nCommerce Fair hurly burly.
\nHaggling, trade\u2019s primary<\/p>\n

exercise of the human mind
\nis a waste of precious time.
\nWe are clear on the haze,
\nits origin, indistinct from cause.<\/p>\n

Human error, upon human error.
\nWe excel at doom,
\nfighting hordes
\nof demons and undead.<\/p>\n

Effort wasted
\non an expired civilization,
\nbeyond sea walls,
\ngreen treaties,<\/p>\n

carbon footprints and taxes.
\nWe keep the status quo
\npropped up
\nagainst the altar of industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is the world on fire or does it just seem that way? It’s on fire and fuck you climate change deniers. I’ve always been intrigued by the town of Lytton, how it’s situated at the junction of the Thompson and Fraser Rivers. I like to stop and snap a few photos of the picturesque town […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[457,456],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7630"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7630"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7636,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7630\/revisions\/7636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}