Our new blog, planetPulse, serves as a platform for Eco-Activists to advocate in a manner that showcases their creativity and talent. This New Blog will host short stories, poems, digital art and many of the like to highlight those environmental and ecological issues that impact life on Earth.
Don't Be Shy! Submit your creative pieces through our Editor in Chief and let your voice be heard.
planetPulse 1 - Granny Gaia rests at The Palms.
03/10/2025
By Editor-in-Chief Naomi Barkoye
By Editor-in-Chief Naomi Barkoye
Gaia, a name of Greek origin, refers to the personification of the ‘Earth’. Her personality is deeply caring and responsible, largely reflecting the Earth’s ability to sustain life. Gaia embodies the interconnectivity of all living things, thereby emphasizing dependency that goes beyond the biological, and includes the spiritual.
Even though Gaia is fierce and formidable, the actions of mankind over the last century highlights her delicacy. Centuries of conquest, subjugation and exploitation accelerated the exhaustion of natural resources. Once revered as the fierce goddess of life, Gaia now limps along as Granny- tired, exploited, and tucked away. Granny Gaia is at The Palms, and we not only escorted her there, but also pretended it was the most responsible thing to do.
Now Granny Gaia sends us updates on her health by vomiting up all that we dumped in the ocean in hurricanes and tsunamis. She sneezes violently till buildings collapse and roof tops journey to their family in the countryside. She shows signs of eczema where we cut down trees. Wildlife scatter like restless itches, seeking refuge in places they should not be.
We hear Granny’s groans and complaints in the worsening and more frequent storms. But when the skies clear we carry on the same, mining, dredging or drilling, which cause Granny aches like knee pain. And all the while, she sweats uncontrollably from the heat. Hot flashes were only supposed to plague the peri-menopausal!
But we didn’t abandon Granny earth! We still pay for her maintenance when we plant the occasional tree and sign repetitive international protocol. When we meet and discuss how badly Granny is suffering, we are clearly showing how much we care, aren’t we? Never mind changing how we show love to Granny. Granny can hold on a little longer.
Granny Gaia rests at The Palms, not for healing, but for hospice.
Even though Gaia is fierce and formidable, the actions of mankind over the last century highlights her delicacy. Centuries of conquest, subjugation and exploitation accelerated the exhaustion of natural resources. Once revered as the fierce goddess of life, Gaia now limps along as Granny- tired, exploited, and tucked away. Granny Gaia is at The Palms, and we not only escorted her there, but also pretended it was the most responsible thing to do.
Now Granny Gaia sends us updates on her health by vomiting up all that we dumped in the ocean in hurricanes and tsunamis. She sneezes violently till buildings collapse and roof tops journey to their family in the countryside. She shows signs of eczema where we cut down trees. Wildlife scatter like restless itches, seeking refuge in places they should not be.
We hear Granny’s groans and complaints in the worsening and more frequent storms. But when the skies clear we carry on the same, mining, dredging or drilling, which cause Granny aches like knee pain. And all the while, she sweats uncontrollably from the heat. Hot flashes were only supposed to plague the peri-menopausal!
But we didn’t abandon Granny earth! We still pay for her maintenance when we plant the occasional tree and sign repetitive international protocol. When we meet and discuss how badly Granny is suffering, we are clearly showing how much we care, aren’t we? Never mind changing how we show love to Granny. Granny can hold on a little longer.
Granny Gaia rests at The Palms, not for healing, but for hospice.
‘Granny Gaia’s Plight’
22/10/2025
By Esther Cynthia Kissoon
Ms. Kissoon is a first year Bachelors of Optometry student at the University of Guyana.
By Esther Cynthia Kissoon
Ms. Kissoon is a first year Bachelors of Optometry student at the University of Guyana.
The artwork Granny Gaia's Plight presents a humanized embodiment of Earth, portrayed as an elderly woman suffering from ailments that symbolize environmental crises and climatic disruptions. Inspired by the short prose Granny Gaia Rests at the Palms, the piece depicts her lying in a hospice, weary and distraught, capturing the emotional toll of ecological decline.
planetPulse 2 - Dependence Despite Dominance
14/11/2025
By Editor-in-Chief Naomi Barkoye
By Editor-in-Chief Naomi Barkoye
“The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites use all. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”
- Chief Settle’s Letter to All (December 1854.)
- Chief Settle’s Letter to All (December 1854.)
The spider, an 8 eyed and 8-legged creature, though variant in colour and size, exists as a timeless artist. His livelihood is spent creating webs whose uniqueness and intricacy is rivalled only by their delicacy. Consider this, the spider only takes 30 to 60 minutes to weave a web (varying by size and species), and yet by the mere wave of a hand, the entire structure can collapse.
There are a plethora of designs that spiders can imagine and create with their webs. Each design possesses admirable detail and instinctual engineering prowess. For instance, every spider web is erected with functional threads. Those are the threads that exist on the side-lines but hold the very structure together. They are foundational to the existence of the other threads. If life on Earth is a web, as posited by Chief Seattle, then the earth itself exists as the functional threads. Moreover, if man is merely a thread in the Web of life, a mistreatment of this functional thread via compromising biodiversity and marine life through economic activity, is a mistreatment of mankind himself.
Unsurprisingly, man likely sees himself as the spider rather than the thread. He may credit his ‘superior intelligence’ which is founded in the scientific method and theories of the metaphysical. (Don’t forget apposable thumbs!). Yet, it is mankind who is responsible for his own destruction. Is it brilliance or blindness that drives us to profit from our own undoing?
The Stockholm Declaration highlights in its very first principle that “Man is both a creature and a molder of his environment.” This sentiment is repeated in the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development where the ‘integral and interdependent nature of the Earth’ is highlighted in the preamble. A careful read of this introduction indicates that while mankind views itself superior, the reality is that man’s relationship with nature is founded on our dependence, not our dominance.
Perhaps, by virtue of the Web being a production of the spider’s own body, mankind may be both the spider and the web. Mankind is himself and his actions. He is a direct cause and consequence and of the kind of earth he traverses.
Notably, the web itself does not stand alone. Its crutch is the environment that the spider inhabits. The spider needs its environment to be all that it demands for its survival. The spider cannot afford to compromise the structural integrity of its own home. The spider therefore exercises caution and builds strategically. The spider understands that despite its engineering incomparability, the web remains vulnerable. After all, one brush alone can destroy all that the spider has worked towards. The spider is never the instrument of its own destruction. Can mankind truly dare to believe himself the superior being?
There are a plethora of designs that spiders can imagine and create with their webs. Each design possesses admirable detail and instinctual engineering prowess. For instance, every spider web is erected with functional threads. Those are the threads that exist on the side-lines but hold the very structure together. They are foundational to the existence of the other threads. If life on Earth is a web, as posited by Chief Seattle, then the earth itself exists as the functional threads. Moreover, if man is merely a thread in the Web of life, a mistreatment of this functional thread via compromising biodiversity and marine life through economic activity, is a mistreatment of mankind himself.
Unsurprisingly, man likely sees himself as the spider rather than the thread. He may credit his ‘superior intelligence’ which is founded in the scientific method and theories of the metaphysical. (Don’t forget apposable thumbs!). Yet, it is mankind who is responsible for his own destruction. Is it brilliance or blindness that drives us to profit from our own undoing?
The Stockholm Declaration highlights in its very first principle that “Man is both a creature and a molder of his environment.” This sentiment is repeated in the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development where the ‘integral and interdependent nature of the Earth’ is highlighted in the preamble. A careful read of this introduction indicates that while mankind views itself superior, the reality is that man’s relationship with nature is founded on our dependence, not our dominance.
Perhaps, by virtue of the Web being a production of the spider’s own body, mankind may be both the spider and the web. Mankind is himself and his actions. He is a direct cause and consequence and of the kind of earth he traverses.
Notably, the web itself does not stand alone. Its crutch is the environment that the spider inhabits. The spider needs its environment to be all that it demands for its survival. The spider cannot afford to compromise the structural integrity of its own home. The spider therefore exercises caution and builds strategically. The spider understands that despite its engineering incomparability, the web remains vulnerable. After all, one brush alone can destroy all that the spider has worked towards. The spider is never the instrument of its own destruction. Can mankind truly dare to believe himself the superior being?