Sunday, September 12, 2010

Tipping Points Towards Our Own Extinction


At some certain instant, tiger habitat became too fragmented to support them any longer
One further revelation of instability sparked a blind run on all of their assets

One more tuna caught and that species lacked a viable breeding population
One final gas price rise and suddenly it’s the end of giant SUVs and battle-ready pickups

A random plant closing and our manufacturing base has finally disintegrated
A millisecond more sawing and that great, old hardwood could only fall

Once we began to melt the ice, the warming accelerated independently of our actions
One simple truth can ignite a revolution that repression can never halt

A bit warmer and the permafrosted bogs melt and let go all their methane
A seemingly insignificant gain begins the turn from utter defeat to certain victory

One more tiny plot burned off and the rainforest cannot ever stitch itself back together
A final imagined insult brings the shooter back with a murderous vengeance

A last drop of acid rain and the fish can no longer breed in yet another lake
A single additional case turned the simple outbreak into an epidemic

One thoughtless bandit trail crushed and isolated a entire soil microbe community
Another partial degree warmer and the pristine coral reef bleached and died

The first drop over the levee began an unstoppable flood upon the town
From the tiniest genetic alteration sprang the lethal pandemic virus

A last paved lot destroys its earthy sponge and another river becomes just a sewer
A final engineering job outsourced and Yankee Ingenuity is simply a wornout legend

Just a tad warmer and the insects hatch before hungry songbird chicks are born
One more road built unleashes another gluttonous orgy of so-called progress

A last paranoid nightlight hides the MilkyWay in yet another shoddy, overpriced boomtown
Demand for one more barrel causes the price of oil to rise for years

A million ice floes, every one a little smaller, and each polar bear catches fewer seals
A final bit of overthrust and the plates slip, loosing a huge tsunami

Another mortgage rate reset and one more overextended family walks away from its home
A last missed lesson and a blessed child cursingly gives up being literate

One more confusing, real world issue and literal scripture begins to makes real sense
Some random stimulation and an orgasm occurs outside of any conscious will

A few more diesels rumble through the hood and a single-parent baby develops asthma
A little more mercury in the air and another little girl can’t do her reading

A final swig and the drunken driver does not avoid a shuffling pedestrian
One more hit of Meth and it becomes the focus of someone else’s life

A last gallon of fossil water sprayed into the hot wind and the well goes dry
The desert expands just a tiny bit and one more family can no longer farm

Change the 6th decimal of one physical constant and there never was a universe
Just a moment’s extra sun and cancerous skin lesions are guaranteed

A single catchy slogan transforms the rowdy crowd into an angry mob
A single case of counter evidence and the entire theory must be abandoned

One more repetition and their lying, self-serving propaganda becomes true gospel
Another day of sunshine and bureaucrats declare the drought official

One more night of a slow disease progression and that man never walks again
The sight of one more disaster and agnosticism gains another follower

A last new strip mall and a tourist trap morphs into a pointless exurban tumor
Still another aching joint and he realizes he has become old and weak

Suddenly another senseless bombing finally begins the long-awaited war
One more small deception exposed and all their belief is suspended

During some measurable instant the illiterates and evangelicals regained their majority
One day it simply became acceptable to print every sign in Spanish

A single survey first revealed the appearance of their negative savings rate lifestyle
Just another drop lost and the patient’s blood pressure plummeted

One final fused hydrogen atom and the sun no longer sustains its reaction
There’s that one extra mouthful after which it all gets stored as useless fat

There is an instant in which daydreaming turns into that gentle beginning of sleep
The first time the snow changes to rain early in the Spring

The moment when the impossible first starts to become the unavoidable
That hard day when prayer becomes a welcome refuge from unforgiving reason

That final repetition that morphs honest patriotism into arrogant and proud ignorance
A first surprising upset that somehow begins an inevitable string of defeats

That moment of conception that ensures a rendezvous with the void
Just irreversible tipping points retreating on beyond our short event horizon

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