Every single day I get a torrent in my inbox:

online communities that crave my support

with a signature, a letter, a donation to unlock

a Saudi prison cell; save turtles; alert

a smug politician to the suffering of the needy;

grant safe asylum to desperate refugees;

liberate wealth from the clutches of the greedy;

or restrict global warming to one point five degrees.

I wanna help them all but especially the latter

‘cos if we can’t fix the climate, 

 

nothing else matters.

 

Last week a report was briefly in the news,

it said we’ll lose the battle in another 12 years.

The IPCC - the body that reviews

the scientific evidence confirmed our worst fears:

we take drastic action or melt the permafrost 

releasing its methane, and everything is lost.

Rain becomes a roar in place of pitter-patter,

typhoons thrash, hurricanes batter,

superstorms lash and ecosystems shatter.

If we can’t fix the climate, 

 

nothing else matters.

 

You can’t have human rights on a world that has no food.

You can’t help refugees when there’s billions on the move.

You can’t save the elephants when deserts span the globe.

You can’t save the NHS if tropical disease

is overwhelming Britain as we shoot past 2 degrees.

We need to tell our leaders:   “Avoid the vapid chatter!

No time to shilly-shally, no time to natter!”

But the White House incumbent is mad as a hatter

and the president of Russia is an oil dependent nutter

and they won’t fix the climate.

 

They’re engrossed in other matters.

 

It’s people on the street who think they have no voice:

us ordinary workers, students, OAPs

who have to shove the world back from the tipping point,

decarbonise our lifestyles, make power carbon free.

We all need to fight the coal mines and the frackers,

the automotive industry,  refiners and their backers.

Get feet off the gas and meat off the platter,

‘cos if we can’t fix the climate

 

nothing else matters.

 

If we can’t fix the climate

 

nothing else matters.