Blue Marble
The Blue Marble is an image of Earth taken on December 7, 1972, by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft on its way to the Moon.
The photo inspired a poem/song for a children’s television show, The Big Blue Marble Show, a half-hour children's television series that ran from 1974 to 1983. The author, Laurie Van der Hart, rewrote the poem to reflect the current state of our blue marble.
Our climate blog team has selected this poem as the final blog of 2019, with the hope that it will inspire all of us to act to protect our blue marble in the years to come.
Image courtesy NASA Johnson Space Center Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth
Published January 31, 2001. Data acquired December 7, 1972
The Big Blue Marble?
By Laurie Van der Hart
The earth's a Big Blue Marble
When you see it from out there
The sun and moon declare
Our beauty's very rare
Earth's a Big Blue Marble
In Space'
But... closer, looking closer
We zoom in and see:
The earth's a dried out prune
Shriveled up, dehydrating
Browner, getting browner
As deserts grow and forests burn
Roads and buildings replacing
Grass and shrubs and trees
Green gives way to brown
The earth's a plastic ball
Shimmering its artificial light
From oceans of floating muck
Suffocating the sea-life
The journey's end of greed
And our throwaway society
All the glamour in one ugly heap
The earth's a grey-brown cloud
Of dirty fumes and smoke
A marble that rolled in the mud
Poison gases that choke
Once-thriving life and obscure
Its beautiful hues of green and blue
Like a sight-blocking cataract
The earth's a burning missile
Shooting through space
Hot spots everywhere
The world is ablaze
With strife; conflict is rife
The earth's a wounded eye
Dripping blood
Blinded and screaming through time
Now we are afraid
As our troubles do not fade
We get closer, ever closer
To the brink of disaster
Who has the power
And the will
To put on the brakes?
Who will wipe off the smog?
Who will bind up the bleeding flesh?
Who will clean up the seas?
Who will shine up the planet
On his jacket
And make it sparkle again
So that we once more may marvel
At the Big Blue Marble
In space?
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