Snow Melts, Not The Hearts Poem by Unnikrishnan Sivasankara Menon

(1)
In the winter
The vitally important
Soil Microbial communities
within Alpine soils,
Covered by blankets of snow,
Remain active
In carbon and nitrogen
Cycling.

Toxic emissions
From burning fossil fuels
Cause warming climates
Which hastens
The spring snow melt
On the Alpine mountains;
By the end of the century
The snow would melt earlier
By over one hundred days,
Says scientific evidence.

"So what?
Let it melt! "

You are mistaken!
This would inhibit
Plant productivity,
Negatively affect
agricultural production
And disrupt
natural ecosystems.
And, above all, cause
further climate warming.

An irreversible
Hazardous cycle.

This is just a sample
Of the Earth we'd bequeath
To our grandchildren.


(2)
Through the dry
Long summers
Of North India,
Mighty Himalayan rivers
Flow fully swelled,
Ensuring drinking water
For a few hundred
Million households.

The swollen rivers
Irrigate millions of acres
Of arable land
That fill the food bowls
Of those millions.

Where does
water come from
in the summer
To fill the rivers?
The melting snow
Of the mighty
Himalayan Glaciers.

Rising temperatures cause
Snow on the glaciers melt
Faster than it is added
Leaving the glaciers thinner
By a foot and a half
Every year,
Say the scientists.

The glaciers depleted
At double the speed
In the last two decades
Than they did
During the preceding
Twenty years.

It won't be long
Before you find
Ganga and Yamuna
Dry like Periyar and Nila
In the summers.

Are these the rivers
The hills, the valleys,
Today a home for all,
For none maybe tomorrow
That we save for our grandchildren
From whom did them we borrow.