impediment

Joe Manchin holds his party by the throat;
without him, Democrats can't claim control.
Regardless how them out-of-staters vote
his personal portfolio's all Coal.
More Green alternatives are all around
and many are already in the field.
Like coal, Joes best when six feet underground
'Til then, he'll dance, but never sign a deal.
This Dickens-era fuel we subsidize
sequesters Carbon since the Earth was young.
Joe Biden--in the name of "compromise"
shows no intent to do what must be done.
The midterms loom, the balance could swing back
still, Biden shows no stomach for attack.

urp II

Methanogens detox ungulates' gut
by stripping hydrogen out of the chyme,
that forms when fermentation's firmly shut
from oxygen (if only for a time).
What's once produced is belched into the air
to trap IR--'though UV shines right through.
A threat to which we're slow to grow aware
as we poach in our man-made greenhouse stew.
A million years of symbiotic bliss
recycling cellulose into prime meat
could make a sterile Venus out of this
blue planet as it traps more of our heat.
Our steak in worlds to come's ever more dear
if we must buy it with our atmosphere.

hot air

Oligosaccharides we can't digest
are clipped to methane by our symbiotes.
Archaea who've long been our GI guests,
have wed their fortunes to our gastric lot.
Electron-transport stalls at Hydrogen
or ethanol, or lactate where air's scant.
but H2's gobbled by methanogens
that tolerate an atmosphere we can't.
It's gluten takes the rap when bellies bloat,
or when a bank of fog swirls in their head.
Now, fussy eaters get a doctor's note;
it's all the rage to swear off eating bread!
The staff of life on which the West still leans
next year, the faddish diet foreswears...beans?

this too shall pass

Iridium lies heavy on their eyes
who'd dominated the Cretaceous Age
selective pressures on who lives, who dies
reshuffled in one asteroid's brief blaze
for 90 million years, they'd had their run
diversified to niches of all sorts
but who copes best when dust blots out the sun
turned out to be the shrew's hirsute cohorts
the next extinction's wrought by our own hand
in pumping carbon out of fossil pools
to poison atmosphere, and sea, and land
a terraforming spell wielded by fools
who's next is in the laps of fickle gods
perchance intelligent cephalopods

externalities

the IMF sums externalities
and finds the world's been subsidizing coal
the cost incurred is much more than one sees
each passing month, we're deeper in the hole
"abomination!" Steven Chu decreed
we've got to leave that carbon in the ground
to burn what's been sequestered's a black deed
and so environmentally unsound
extractive industries enriched the Few
degrading atmosphere and health for All
for every buck they "made" it cost us two
but such a house of cards must--one day--fall
renewables must come into their own
if we're to have a planet to call home

externalities

miraculous machines make steak from grass
a clever trick for a dumb herbivore
but if you would account for all the mass

you've also got to tally CH4

like kangaroos, cows spew out greenhouse gas
a peril to our ice-caps and earth's fate
but what--DownUnder--comes out a 'roo's ass
our ungulates prefer to eructate
mean symbiote conveys no benefit
the cow gives room and board but gets no gain
what's not absorbed would all be passed as shit
except Archaea vent clouds of methane
sea-levels rise and corals bleach from heat
because--in part--we're eating too much meat

the shape of things to come

electric cars will wean the world from gas
because they've just got fewer moving parts
complexity's a vestige of the past
however dear that purr was to our hearts
by freely using sun or wind or nukes
and not relying on a single fuel
both Ford and Daimler seem short-sighted kooks
more "obsolete" than "charmingly old-school"
a better battery would seal the deal
to daisy-chain 'phone cells is passing strange
electrics will have much broader appeal
when each charge gets four hundred miles of range
in time, we'll fix the infrastructure bug
I've seen the future, and it's got a plug

denialist for hire

professor Happer cedes that he's a whore
concluding what you want for the right price
and Princeton's letterhead makes sure that's more
than the same from some place that's not as nice
denying Climate Change attracts the press
who always what to show another side
so what if one's all sense, the other less
or if one source spoke truth while others lied
but Happer--bought and paid--cranks out reports
for the agenda of those who own him
when data don't support what he purports
he cherry-picks to make them serve his whim
our seas and atmosphere die day by day
while he takes bribes to make it stay that way

death by coal

renewables are all the rage today
Coal barons find their assets are just holes
but fusion's always thirty years away
except for what we harvest here from Sol
if smog in Beijing eats the paint off cars
as bad a London's in king Edward's age
and children's lungs are hobbled there with scars
then China should be first this war to wage
instead she moves sources of CO2
into the ethnic far west countryside
for ev'ry solar farm, there's coal plants two
where more Uyghurs and fewer Han reside
all mankind shares a common atmosphere
extinction looms if we can't make it here

in the long run

James Hanson warns one must keep honest books
end subsidies for ev'ry power stream
each kilowatt costs way more than it looks
we can't pretend that coal makes only steam
extractive industries made the few rich
their costs were sloughed as externalities
our planet's now careening towards the ditch
we dug in the delusion waste was free
and fission plants could turn out even worse
'til we can safely store atomic waste
if starship earth becomes our glowing hearse
we'll rue at leisure what we wrought in haste
what's not sustainable's never ok
we burn our children's tomorrows today