Climate Stasis
We waited, delayed, hesitated,
procrastinated, prognosticated, obfuscated on thin ice,
dawdled, stalled, free-for-alled, protocoled collect,
dropped balls, stonewalled, mitigated communities,
modeled, dallied, rallied, death valleyed,
risked, bet, staked, gamed, gambled, generally wagered all
and broke bad, faith, dreams, records, ranks, and the bank.
Robert Jackson is a poet, climate scientist, and contributing author of the recent IPCC climate report that is truly shocking in its evidence and catalog of consequences—as shocking as the fires in Oregon, California, British Columbia, Turkey, Greece, Italy, and Russia.