Poems and Thoughts    by Frank Maurer

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An Old Biologist's Plea. It is August 2024, with now enough evidence accrued, to realize What our children and grandchildren will face Living on an ever-challenging planet, Due to the accelerated human pollution of our air and seas. Climate changes have occurred many times on our dynamic home-- Sea temperatures and the rise and demise of trilobites and their cousins; The change of African forests to grasslands, Giving rise to bipedalism in human evolution; The mini ice ages of Europe, affecting crops and survival; But none of these changes equal the accelerated transformation Of what we have caused and will be living through while alive on our earth. It is just plain happening so comparably fast, That many will not admit we are slowly cooking like the proverbial frog. When will we, as a world population, realize this And reduce the many frivolous 'fun' trips and activities, Motivating ourselves into a greater group To slow down and perhaps reverse the ever-violent storms; The methane-melting tundra with sinking villages and roads; The rapidly incinerating forests consumed by fire; And the warming, carbon-acid seas with all those implications? Let us now reduce our activities of play and amusement, Going into action to organize and educate and vote, Perhaps preserving at least some of our known way of life. Frank Maurer 17 August 2024 2024 Hours.