Meltdown #26: Social Verdict
Our crisis response has been far from perfect
And now it’s time for my final verdict
The planet’s still warming
And COVID’s still swarming
Did we do all we possibly could to avert it?
The pandemic and our planet were screaming for answers
A coincidence of challenging circumstances
Shaken to the core
Like never before
We wasted opportunities and squandered chances
Medics worked selflessly for our safety and health
Looking after the well-being of everyone else
Such dutiful devotion
Now burnt out and broken
For two years they’ve put their own lives on the shelf
Vaccination started slow, but now world record rates
But the indigenous population is not doing so great
Through a deep distrust
From their past unjust
Sceptical of anything government perpetrates
Yes while ninety percent vaccination is pleasing
And most of our social restrictions are easing
Our society’s fractured
Over anti-vaxxers
Violent protests have left communities seething
Shouting death threats and ugly abuse so vile
Carrying gallows and nooses with mouths full of bile
Calling for Dan to be hanged
And his family harangued
Over vaccine mandates they’re feral and wild
Yes we all want big government out of our lives
In and out of lockdowns and our freedoms deprived
But as rules are relaxed
We face the anti-vaxxed
Whom our PM covets with double-speak and lies
But of all the COVID stories, there is none better
My brother and his family are back together
Such unrestrained joy
For Steve, Mel and their boy
Twenty months apart must have seemed like forever
At COP we staggered, when we needed great strides
A battle of nations, from green and coal sides
Not a forum for big change
But a COP-out for the same
And more droughts, floods, famine and damaging tides
Boris Johnson declared COP, a death knell for coal
But a green light said Scott, to dig more holes
The goal one-point-five
Is barely alive
It needs massive investment and emission controls
Coal and climate are unhealthy partnerships
Together they’ve formed abusive relationships
But some countries ascendent
Are still so dependent
On their power supplied by coal-laden ships
Yes there must be a phased energy transition
Can’t abruptly cease all fossil-fuel transmission
But we must cut the crap
And face up to the facts
That coal can’t be part of net zero emissions
But we did get the coal word in the COP communique
Much to the Australian government’s deep dismay
They’re spinning an illusion
That coal’s in the solution
On our road to recovery, put your wrecking balls away!
COP abandoned low-lying atoll nations
Facing cyclones and drinking water salination
They emit little carbon
Yet given no pardon
Rising seas are threatening their land inundation
Did climate go to rehab, I would say no no
Now we’ll need more resilience and new crops to grow
A switch to adaptation
As well as mitigation
Our glass is half full, so we can still strike a blow
So there must be two objectives in the next year ahead
More money for climate and to stop COVID spread
Global vaccination
Needs stronger mandation
It’s a choice of being infected, vaccinated or dead
While this certainly won’t be the final countdown
With European COVID likely heading downtown
Perhaps, the end of the beginning
While COVID’s still clinging
But for now it’s full time …… on these Limericks in Meltdown
Kevin Holmes • 24th November 2021
