Planet Earth is 4,600 Million Years Old.
If we condense this inconceivable time-span into an understandable concept, we can liken 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 info exists about the middle span, 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 only 8 months ago; in the middle of the 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 a minute ago.
During those 60 seconds of biological time, humans have made a rubbish tip of Paradise.
We have caused the extinction of many hundreds of animal species, ransacked the planet for fuel and now stand like brutish infants, gloating over this meteoric rise to ascendancy, on the brink of the final mass extinction and of effectively destroying this oasis of life in the solar system.
cliche'd or not, this statement is the reality outside of our computer worlds..
