Artemis Mourning: A One Act Lament by Brent Gudzus

Artemis Mourning
A One Act Lament
by Brent Gudzus
 
Cast: Artemis, Greek Goddess of Wild Creatures; Chorus
 
Scene: Artemis speaking alone on stage with the chorus chanting off-stage.
 
Artemis: It saddens be greatly that you have taken for granted the great gift of the Earth’s bounty of endlessly diverse varieties of life, of plants and animals, and that you have relentlessly assaulted the biological integrity of our beautiful planet with poisons and with no regard for the needs of the other organisms with whom you share the Earth. Do you think that there are no consequences for your actions and that you can live selfishly for ever without destroying this great gift of life we call Earth?
 
Chorus: You’ve poisoned the oceans, the earth and the sky,
All of the animals are starting to die,
With all of your science, what it is worth,
If you kill all the creatures that live on the Earth?
 
Artemis: It has never been easy for you to survive, but then if it had been easy you wouldn’t have the skills that you have, the great cunning that has allowed you such domination over the other creatures and which domination you assume the right to pursue without question. For so long the elements kept you contained and restrained but then you discovered the great gift of science and that was the end of evolution: you are in control of the planet but you cannot control yourselves or control the consequences of the fruits of your applied sciences. You sad, lost, and self-destructive creatures.
 
Chorus: You’ve poisoned the oceans, the earth and the sky,
All of the animals are starting to die,
With all of your science, what it is worth,
If you kill all the creatures that live on the Earth?
 
Artemis: Your ignorance has created a conflict with the available resources of the world. You are over-populated and out-of-control; your way of life is not ecologically sustainable. At the very least, then, you need clean technology to minimize the damage of over-population. Because we are in the middle of an inter-glacial period between ice ages there is going to be global warming, but you have accelerated the warming with your reckless fossil-fuel addiction. Carbon dioxide emissions and the burning of fossil fuels must stop; all forms of pollution must stop.
 
Chorus: You’ve poisoned the oceans, the earth and the sky,
All of the animals are starting to die,
With all of your science, what it is worth,
If you kill all the creatures that live on the Earth?
 
Artemis: If people are fortunate when they are young they see the truth with great clarity, but the business of survival in human society soon overwhelms them with compromise after compromise until the truth is lost or deeply buried. We must maintain the purity of our youthful values that sustains the most intelligent vision for the future of the only planet in the universe that we know life of that has life. We are letting Earth die before our eyes and on our watch – we are cheating future generations of the magic of the beauty and abundance of the gift of biodiversity that we have so extravagantly squandered.
 
Chorus: You’ve poisoned the oceans, the earth and the sky,
All of the animals are starting to die,
With all of your science, what it is worth,
If you kill all the creatures that live on the Earth?
 
You’ve poisoned the oceans, the earth and the sky,
All of the animals are starting to die,
With all of your science, what it is worth,
If you kill all the creatures that live on the Earth?
 
 
The End
 
 

Brent Gudzus is a life-long Californian wildly fond of hiking & ecology, art & science, philosophy & religion. He is very happily married with no children.
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