The Drunken Forest

Oh my! I think that I shall never see
A sight as silly as a tipsy tree.

The only sight that’s funnier so far?
A forest that looks like it closed the bar.

If you think that’s a gas, consider this:
The trees have not indulged in drunken bliss.

A sinkhole caused by melting permafrost,
A thermokarst, makes them look turned and tossed.

Dead munchies for the wooly mammoth clan,
Iced down for longer than the reign of man,

Are thawing out just like a frozen veggie,
And making scientists a little edgy.

In places like Alaska and Siberia
They may not be collapsing in hysteria

(Yes, that would be a slight exaggeration),
But still there is a lot of consternation.

They say it’s getting warmer by the year
On planet Earth, and what we have to fear

Is that the trend is irreversible,
That northern lands may turn combustible

And spew out methane and carbon dioxide,
Making life still toastier outside.

The Anaktuvuk River tundra fire
Could be the start of something very dire.

The burning of the lichens and the mosses
May start a process of ongoing losses.

It’s carbon, everyone! There’s too much of it.
It melts the polar ice, but we still love it.

If carbon makes our planet lose its cool,
I’ll feel like such a selfish fossil fool.

References
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/17/science/earth/warming-arctic-permafrost-fuels-climate-change-
worries.html
http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/12/19/392242/carbon-time-bomb-in-arctic-new-york-times-print-
edition-gets-the-story-right/

(Copyright 2018 James Mansfield Nichols. All rights reserved.)