What's the use in arguing about climate change?

Whether a climate change denier or indeed a "believer"

What's the point in arguing? It's cleaner to be greener.

Does it matter whether the weather is changing or not?

Once the oil wells run dry renewables are all we've got.





NB.  Read this interesing blog post: "How to argue with climate change sceptics"

A rebuke to the false French GM "study" on rats

GM maize did not kill the rats that
The French trial lately gave them to graze.

This experiment is expressly redundant
As no-one has expired while GM has been abundant.

This argument is a non-starter, you should rather
Invest your research into making crops scavenge water.

Alas, in a world of climatic disasters it's
Paramount we use a variety of agricultural tactics.

Soon our soils will be sailing in salinity,
Our crops will be wilting and yields diminishing.

But conventional breeding is nowhere near achieving
Salt tolerance in the crops we rely on for eating.

Yet adding one protein, albeit a transgene,
Can dramatically improve a plant's tolerance to saline.

Furthermore these same proteins ensure
That a severe lack of water crops may endure.

Therefore I implore the organic brigade
To embrace GM, forego their furore and terminate this tirade.

Freedom of Speech

Freedom of speech is becoming confused with freedom to preach racist diatribe.

In the New York subway, a bigoted poster says, that Palestinians are savages but Israelis are civilized.

Support the civilized man in the war against savages, the advert decrees.

But who acts more savagely than the "civilized man" spreading destructive conflict and uncivil unease?

Freedom of speech extends so far as to express an opinion, perhaps against religion,

But this freedom should never extend to blatant and abhorrent bigotry, agression, opression and affliction.

No appreciation for good precipitation

Some people have no appreciation for good precipiation.
Though who's to blame them for feeling frustration
After a month's worth of rain falls in only one day?

Yet this great nation would be nothing of the sort
If it weren't for the miserable climate our ancestors saught.
The moist air brought industrialisation and our economy soared.

Our incessant rain makes Britain mostly water replete,
Which is lucky as many areas are increasingly depleted.
The fertile crescent will soon turn to desert in the Middle East.

Thus don't be frustrated that our weather's rarely clever,
I'd rather have plenty of rain than barely any barley.
And the sunny days feel so much better to those of us with crappy weather.

Wanton destruction - the human way

Human destruction of nature knows no bounds.
Badgers in England are soon set to face shotgun rounds.
Hopefully, though, to their sets they'll go
And shelter in holes deep underground.

Bovine TB is a vicious disease
Causing farmers and cattle deadly unease.
But slaughtering wildlife in their thousands
Will curtail this killer only to the tiniest of degrees.

Humans inextricably rely on biodiversity,
Without which we'd never have food as plenty.
For bees in praries to rainforest trees
Are vitally necessary for the survival of our species.

It's the ultimate disgrace that in order to make pace,
Nature and wildlife we race to displace.
With unerring certainty we slash and burn,
Which we'll learn to regret, too late, when the wind starts to turn.

Relinquish religion

Religion is an affliction of fiction, friction and contradiction.

All preach tolerance and peace but the hypocrisy is that none of them practise these.

Instead why not believe in the human species? 

Love one another and live at ease.

Preposterous protests

One Danish magazine posted a picture of the prophet Muhammad and the Middle East erupted into enraged burning of effigies.

More recently a raging horde in Libya destroyed an embassy and murdered the US Ambassador, in answer to a shoddy film made by one imbecile with a chip on his shoulder.

Do any of these people realise that one person's ideals do not represent the majority of feelings of people in the Western world?

For those who think Islam has been slighted might best stay at home for fear that there might be a deeper crisis - Islam does not look wisest when one film that blights it causes fires and riots.

Free speech should be held in the highest esteem but means conflicting opinions are frequently seen.

Imagine the scene if, every time the church was made to seem less than clean in the Newspapers and magazines, people started burning down stores and factories.

These protests are preposterous, seriously, go and read some proper newspapers where opinion and contradiction is part of progress.

Stop burning effigies and embassies every time one daft article causes unrest and unease, please.

Curtailing creationism

An alliance of science in the face of unenlightened defiance of the facts of life will surely at some point in time prevail.

After 500 years, Copernicus’ idea that around the sun the Earth does run should be patently clear.

But this idea is yet to be endeared to a fifth of God-fearing Americans who 2000 year old scriptures revere. 

Worse still, creationists foolishly instil lies to their children at church and school in regions where ignorance unfortunately rules.

It’s unbelievably arrogant to think that man was put on this planet and the plants and animals were made for us to abuse.

The fossil record unequivocally shows, in bones and DNA from mammoths that froze, that evolution is the only explanation to how we arose.

It’s completely insane that there’s even a debate to whether inane creationism is taught alongside science.

So let’s stop pussyfooting around, intelligent design is completely unsound.  It’s time to curtail this ridiculous fairytale and finally let science in the end prevail.

Hindsightful history

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Yet history is littered from Queen to King

With examples of how

Those supposedly in the know

Manage to Royally screw everything.

Take for example Vietnam,

That was invaded as far back as 1289

By no other than the great Kublai Khan,

Leader of the great Mongolian Army.

These mighty warriors could not succeed,

The Vietnamese repelled them with ease.

Attacking their foes with horses and bows

The Mongolian army simply froze.

Guerilla warfare had them completely thrown.

So why on Earth in 1965

Did the Americans try to win hearts and minds?

The Vietminh in the Northern jungles

Adopted the same combat and the USA crumbled.

You’d have thought that this would teach them a lesson

But no, to Afghanistan the mission was taken.

They fought the Taliban,

Harbouring Osama Bin Laden,

Who insidiously blended into the normal population.

Over a decade later and the losses ever greater.

For what?  Not even a gravestone to savour.

The body of Osama thrown into the ocean,

Was it really worth the lives ripped apart and torn open?

But still the Americans continue to wage

A war on terror that unshakenly rages.

Yet the innocent lives lost in the Middle East

By far outweigh the 9/11 deceased.

But there is hope for the future

As the rebels in Libya

Were able to organically displace their ruler.

Though Assad in Syria continues to murder

The west should refrain from embroiling deeper.

One foot in the wrong direction

Might stimulate further extremist aggression.

Iraq is a perfect case in point,

Invasion has simply caused greater disjoint.

So let’s not send any more troops...  what’s the point?

It must be best to ingest insects

Insects can be pests,
but instead it must be best
to put our minds at rest.
As at my behest,
not with the least bit of jest,
may I suggest
that on the largest possible scale
insects we ingest.

Insects are flavoursome,
nutritious and wholesome.
And on the the whole,
some of us say,
that we might see them
as less than gruesome.
Or maybe a luxury item become,
which is the case in Vietnam,
Thailand and then some.

Insects are truly
environmentally friendly,
and moreso, surely,
than cattle too plenty.
Ruminants are costly,
wasting far more energy
than insects converting
their energy efficiently.

7 kilos of wheat
For one of meat
which insects beat
with a seventh to feast.
Thus we may greet
entomophagy with glee
so the hungry might meet
Their need to eat

True skepticism

A true skeptic obtains the truth through scientific proof.

A climate change skeptic is as septic as the planet we've infected.

Aids deniers are liars, while creationists should desist.

If there are three things that ever have been proven,

they're HIV-AIDS, climate change and evolution.




NB.  Read this interesing blog post: "How to argue with climate change sceptics"

Slam poetry tribute to Thought for Food

Thought for Food you have enabled me.
I never thought I'd
Live out of bins, please forgive me
Though I might be arrested,
This should not go uncontested.

Outside the box -
we pondered,
How to feed a world
Where fields turn to rocks,
Wells run dry, lives asunder.
One billion starving, the facts are alarming.

Eat locusts,
The economics show us
That for each kilogram of grain we get the same back in meat stuff.
Which is better than feeding
A field full of cows, with food from the poor, starving and needing.

Thanks Crissy Spice
For this chance to form a plan
That might suffice to solve the global food crisis.
 TFF cannot be bested,
I just hope the world cares what we've invested.

In three months we had late nights,
We drank more beer
Than might start a fight some late night, in Manchester.
Though if you come visit don't mind the weather
And remember
That we'll pursue Thought for Food forever.

A distaste for food waste

I have a strong distaste for food waste,

And let’s face it - it’s a disgrace

That so much of what we make gets binned or misplaced.

With haste, I may say,

Millions of people would pray

For a taste of that apple you just threw away.

In the supermarket aisles

You’ll find all sorts of deals

Yet these rarely purport to provide wholesome meals.

Three for three pounds

Seems economically sound

But most of these offers see only men on their bin rounds.

In a recession with lower pay

It’s greatly difficult to make hay,

So you’d think far less wastage would help to allay this.

With your meat, bread and fishes

You can freeze to keep freshness.

And you could plant an old onion for next year’s dishes.

Also - try to ignore sell by dates,

They’re pointless and never late;

Just another way of taking away the money you make.

And - If you’re really a maverick

Then raiding bins is a useful trick

Though they might try and arrest you so make sure you’re slick.

These bins are all full of decent food

While in winter the standard is less than crude

Though if you do peruse, leave some for others – don’t be rude!

So to conclude, it would be prudent

If we were to make waste far less abundant

Which doesn’t seem a wholly unreasonable commitment.

Bugs have benefits - slam poetry

Bugs have benefits
and no I'm not trying to jest with this;
Because I insist, if you look at a list
Of the statistics...

It's all about locusts -
And no, we are no jokers.
But seriously, locusts
Are certainly a more sustainable way forwards.
Compared to that Angus beef in your burgers
They'll leave more grain for the worse off among us.

Locusts are 60% protein, and lean
Like baked beans or chicken.
But in Thailand it's insects that make the kids beam
And the colonel ain't the only cause of good finger lickin'!

They taste nutty, like cashews
And in fact they go pretty well in a patty or a butty.
We cooked some up in Manchester,
Made a Thai Green Curry.
We've got to get that to market in a hurry
According to an enthusiastic man from Bury.

Now, onto the subject of palate -
Let's face it it's just lately that lobster was good enough for a palace.
And believe me, it is no fallacy
That locusts are as good as those shrimps from the sea.

So in conclusion, to dispel the illusion
Insects are tasty not horrible or gruesome.
So once you've removed the heads wings and legs
They look less like bugs but like langouste instead.
And when it comes to making the world well fed,
We could do worse than to eat locusts alongside our rice, corn and bread.

GM crops should be revered rather than feared

Genetically modified organisms are not something to be feared,

It would be far more appropriate if they were rather revered.

Though don’t associate reverence with us playing God,

Conventional crops are just as unnatural when planted in sod.

Seed has been farmed since the dawn of civilization.

One look at the fossils reveals the location –

Of - the rachis which shows the secret to how

Our ancestors learned to harvest and sow.

Wild versions of barley found near Zagros

Have a smooth rachis where the grain falls off.

But ancient remains from the Fertile Crescent

Show signs of threshing where humans were present.

Thus continued thousands of years of selection,

Maize, wheat and barley took on a vastly new complexion.

The ancient grain teosinte in Mesoamerica,

No longer resembles our corn so familiar.

The anti-GM lobby would argue with vigour

That adding new genes is fraught with danger.

However when you consider the amount of regulation,

GM crops are safer than conventional plantation.

Organic crops are often praised wholeheartedly,

Apparently they’re safer if not as plenty.

Yet if only people knew the outrageous discrepancy,

That many were mutated with radioactivity.

In a perfect world we might all pursue permaculture

But in reality the hungry would surely suffer.

In order to feed the world’s malnourished and starving,

There is a need for GM alongside marker assisted breeding.

Vegetarianism is not the only sustainable solution to overpopulation and malnutrition

Vegetarianism is apparently cause for celebration,

Yet may I remind you it is the cause of overpopulation;

Over ten thousand years we have pursued crop domestication,

Which has enabled our ever inflating civilization.

There was recently news in the Guardian;

Scientists suggesting we become vegetarian.

Yet if in England we just ate venison

This would be a more sustainable solution.

The human species is omnivorous,

We have canines and bicuspids on us,

To chew our vegetable AND meat dishes,

Which doesn’t mean the planet should necessarily suffer us.

In Australia they have plenty of kangaroo,

And for every human there are at least two –

Yet for some reason this isn’t considered food,

Despite being ridiculously good for you.

Yes, we are eating too much beef,

But open your eyes and you will see

That there is a host of other delectable meat,

Including locusts, crickets, fly larvae and bees.

The feast of St. Gratus takes place each year,

In Seattle at a Cafe called Racer – where

A chef named Gordon attempts to endear

People to the thought of eating something they fear.

Yet insects should not be a source of trepidation,

More importantly they may save millions from starvation.

Thus we must persuade the majority of nations

That entomophagy could satiate their malnourished populations.

So, to summarise, it might be wise for those who despise

The thought of eating bugs to open their eyes.

While it is down to people like Girl Meets Bug and I

To try and convince them otherwise.