Earth News: More than News of the World
Beginning of the Year Special edition
January 4, 2017
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.
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.
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
Photo: Simon Ruf / UN Social Media Team
