Principle 12: Skin-in-the-Game

From mourning orcas to distressed elephants, biological anthropologist Barbara J. King has witnessed grief and love across the animal kingdom. In this eye-opening talk, she explains the evidence behind her belief that many animals experience complex emotions, and suggests ways all of us can treat them more ethically -- including every time we eat. "Animals don't grieve exactly like we do, but this doesn't mean that their grief isn't real," she says. "It is real, and it's searing, and we can see it if we choose."

From our Gulf of Maine Blue Marble Hub in Portland Maine, we have a Love Story about Nature. In today's world, the dominant worldview is one where humans have control over nature. What if our love for the abundance that nature provides can be translated as legal status as a living being, not a bundle of ecosystem services that we quantify and sell like a commodity? The Latin word anima (source of the word animal) is actually translated as spirit, breath, life.

This month, we will be reading Chapter 12 in Blue Marble Evaluation: Premises & Principles, which introduces the principle of Skin in the Game.

In January, before the pandemic, I offered a blog on Moving at the Speed of Trust: The Role of Blue Marble Evaluation.  This is an updated review of how attention to trust has evolved during this turbulent year. In that new year’s blog I wrote:

Blue Marble Japan, Inc. aims to facilitate system transformation to realize a sustainable world. They have translated the Blue Marble Principles into Japanese. 

Summary: Michael Quinn Patton’s Blue Marble Evaluation is a forward-looking, path-breaking, and timely contribution to evaluation theory and practice. The title of the book evokes the Blue Marble shot—a photograph of the whole earth taken by the Apollo 17 astronauts in 1972. The preface of the book displays the first image of our lonely planet captured from space in 1968 (Earthrise).