Document 672

Dipper: 60 - Profit or Loss

Author(s): Dr James A Begg

Copyright holder(s): Dr James A Begg

'What profit a man if he lose his own soul
And gains all the wealth of the world?'
What profit the world from the damage untold,
As great Multinationals, like pirates of old,
Treat our birthright as loot to be pillaged and sold:
- With the dread Skull and Crossbones unfurled

On the drums and containers of chemical waste,
Cancer-spawned by industrial blight,
Being buried or dumped off with indecent haste,
Wherever there's minimum chance of being traced;
Ignoring the consequent perils then faced
By all creatures - from man to mere mite?

Industrial sewers from Seine to the Rhine
Slip their cocktails of death to the seas;
And a brew much more lethal than Borgia's wine,
Sends our seal stocks and fish in a spiral decline,
While our Governments tell us that 'Everything's fine',
As they pocket their V.A.T. Fees!

Meanwhile spiralling upwards, an incense profane
Accompanies their Mammon-god prayers,
As sulphur and nitrogen oxides sustain
Tree-deadly deposits of acidic rain;
And aerosol chlorfluorocarbons maintain
Giant holes in our Earth's ozone layers.

Whole rain forests toppled at frightening speed,
Himalayas denuded of trees;
One - victim of folly and rapacious greed,
The other of poverty, ignorance and need;
But both desecrations are destined to lead
To fair Earth being brought to her knees.

For our life-giving oxygen sources are these;
Photosynthesis must be maintained;
We cannot let others just do as they please -
- Our very existence depends on those trees:
So before we expire in a terminal wheeze,
We must ponder - 'Just what have we gained?'

Each person must wake up and see for himself,
The lands that have withered and curled;
The tired, tainted seas which, with sick silent stealth,
Are slowly and surely destroying our health:
What profit Mankind if some gain all this wealth?
- And WE finish up LOSING THE WORLD!

Information about Document 672

Dipper: 60 - Profit or Loss