Earth Day 2015 – the coming years

My writers' group yesterday discussed an article in The Guardian about the choices made by the Oxford Children's Dictionary editors that set me off, so I wrote this today.

Formosan Clouded Leopard

Earth Day 2015 – the coming years

The Oxford Children’s  Dictionary

edited out words like acorn, otter,

blossom and walnut from the most

recent edition – in the editors’

esteemed wisdom these words were

no longer relevant to today’s children.

Instead words added included celebrity,

broadband, database. Database this

for relevance: remove northern white

rhinoceros from the lexicon – do it soon –

there’s only one breeding male left.

Erase mountain gorilla, predicted

to disappear this year. We are on the edge

of a mass extinction event say the experts.

For the clouded leopard, it’s already

too late. Wipe its name from the slate.

Delete, delete, delete: Hawaiian crow,

last seen in 1999; Pyrenean Ibex, 2000;

spotted green pigeon, 2008. Never say

their names. They deserve better than

to be categorized by the species that

supervised their destruction. Remove

them from the discussion. Other names

rise to  the top of the list, replace what
was lost, next to be forgotten.  Keep

the newly added word, endangered.
We’ll need it in the coming years.