Boulding: Man’s March to `The Summit’”
Kenneth Boulding’s poem, “Man’s March to `The Summit’”, appeared in the August 1955 issue of the Population Reference Bureau’s Population Bulletin. Here it is–
The world is finite,
resources are scarce,
Things are bad
and will be worse,
Coal is burned
and gas exploded,
Forests cut
and soils eroded.
Wells are dry
and air’s polluted,
Dust is blowing,
trees uprooted.
Oil is going,
ores depleted,
Drains receive
what is excreted.
Land is sinking,
seas are rising,
Man is far
too enterprising.
Fire will rage
with Man to fan it,
Soon we’ll have
a plundered planet.
People breed
like fertile rabbits,
People have
disgusting habits.
The evolutionary plan
went astray
by evolving Man.
Man’s potential
is quite terrific,
You can’t go back
to the Neolithic.
The cream is there
for us to skim it,
Knowledge is power,
and the sky’s the limit.
Every mouth
has hands to feed it,
Food is found
where people need it.
All we need
is found in granite,
Once we have
the men to plan it.
Yeast and algae
give us meat,
Soil is almost
obsolete.
Men can grow
the pastures greener,
Till all the earth
is Pasadena.
Man’s a nuisance,
Man’s a crackpot
But only Man
can hit the jackpot.
— Kenneth Boulding
May 24th, 2005 at 11:16 am
That’s a great one! Thanks for spreading it around!