Guest opinion: Fire and ice

The almost yearly increases in global temperatures accompanied by exponential increases in global fires, endless wars, drought, flooding, and rising global pollution, together with the significant political divide between us, bring to mind Robert Frost’s poem, “Fire and Ice.”

Some say the world will end in fire,  

Some say in ice. 

From what I've tasted of desire 

I hold with those who favor fire. 

But if it had to perish twice, 

I think I know enough of hate 

To know that for destruction ice 

Is also great 

And would suffice. 

Frost’s poem packs a lot into nine lines. The poet uses fire to illustrate how our passions, such as desire and lust, hasten our destruction. 

In contrast, ice represents coldness, silence, and indifference to societal problems that break us apart. If our fiery desire doesn't kill us, our cold hatred toward each other will. 

Robert Frost's "Fire and Ice" was published in the December 1920 issue of Harper's Magazine. It appeared again in his 1923 book New Hampshire, which earned him his first Pulitzer Prize. 

The post-war disillusionment of World War I, classical literature, and scientific debate shaped Frost’s poem 

World War I inflicted global trauma, anxiety, and cynicism. Frost observed how imperial greed, nationalistic passions, and hatreds could manifest on a global scale, leading to our destruction. 

According to astronomer Harlow Shapley, Frost approached him around 1918 to ask how the world would end. Shapley presented two possibilities. 

The first was fire, based on the sun’s eventual expansion, which would lead to our incineration. The other alternative is that when the sun burns out, Earth will freeze in the void. 

Frost took these two scientific end-of-the-world theories and turned them into metaphors for human emotion. 

Dante Alighieri’s 14th-century masterpiece, the Inferno, also played a part. In Dante's depiction of Hell, the sins of passion and desire are punished in the upper, burning fiery circles. However, the deepest, worst level of Hell (the ninth circle reserved for betrayal and absolute hatred) is a lake of solid ice. Frost uses this moral hierarchy in his poem. 

Frost’s poem is now going into its second century. Its applicability, its meaning, its warnings are still with us. The 20th Century encompassed two world wars as well as numerous other wars and global conflicts. Earth Day was established half a century ago in response to unchecked global pollution and oil spills—especially in the US. It led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and to major laws such as the Clean Air Act. The United States was the world leader in global focus on climate change, green energy, and wildlife preservation. 

Not anymore. 

The Ukraine-Russia war has unleashed oil spills that are destroying their surrounding seas and lands. The unfolding environmental catastrophe in the Middle East, in the Straits of Hormuz and surrounding seas, is the tip of the iceberg. 

With more than 1,500 vessels stuck in the narrow waterway, the idle ships could also have a devastating effect on marine ecosystems worldwide. Marine scientists warn that the thousands of stranded vessels in the Strait of Hormuz could trigger an invasive superspreader event across the world’s oceans. Their hulls are covered with thick communities of marine organisms, which they will carry with them once they begin sailing again. These are ideal conditions for the spread of warm-water species to new ports, with unknown consequences. 

One wonders how Robert Frost would write a poem today to address our increasingly world problems. I doubt nine lines would suffice. 

Tom Muri is a 5th generation Montanan and a retired military JAG Officer. He writes from Montana and Sedona. He is from Whitefish.