A Smaller Perspective

It is difficult for us to fathom that our planet is 4.6 billion years old. Therefore it is difficult for us to place everything in a time line that is comprehensible when dealing with ten digit figures. So, if we scaled down the 4.6 billion years to merely 46 years it becomes immensely more comprehensible. But by scaling down our time line that means that we have only been around as humans on this planet for approximately four hours and that our Industrial Revolution began only one minute ago. That means that in less than one minute we have destroyed forests and tore apart different lands in a search to get fuels and resources. We have been the cause of numerous extinctions and have multiplied our population by unthinkable amounts.

Now, we have not really done all of this in one minute but in comparison to the age of our planet we have progressed at such a rate that our need for more, more, more and bigger and better has caused damage and lasting effects that are only progressing further. Using the time line that the Earth is only 46 years old, if we can cause this amount of damage in one minute, without changing our way of life what state will we be in by five minutes?

Source: http://library.thinkquest.org/11353/facts.html