Millennial-born and younger humans have been born under a reality no other ever has; their physical world is ending. The earth is dying, potentially in the next 50 years. It’s equilibrium has been shifted out of balance. Climate change is inevitable. We are headed for a human death cycle that will, even without our complete commitment to avoid disaster, will result in the drastic changes that will create immense strain on human beings.
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In short, we are a terminal disease. We realize we have created the conditions that could destroy humanity at last. Even if the roaches survive, we will not.
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The current administration has okayed more pipelines and drilling operations than any other. These pipeline have at some points already leaked and caused damage.
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Policy changes such as the end of the Clean Water Act indicated a shift towards ecological negligence. Other police changes, such as deregulation of the Clean Car Standards, causes states to determine these standards for themselves, and could lead to state versus state disputes.
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Since 2017, the USA has not attended the Paris Climate Accord, the largest international meeting to address climate change.
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The honeybee is at an all time low, as are other insect populations, which signal our first descent into a bottom-up deconstruction of the environment.
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Core samples suggest vaster temperature changes during the past 50 years than in the past 500.
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Man made catastrophes like that in Flint, MI have repeated throughout the world; Flint, MI still has no clean water.
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A trash island exists that’s larger than some countries. It is kept together by regular currents and motions of the tide. It can float and spread pollution everywhere it goes. Oddly, this trash island has also become a home for a variety of organisms, making it one of the first manmade ecosystems.
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A new aesthestic, post-ecological, which focuses on depictions of destroyed ecosystems, has gained popularity.
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For this edition of HockSpitSlurp, ask yourself: what can we do with this knowledge and information? What can we do to change our course, even if there is no hope? What forms of protest are appropriate for a deal that’s already sealed? Or are the scientists who give us the information really the ones who we can find to blame? Can it be possible that earth is dying? Or is it just dying for humans?
What would a world look like without the human animal?
Someday we may find out.
Please, I beg you, go read the submission guidelines. Up to 5 poems, up to 5,000 words, up to 10 images, no more, to hockspitslurp@gmail.com. Put your genre in your subject name. It’s not hard.