Breaking the Sick Cycle

In the brief and violent outburst that is the famous ‘This be the Verse’ poem by Philip Larkin, he shares with us the key to unlock ourselves from imminent self-extinction. Larkin recognises that our education is perpetuating our problems and digs us deeper into denial and delusion. He also points out that it is not fair to embroil any further unborn in this anthropocentric mess, nor is it fair to hang on too long and further drain scarce ecological resources from Earth’s dying ecosystems.

It is important to note that Larkin wrote this during a period when overpopulation was a widely discussed topic thanks to Paul and Anne Ehrlich’s book ‘The Population Bomb’. Larkin would have heard of the I=PAT equation, which informs us that population size, affluence and technology are the key drivers of environmental damage. In this poem, it seems to me that Larkin anticipated the inability of humanity to put the brakes on their addiction to all three of these drivers of destruction.

We are now living with the escalating existential problems of climate breakdown and ecosystems collapse. Larkin’s warning, along with Ehrlich’s were not unheeded, but we lacked the emotional maturity to alter our priorities. We are all guilty of wanting children, affluence, and technology. For these addictions we shall all pay with ever-decreasing life-expectancy as this century plays out.

These ideas were combined into a sobering email that was circulated with UK MPs between 13 and 14 December 2023. See copy below.

From: poemsforparliament
Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2023 4:55 AM
To: All Members of Parliament
Subject: Stepping out of our Silo to Solve Climate and Economic Migration

Dear Members of Parliament,

The only way to stem the flow of climate and economic migrants is to ensure that they receive subsistence provisions in their country of origin. Universal Basic Provision is the essential first step towards a global Degrowth economy; it allows everyone to step away from ecocidal growth economics. Combining UBP with free family planning services, and education about ecological overshoot, the global community can collaborate equitably whilst we aspire to return within the planetary boundaries. This strategy would also meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2 — No Hunger.

We are taught to value profit above the planet’s ecosystems, and this lack of imagination is steering us into population collapse. MP Robert Jenrick’s call for increased UK childbirth expresses British xenophobia and a lack of understanding of the global overpopulation problem. The ‘Limits to Growth’ World3 demographic model was recently recalibrated. It predicts global population will collapse to less than 2 billion between now and 2100. More rapid collapse is anticipated in the Bystroff model, and a further peer-reviewed paper warns that ‘Population Correction is Inevitable’. If we wish to ameliorate the future for our children, we shall all need to learn to collaborate peacefully taking only what we need from Nature.

The romanticised nuclear family has failed to deliver a safe future for anybody. It just encourages the same siloed thinking that we see in academia. This has rendered us all incapable of rising to the task of peaceful global cooperation when our global species is so deeply endangered. The only way to break out of this sick cycle was identified by Philip Larkin in his powerful poem:

‘This Be The Verse’
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.

With much love for all of Life on Earth
Barbara Williams