Somebody Else’s Problem

I’m just an ordinary houseperson
Living in the suburbs,
But I started to have a think.
Thinking about these fires and floods and storms.
Climate change, could it really be real, I wonder,
And might we be heading towards the brink?

I used to see, on the TV,
Those poor people in Africa, you know.
They were always starving and looking real sick
Due to their never-ending drought.
And I used to see those poor Bangladeshi
In another yet big damaging flood.
So, I was starting to have a doubt.
Then I thought, it’s sad, but after all,
It’s really not my problem.
Yes, I turned off the TV and thought to myself,
It’s somebody else’s problem.

Bushfires belong to Australia and western USA,
Or so I always thought.
But now Europe and Britain have been lighting up too.
On the TV I saw the damage that the wildfires wrought.

And now thousand-year-old Redwoods in California
Have been killed by catastrophic wildfire.
Things have gotten much worse than they used to be.
Things are starting to look rather dire.

And I thought that landslides and mudslides
Only belong to those countries
That cut too much of their green forests down.
I can’t help a little frown.
But then I saw even Germany under flood
with landslides cascading and full of mud.
Those poor people. It’s very sad.
But I turned off the TV and said to myself,
It’s somebody else’s problem.

I used to turn a deaf ear to Pacific Islanders complaining.
You people live in paradise, I’d say to myself.
But now I see, it really is pretty poor –
They have just had yet another stormy cyclone
And the sea coming through their front door. 

But now the rains won’t stop here, where I am,
And I am actually starting to fear

It’s no longer somebody else’s problem.
I’m really starting to think.

 

Because my roof is leaking, ceilings sagging,
Carpets soggy, garage flooding.  
I can’t believe the mould and the stink.

 

Oh dear, it seems I can no longer say,
It’s somebody else’s problem.

I’d better have a bit more of a think,

Now, what can I do to help to pull us all back,
Back from this climate change brink?