The Earth is 4,600 million years old

Planet Earth is 4,600 million years old. If we condense this inconceivable time span into an understandable concept, we can liken the Earth to a person of 46 years of age. Nothing is known about the first 7 years of this person’s life, and whilst only scattered information exists about the middle 35 years, we know that only at the age of 42 did the earth begin to flower. Dinosaurs and the great reptiles did not appear until one year ago, when the planet was 45. Mammals arrived 8 month ago; in the middle of last week, human like apes evolved into ape like humans, and at the weekend the last ice age enveloped the Earth.

Modern humans have been around for 4 hours. During the last hour we discovered agriculture. The industrial revolution began 1 minute ago. During those sixty seconds of biological time, humans have made a rubbish tip of Paradise.

They have multiplied to plague proportions, caused the extinction of 500+ species of animals, ransacked the planet for fuels and now stands like a brutish infant , gloating over the meteroic rise to ascendency, on the brink of a war to end all wars and effectively destroying this oasis of life in the solar system..

From ‘Against all odds’ - Greenpeace[1989]