Mammoth

Julian Bishop

You barrelled across the Earth like you owned it -
and to a degree or two you did. Too big to fail,
the world hitched a ride on your matted back.

Your footfall left prints wide as opencast mines,
while you, grass guzzler, masticated mammoth amounts
of habitat to fuel your unstoppable growth.

Those manipulative tusks tore into foes
as you thundered over steppes and plundered deltas, 
leaving behind a bitumen stink of oily tailings.

Maa mutts, earth moles, too entrenched in your ways -
now you're obsolete as Ford Sierras, a gallon of four star.
Fields you once roamed rolled over into foamy acres

beneath the North Sea. Now we unearth rig-like ribcages,
bones which further the notion - that you drove yourselves 
to extinction, clumsy species that limbered up too late.

Mammoth, you should have shaken off your crude pelt
before the ice melted; thick-skinned galumpher,
you failed to acclimatise to changes in the tide. 

The Science

As a former environmental reporter turned eco poet I keep a sharp eye on the news to see whether any of the main culprits responsible for climate change are keeping to pledges to reduce their impact. One pressure group that keeps a similarly sharp eye out is the Carbon Tracker Initiative ‘Adapt to Survive: Why oil companies must plan for net zero and avoid stranded assets’, which helps asset management companies evaluate the risks of potential investments in carbon-intensive fossil fuels. 

They employ a team of data scientists and broader financial analysts with specialisms in energy to produce research that directly impacts where vast sums of money are invested. Their latest research shows companies have still not woken up to the ‘seismic implications’ of the International Energy Agency’s finding that no investment in new oil and gas production is needed if the world aims to limit global warming to 1.5°C. Their conclusions suggest that most companies will need to cut production by at least half to hit targets, which clearly would impact profits. My poem ‘Mammoth’ is a response to this dawning reality that most companies have left it too late and face obliteration unless they adapt extremely quickly.

The Poet

Julian Bishop is a former television journalist living in North London who is a member of several London stanza groups. He’s had a lifelong interest in ecology and worked for a time as Environment Reporter for BBC Wales. A former runner-up in the Ginkgo Prize for Eco Poetry, he’s also been shortlisted for the Bridport Poetry Prize and was long-listed in this year’s National Poetry Competition. He won the 2021 Poets and Players Competition judged by Sean Hewitt with his poem ‘Sitting For Caravaggio’. 

Next poem: Post-fire Pulse by Diana Vieira