Lately, I have been on a bit of a documentary kick, re-watching documentaries and discovering new ones. In particular, I find environmental documentaries inspiring and thought provoking. For example, Josh Fox filmed and produced two powerful and informative documentaries, such as Gasland and Gasland 2. Both documentaries create awareness about the devastating effects fracking is causing on the environment. Fracking continues to pose many harmful repercussions which impose lasting effects such as contaminating water supplies so much that it is toxic to the point in can catch on fire, air pollution, earthquakes, and illness in animals and human beings. Thank you Josh Fox for filming and producing two very powerful and informative documentaries about fracking and the toll it is placing on the environment and mankind.
Watching a documentary like Gasland, reminds me that art is a powerful tool which can help create positive change in a world that is heavily weighed down by so many issues and problems. Art has the ability to encourage people to look more critically at the world around us and all the issues and problems that we are faced with and challenged by on a daily basis. Furthermore, art can encourage positive discussions which in turn, will hopefully lead to positive changes in the world.
Sometimes it feels overwhelming, and I often wonder if I am actually making a difference in the world and creating positive change. I do believe that in some way or another by creating awareness about issues that are important to us, that we are in some small way working towards making the world a better place. Spreading awareness, leads to education, and education allows us to be informed.
For me, I am passionate about the environment, and I like to believe that by combining my passion for the environment, art, and writing I can contribute to making a difference, and help improve the state of the environment, even if on a small scale. Art, can grab peoples attention and encourage critical thinking, positive discussions, and perhaps even lead to positive changes in the world. Art also has a way of documenting our culture and issues that are important and representative of a particular time, and from that art speaks to generations of today and of the future. Art also allows us to reflect on humanity and even the environment which surrounds us.
The following is a poem which was inspired by watching documentaries such as Gasland, and The Big Fix. It is my hope that through art and writing I am able to help create awareness about the environment and environmental issues, such that it helps lead to positive changes in the world. I hope you like it.
Mad Rush for Colorless Gold
Clean suits, polished offices and filthy money
Blue Collar workers dig for black gold
When there is no avail, they plunge the earth for the next best thing
A quick fix,
Of disastrous proportions
It’s a mad rush for colorless gold
The law says they are golden
Frame it as economically beneficial
Natural Gas as clean energy, but it’s polluting minds, lives, food and water
Repackaging it and selling it to us as a need, a want, a desire
It’s all just smoke and mirrors
Gold that does not glitter, just lines deep pockets deeper
Make them richer, the earth and the people poorer
Keep pumping the ground
Purge it of all its treasure and essence
Justify the exploitation and damage wreaked upon the earth
By favorable claims to keep your business booming
Market it so we buy into the lies…
As if it’s the only way to keep the world spinning on its axis
It’s a wild dance money and greed
Ferocious spins
Sending the world swirling
Spiraling out of control
Collapsing,
Keep dancing on those fault lines
Keep pushing the boundaries
Keep treading all over the people
Keep ripping apart the land savagely
Never stopping…
Ignoring the warning signs…
When your black gold is engulfing the sea
Suffocating the life that breathes
Toxic! Toxic! Toxic!
Contaminating the water, and it just continues to spread
Fire dancing on water
It’s all around for everyone to see
You let it burn, scar the earth,
Just so you can go back and dig deeper
Replenish your loss, never really cleaning up your mess
Write a cheque to take the place of a bandaid
Financial ruin
Poverty rising
Calamity is waiting to drop like another domino, an environmental collapse
It is encroaching
Like those filthy poisonous fog banks escaping from the pipes that play to the beat your greedy heart
Your black gold is drying up
So you chase after a colorless gold
Natural gas is in abundance
Hysteria from water bursting in flame
Contaminated water,
Those affected cannot disclose their name
Bullied into silence
Mask the repercussions of your pirate like plunder of the famers land,
Ruining nature’s beauty
Wreaking havoc, disrupting balances, shattering lives, homes being abandoned
Toxic to everything you touch
Cloud the people’s judgment
Build and frame synthetic promises
An alternative to oil!
It’s just a new kind of gold rush,
Natural gas, is the new oil….
Framing and repackaging sells your commodity of lies
Hefty price, dirty money, exploited land
Call it progress, it’s just a justification of the means of your ways
Capitalizing off of the vulnerable and defenseless
So quick to turn a blind eye to natures ability to provide
True clean energy
Water, Wind and Sun
Dismiss them, for they infringe on your ability to obtain colorless gold
Copyright © 2013 By Laura Butz
All rights reserved. Permission Requests please email ecochiccayman@hotmail.com
P.S. You might also like http://ecochiccayman.com/2013/09/17/poetry-art-saving-the-planet/
Also check out these powerful documentaries!
Gasland
Gasland 2
The Big Fix
With love, from one tree hugger to another, xo
Resources:
Photos found on google.
Hi there! I’m at work surfing around your blog
from my new iphone! Just wanted to say I love reading through your blog and
look forward to all your posts! Carry on the fantastic work!
Thank you Jeannette! You are very kind. I hope you enjoy the new blog posts 🙂 Have a lovely day!