What and when will we learn?

The distant mountains and the sun

Have disappeared in a haze of smoke. 

All that we strive toward, all that lights our days, 

Obscured — hopefully not forever — 

By our foolish disregard for the earth, 

 By our own thoughtless choices, 

Making it difficult to breathe. 

This, too, shall pass, but will it leave us any wiser?

What will we have learned, 

 And how will we be changed for the better?