Sea Shells – A Reflection In the age of capitalism, modern man has reaped extraordinary advances in health, education, and general well-being. But entitlement, cleverly manufactured by vast corporate machines and wrapped in seductive marketing, leads us blindly to water. And now, it’s time we stop and choose not to drink. We live in the safest, most technologically advanced civilisation in history, at least in the Western world. Yet, as we shift from the Holocene to the Anthropocene, it’s clear: the Earth, and humanity itself, have had enough. Violent consumerism, relentless manufacturing, and the unchecked extraction of fossil fuels have brought us to a point of no return. The political and environmental divides are too vast. The damage is no longer hidden, it is laid bare. Western economies have plundered natural resources in the name of commerce, leaving behind a trail of environmental degradation that can’t be undone. GDP can no longer be the metric of success. Instead, we must adopt a new standard, one that measures our efforts to heal, restore, and protect the natural world. The next ten years are critical. This decade must mark the turning point. Fires raging in Australia and the U.S., the bleaching of coral reefs, and a global pandemic, these aren’t isolated incidents. They’re symptoms of a planet pushed past its limits. Environmental issues are no longer local. They are global. And we are all affected. The Holocene gave us 10,000 years of stability: sea levels, weather patterns, ecosystems. It was the bedrock upon which civilisations flourished. The Anthropocene, marked by human influence, is a blink by comparison, yet its impact is seismic. One million of Earth’s eight million known species now face extinction. Some trace the start of this era to the dawn of agriculture. Others to 1945, the atomic age. Either way, the message is the same: we’ve crossed a threshold. With nearly half of the world’s forests lost, much of it in the past century, it’s not enough to stop deforestation. We must actively regrow. We must plant, repair, and protect. Governments must hold corporations accountable and ensure history does not repeat itself. But consider this: man developed working solar technology nearly a century ago. And yet here we are. Real change lies not only in the hands of policymakers, but in each of us. It’s not easy, especially when surviving day-to-day in a system built to consume. But we can still spend wisely. Not just money but time. Time to educate ourselves and our children. Time to choose differently. Time to unlearn what harms and relearn what heals. Awareness is a beginning. Conscious, collective moral action is the path forward. Let Sea Shells be a meditation on all we’ve gained, all we’ve lost and what we still might protect.