Silent Spring: your August Longette prompt

Environmental issues have been front and centre of my being for as long as I can remember…before I even learnt the word environment and how to spell it, in Year 3.

This month, your longette-writing challenge is to pick up an environmental issue that’s close to your heart (or even one that you’re working to address!) and take it for a run on a long leash.

Unfortunately, there are many issues to choose from. Here are just a few examples:

• The green and golden bell frog (critically endangered critters)
• Cane toads (introduced pests)
• Deforestation
• Mass extinction
• The Amazon jungle
• Clear-felling
• Pesticides, herbicides, fertilisers and other chemicals
• Genetically Modified Organisms
• Control of the seedbank
• Climate change
• Polar ice caps
• Open-cut mining
• Garbage/landfill
• Factory farming

Or, on a more positive note, things like:

• Rewilding
• Permaculture
• Wildlife corridors
• National Parks
• World Heritage Listing
• Divesting from fossil fuels
• Alternative energy sources
• Using less electricity
• Green building methods
• Ethical investment
• Activism
• Seed saving
• Heritage crops
• Restoration
• Recycling
• Organic & biodynamic farming

This month’s prompt was inspired by Rachel Carson ground-breaking 1962 book Silent Spring, about the effects of the chemical DDT, which was grossly misused during WWII and afterwards.

Also, it’s nearly spring here in Australia.

Here are the Longette and Longette Lite instructions—though feel free to use any form that suits you. And please do submit your work for publication here on Wordflower; I’d love for you to join the growing list of guest poets!

The image, by Mike Mijares on Pexels.com, shows mangrove restoration work.