Nischala McDonnell, Bachelor of Environment and Bachelor of Laws (Hons I), Student Volunteer, Centre for Environmental Law, Macquarie University, Australia
I used to play marbles when I was a kid.
Watched them race across lino floors, roll over hills of carpet
and watch, silent in awe, when they collided.
If only I knew I was a kid
playing with the forces of nature.
If only we all knew…
then we might not have kept playing marbles
til the game was over.
Earth, our Blue Marble, glowing from within
painted blue, green. Our culture’s colours.
This marble is the best kind with internal structures which spin in tempo with hidden heartbeats.
An invisible string to hold us in.
Yet, when you look closely, there are spider-web cracks
running like figurine ice-skaters performing a duet.
These fractures swoop, entwine and widen more lines, criss-crossed on frost glazed glass. Hidden issues now surfacing, it’s time to ask. Why is our Blue Marble cracking deep from within?
Who, why and how? Where to even begin?
Part I: The Players Behind the Cracks
A hamster system turned on by green. Not the green offered by trees. No.
The green of paper... of money.
Profit over planet,
Profit over people. Profit the unseen ghost holding court.
The real power, in suited boardrooms and high-stakes tables.
Profit should be considered a person, with its own desires, wants and moods.
As profit runs this world, running this global race.
Profit fuels the road we’re on of planetary warming and ecosystems gone.
Yet Profit’s cunning is often forgotten, its persuasiveness left to run rampant, allowing:
It’s fingers, greasy, dirt-smudged and cold to help spin the wheel and let the game of marbles to go on;
It’s voice, slimy, smokers-cough ridden bellows across the globe, ‘You’re in it, to win it’ so keep playing this game of marbles til you’re gone;
It’s touch, gripping on flesh and mind, is cousin to Midas, holding fast to the reins of the Blue Marble’s environmental destruction.
Profit, the big player in this game of marbles is a silent bidder, constantly raising the stakes. Our stakes.
Betting on a cracking Blue Marble with underhand deals to ensure Profit’s success, for Profit only smiles when a system, the Blue Marble is out of balance.
Yet, Profit is not alone, and is not the only player acting puppet master over the forces of uncontrollable nature.
So who else is here? Who else has manipulated with the strings of nature?
Humans.
Us.
We.
Together.
Humanity’s power untempered, a Babushka doll of trouble, has changed how the world functions in pursuit of self-interest… of having better and having more.
We’ve raced to climb the mountain of success without stopping to assess how our footprints might
change the course of history.
For once a path is set,
we’ll generally trudge that same course…
for not many take the road less travelled when trying to set ecosystems recourse in motion.
It’s like a message in a bottle,
a small hope at the whim of a vast hungry ocean.
We all need to be on the same team, not an ‘us’ and ‘them’ entrenched mentality.
As the separation of human nature
from Mother nature
serves exploitation, serves Profit
and our generally held belief we’re the most superior species…
But this view is fractured, demanding us to unmask and really look in this Blue Marble’s mirror our shared reflection. This is no tall ask, to acknowledge
Our responsibility Our power
In changing the course of Blue Marble’s path
For its our hands which may scatter the marbles
And equally our hands which may gather them,
ending this repetitive game.
So which direction shall humanity and Profit
decide the Blue Marble should now take
in this age of the Anthropocene?
A human epoch…
with the chance to stop
our trajectory of warming.
Part II: Not Playing by the Rules
You can’t play marbles on a table for when pushed, they fall
beyond boundaries.
So why have we collectively allowed this game with the Blue Marble to keep on going?
When ecosystem forces are
strangled by pollution tied by commercialism blinded by denial and inaction, and gas-lighted by politics.
If the Blue Marble was human,
these acts and omissions would likely amount to criminal and civil charges.
So why should we treat the Earth any different?
Just because we deem that it has no voice, or that the ground, the oceans are not worth protecting. As nothing on Earth has been left untouched
from the paw prints of humanity.
Acne-scarred by our machines and desires it’s no wonder why the pores in this Blue Marble
are clogged, and aching.
For we’re racing past the safety signs, warning ‘Danger Ahead’.
Now, we may as well wear no seatbelts or helmets
in our trip to the outer limits and beyond the planetary boundaries.
Cruise control settings and momentarily braking
are not sufficient.
Not then.
Not now.
Not ever.
Collective sustained action is desperately needed
to halt our roll over the edge…
of humanity driving its own destruction
in tandem with crashing the Blue Marble
on a course which ignores all rules, all sense, all instruction.
Part III: Game Over
How can we stare biodiversity extinction in the face? But instead of hitting pause, or even better stop, we reach back in for more popcorn as if its ok to laugh at horror.
In this Anthropos age, we’ve become the apex predator. Even though we might not have gigantic teeth or bullet-proof armour, what we are doing to all systems of nature is creating ecosystem collapse and extreme weather.
Nothing is now predictable.
Have we gone marbles to not end this game til its over?
Common sense cannot be kept in solitary confinement any longer.
Our Responsibility hangs heavy around our necks.
As the apex geological force,
Responsibility is our albatross
slung shamelessly to defy the odds of scientific trajectories. Which prophet global warming
in the name of Profit.
So, how can we knowingly let extinction, climate change,
and all other Earth system issues continue
without pause, without action?
Do you really think we can afford to wait til 2030 or 2050 before words finally transmit to deeds?
For if so, this game of marbles will keep on going.
Our Blue Marble will keep on spinning until the Anthropo-cracks break it down completely. As we, humans, are really the ultimate undoing.
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