Who Owns The Earth Beneath Your Feet?

Hashtag Kalakar
Nov 11
2 min read

By Pierakis Pieri

—i. What blood claims—

What flows in us was never truly ours.

What powers our cells was forged in dying stars.

What builds our bones once lay in ancient seas.

What histories our blood has witnessed flow.

What temporary forms our carbon takes.

Who owns the earth that circulates within?

(Atomic weight: 3 billion years)

—ii. When elements become us: DNA—

Calcium earth: carried oxygen in your first blood

Iron earth: strengthens your bones even now

Phosphorous earth: once grew in soil, now walks in you

Carbon that flowed through dinosaur veins

All recycled through countless mouths before yours

The earth we kill for is the earth we’re made of

(Half-life: one human lifetime)

—iii. Why nations bleed for earth: Ukraine—

Graphite earth: 6% of global reserves

Lithium earth: 1-2% of global deposits

Titanium earth: 1% of world’s supply

40% of metal resources now under occupation

Footnotes:

1. Farmer’s palm → gunmetal grip

2. Wheat field → trench line

3. Child’s blood → contains 4.2% occupied soil

(Oxidation state: war)

—iv. Where need becomes strategy: USA—

Rare earth mines: 1

Dependence on Chinese imports: 70%

Desire for Ukrainian minerals: 50% of all revenues

A superpower with empty hands

Reaching across oceans like a periodic table

Element: #46: Palladium (stolen futures)

(Electronegativity: rising)

—v. Where geology becomes power: China—

Rare earth reserves: 44 million tonnes

Global production share: dominant

Position in supply chain: monopolistic

Elements captured without drawing borders

Addendum:

One mine worker’s lung = 0.3% dysprosium
One village’s drinking water = 8ppm neodymium

(Ionisation energy: infinite)

—vi. Where home floats fragile: Earth—

One small blue marble in a spiral arm

Resources finite, nations temporary

Borders imaginary

And still—

the hunger turns outward

—vii. Where next claims form: Mars—

Iron oxide earth: abundant

Water ice earth: buried at poles

Corporate claims: multiplying

Projection:

Your grandchildren will breathe air

sold back to them in pressurised tins

“Now with 15% Martian regolith!”

(Radioactive decay: TBD)

—viii. Where matter becomes conscious—

Our bodies: stardust rearranged

Our blood: iron from supernovae

Our bones: calcium borrowed from seas

Matter that asks who owns matter

Discovery:

A breath.

Then the naming starts.

(Cosmic abundance: 0%)