The greatest news of the time is that
Arctic sea is melting:
that Arctic is warming twice as fast
as any other place, global warming effect,
that 50 per cent of its ice cover is thawed;
news is that the beauteous young face of the sea
is rising up inviting tourists in summer, ice-free;
news has spread that the age old permafrost
contains in its belly billions of barrels of crude oil
trillion cubic metres of Natural Gas, without fail
huge reserves of hydrocarbons
and different precious minerals;
news has spread that the melt sea
will create navigable routes for business and commerce.
Unlike the ants rushing for food, finding it anyhow
in disciplined queue, men scramble
to grab anything that has exchange value;
just eight countries surround the Arctic
but others of remote areas
linked by common human greed,
have come together to churn the sea;
in this Arctic rush, far exceeding the Gold rush,
they are producing ice-class ships; mad-rush
parading soldiers, building ports,
dominating climate harsh.
Arctic is an ancient sea-face of the earth, unexplored;
Eskimos and innumerable known and unknown creatures;
umpteen biodiversity, gems of the ocean
so far unfathomed are surfacing below the ice covered sea,
due to rising temperature.
Access to hydrocarbons will further release huge carbons,
feared twice as much in the atmosphere;
man’s brutal advance against the pristine, mystic Nature,
meeting of countries in geopolitical war
in the absence of any international treaty
are desperate actions against man and nature.
Out of this churning of the sea the resulting upsurge;
amrita or garal -
not known what will emerge.
