The term butterfly effect has entered everyday vocabulary from the mathematics of chaos theory and refers to the possibility of a major event (such as a tornado) starting from something so slight as the flutter of a butterfly wing. This sensitivity to small changes is a characteristic of chaotic systems. Recent news in Science magazine (9 May 2014) has drawn my attention to sea butterflies -- and the effect that ocean acidification is having on the lives of these tiny, fragile creatures -- and the environmental warning that this portends. From the details offered in Science, I have constructed this poem of 4x4 square-stanzas:
Warned by Sea Butterflies by JoAnne Growney
Sea butterflies --
no larger than
a grain of sand,
named for the way
transparent fins
reach from their shells,
flap to and fro
like butterflies.
Ocean acid
at high levels
dissolves those shells --
kills the fragile
sea butterflies.
In old coal mines
canaries died,
warning miners.
Today we should
wake up, pay wise
attention to
sea butterflies!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment