The Twelve Days (and Months) of Climate Justice Day Six:  Why Can’t a Poem Stop Climate Change?

January 4, 2017

NOTE: Images in this archived article have been removed.

Earth News: More than News of the World

Beginning of the Year Special edition

January 4, 2017
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Marshall Islands poet and climate activist. Source:  Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

Ever the optimist, I thought it would be good to begin the year on a hopeful note, so here’s another essay to do that, an invitation to read and meditate on, share and discuss one of these amazing stories every day for twelve days as 2017 arrives.

All of which is to say: let’s start a new year of 365 days of building a more powerful climate justice movement.

*****

One of the most powerful antidotes we have to despair – whether in the face of the climate catastrophe that looms menacingly on the horizon, or of the dawn of the Trump era in the United States – is our ability to resist and create, often simultaneously, through our cultural creation – our art, cultures, literature, movies, and music.

And of the many beautiful objects that could occupy this space, I offer the heart-wrenching poetry of Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, Marshall Islands poet, writer, journalist, and climate activist, who first came to the world’s attention when she narrated a passionate video-poem at the U.N. General Assembly in September 2014, on the occasion of the massive People’s Climate March in New York City and around the world.

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Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner speaking at the U.N. in September 2014.  Source:  Vox

This is some of what she said:

dear matafele peinam,

don’t cry

mommy promises you

no one

will come and devour you

no greedy whale of a company sharking through political seas

no backwater bullying of businesses with broken morals

no blindfolded bureaucracies gonna push

this mother ocean over

the edge

no one’s drowning, baby

no one’s moving

no one’s losing

their homeland

to the carteret islanders of papua new guinea

and to the taro islanders of the solomon islands

i take this moment

to apologize to you

we are drawing the line here

because baby we are going to fight

your mommy daddy

bubu jimma your country and president too

we will all fight….

hands reaching out

fists raising up

banners unfurling

megaphones booming

and we are

canoes blocking coal ships

we are

the radiance of solar villages

we are

the rich clean soil of the farmer’s past

we are

petitions blooming from teenage fingertips

we are

families biking, recycling, reusing,

engineers dreaming, designing, building,

artists painting, dancing, writing

and we are spreading the word

and there are thousands out on the street

marching with signs

hand in hand

chanting for change NOW

and they’re marching for you, baby

they’re marching for us

because we deserve to do more than just

survive

we deserve

to thrive

*****

I found this poem in her 2014 master’s thesis at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, “A History of Marshallese Literature.”

The letter B is for

baah (baham). From Engl. 2(inf, tr

-e) 3,4,6(-i). Bomb.

Kobaah ke?

Are you contaminated

with radioactive fallout?

*****

Here is her latest cultural intervention in the climate wars, from this year’s otherwise underwhelming U.N. climate summit COP 22 in Marrakesh.

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Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner at COP 22.  Source:  Democracy Now!, Friday, November 18, 2016

At a climate change conference
a colleague tells me 2 degrees
is a just a benchmark for climate negotiations
I tell him 2 degrees
is a gamble
at 2 degrees my islands, the Marshall Islands
is already under water
this is why our leaders push
for 1.5
Seems small
like 0.5 degrees
shouldn’t matter
like 0.5 degrees
are just crumbs
like the Marshall Islands
must look
on a map
just crumbs you
dust off the table, wipe
your hands clean of

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Photo: Simon Ruf / UN Social Media Team


Tags: art as social change, climate justice movement