“We don’t have time!” alarms the virtuous girl
Who warns the world and calls for action
Unwittingly raising fumes of blinding panic
Apocalyptic sceneries obfuscating minds.
Used misused and abused she is caught
In the vortex of a strategic fear-mongering campaign
Meticulously designed by PR consultants marketing
Experts trusting that indeed we will respond
To threats of imminent catastrophe, by complying.
We always have and will do, it is in our nature to do so.
Had all the scientists that went unheeded known
A sweet teenager and a catchline was all they needed
Never mind facts and figures, as emotional investment by far
Overthrows the appeal of critical thinking lost
To inadequate education delivered by institutions
Only too happy to see us productive workers asleep
On a bed of malleable realities whilst information drowns
In an opulence of opinions in an era where
We don’t have time to reconsider.
We don’t have time to reinvent a system
Thus let the old one responsible for Earth’s
Greatest extinction reshape itself to save us, save itself,
Overcome the global crisis not that of nature but
That of a stagnating economy striving to survive,
Developing new markets, green ones able to allure
Domesticated consumers with innovative products
Now named “environmentally sustainable solutions”
Creating fashionable trends, climate change
Suddenly a voguish popular concern.
Empowered by the promise that together we will endure
Exploiting youth they disowned old baby boomers,
Held them accountable for recklessly consuming
Self-absolving themselves clean-cut puppeteers
Whose shadows dance even in the dark. We thank them
As we buy into their condescending lies cheerfully
Walking to the demonstration as if that is all we can do
Never mind ceasing to consume, as emotional investment by far
Overthrows the appeal of critical thinking lost
To the biggest behavioural change experiment yet attempted
A masterpiece of the art of social engineering to ensure
90 trillion dollars blithely flow, into the same
Capitalist economic system who clumsily and connivingly
Produced the climatic nightmare,
For IT, to survive and evolve.
[Featured photo: Greta Thunberg]