What feelings does this – the greatest – perspective give you?
Mine are below mine – and please share yours in the comments. But first I’m very grateful for the following testimonials.
Testimonials
Always inspiring Satish Kumar with my “Life of Earth in a Year – past, present and future” poster at the Schumacher Sprouts “Confluence of Wisdom” at their superb educational centre near Brussels, l’Arbre qui Pousse (Ottignies, Belgium) – March 2024
*****
“Fascinating!”
Sébastien Bohler, April 2023. He is editor-in-chief of the French publication ‘Cerveau et Psycho’, author of “The Human Bug – Why our brain pushes us to destroy the plant and how to stop it” (2019) and “Where is meaning? Discoveries about our brains which could change the future of our civilisation” (2020).
*****
Philip Lymbery: “Life of Earth in a Year is a fascinating depiction of our past, present and future on planet Earth. It maps out very vividly the vast expanse of time, both past and future, for life on Earth. It also brings home how, in planetary terms, humanity has emerged in the blink of an eye. It shows how we’ve risen very quickly to have such a profound impact on our world that we are already in the midst of triggering the sixth mass extinction of wildlife. If we don’t act soon, the demise of nature will bring us down with it. After all, we rely on nature for the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe. But there is comfort in your depiction of our time on this planet. It shows that life has already suffered mass wipe-outs. But that life bounces back. That’s the good news. The bad news is, it takes about 20 million years to do so.
Tim, thanks for bringing home the truth so imaginatively; that its not about saving the planet – the Earth will endure for many millions of years to come. The challenge before us is to save humanity by preserving the natural world on which we all depend.”
Philip Lymbery, Global CEO, Compassion in World Farming
https://ciwf.org
https://philiplymbery.com
In addition to being a dedicated animal welfare advocate, Philip Lymbery is an award winning author. His books include “Sixty Harvests Left: How To Reach A Nature-Friendly Future” (2022), “Dead Zone: Where The Wild Things Were” (2018) and “Farmageddon – The True Cost Of Cheap Meat” (2017).
*****
Isabelle Gaubert
A BIG thank you to Tim for offering the World this vision of the great evolutionary story of Earth based on what is known today. It helps us:
– increase awareness by reducing the whole life of our Planet into one year (a scale that humans know well);
– take a different approach to life, all living things, history, our connection to time, the cosmos, the various kingdoms, as well as fellow Humans. It would also seem more accurate to write the human with a small h and not a capital H… here humility is essential and seems appropriate. This project makes this awareness, among other things, possible;
– open our minds to the continuum of life on Earth where the future has its full place and is approached in an inclusive manner;
– see cycles;
– take it all in at your own pace and, who knows, go and explore and add to it.
It’s a valuable tool that can support the transition that is currently underway, and everyone can find one or more things in it that speak to them. That’s sometimes useful to enable change. My feelings:
– I feel challenged and at the same time strengthened by maintaining the link to life and all living things, in us and around us.
– I also feel the importance of giving thanks for all that is offered to us and living every second to the full.
Isabelle Gaubert, France
www.isabellegaubert.com
Contributing to the Awakening of the Self with Simplicity, Authenticity, Joy and a hint of Mystery!
*****
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
What feelings does this give you? Share them below
This website is incredible! There’s so much to see and learn. It really helps create distance from an anxiety-filled period, allowing for wiser actions and a clearer perspective on the problem!
Hello Tim,
Congratulations on your project that I discovered as a Christmas present as well as your time-line poster in French. 😉
It is fascinating and instructive perspective.
This reminds us that Homo sapiens is – and will not even remain – a speck of dust in the history of Earth and even less in that of the universe.
Good luck with your project that I will follow from now on with great interest.
What a great initiative.
All my best wishes for the continuation of this very beautiful and useful project in 2025. Health and personal happiness.
Patrick
The Life of Earth project is a fantastic way of understanding the immensity of time and the extent to which every individual is just a tiny part of a process greatly bigger than us. It also shows the complexity of the place in which we live, which gives us reasons to protect it and the beings that live in it.
So pleased you like it, Diego!
It’s the feeling you get when you are swimming far out at sea, watching the stars above: the sense of immensity on either side of you is slightly scary!
This is the total ultimate perspective vortex!
It makes me sad to think about the end of this wonderful world, even if it’s so far in the future. But I also feel appreciative to be alive now so that I can experience it.
Time will pass, whether we use it or not, appreciate it or not, embrace it or not – so why not move the needle and care while we can.
I find it fascinating that that feeling of smallness is scary to some and exciting to others.
Visualising this has been a journey-meditation, feeling the fragility of our planet coming into existence and melting away, while the cosmos continues untroubled
knowing we have a long way to go is nice
We’re so lucky to be living just now!
It makes life seem all the more precious.
Caring and nurturing each other and the world becomes even more important.
Feeling profoundly sad also deep tender love and happiness for Beautiful Earth and the miracle of all existence and of life. Awe. Gratitude. All so sacred. And so fragile. Let’s love and care for and appreciate it all!!
It’s fascinating….thinking about the past and the future of our planet somehow made me feel more connected to the universe. Life is made of cycles, and planet earth has her own cycles too. The cycles of extinction seem to happen with a strange regularity. It made me think that the next extinction, the one of our species, caused by global warming, will simply be part of a bigger natural cycle, which has been happening already for billions of years. Maybe it makes it easier to accept our fate. But it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t make the best of the time that is given us. Wise words indeed !
What a beautiful and insightful project! It is mind-blowing how we can see and understand things in a whole different perspective when “looking from above”. There is a quote from Richard Dawkins that I use to think about when I am in those philosophical days: ““We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born”. In this sense, it is a shame that most of us are living our brief lives in constant contradiction with the natural course of things.
Congratulations for this great project, Tim! I’ve never seen such clear and nice presentation of the Planet’s lifespan , especially the forward looking part.
I have mixed feelings about our future. Like you, I’m convinced that our planet is fully resilient and that we are the ones at stake.
However individual actions should be fully supported by long-term public policies and significant investment targeted to green technologies and energy-efficient solutions (among many others). Politicians often think short-term and reelection, most consumers throughout the world wish or need to consume more. Greed leads many corporate strategies.
Without an alignment of public and private efforts and a real shift in our consumption habits, nothing can significantly improve.
COVID-19 pandemic was seen as a possible tipping point to change the way we think our socio-economic models around the world. This has not happened and most investments have been again directed to traditional industries and fossil fuels. Our CO2 emissions have also never been so high despite numerous Climate COPs and promising international agreements…
I really hope that I’m wrong to be pessimistic and I’m looking forward to see the fundamental change that initiatives like yours contribute to trigger.
Hi Tim. It makes me sad to think about what this could mean for life on our planet, especially in the short term. That’s why we need whistleblowers like you. A very strong case for an integrated approach of human and animal welfare and for taking better care of the planet we share. Well done!
Congrats for the very interesting and informative presentations!
I love how it’s built from the beginning of the universe to life on Earth.
Hi Tim,
It’s a really interesting way to frame the challenge, and I definitely agree that framing it as ‘saving ourselves’ might help people realise the urgency of action. We’re a selfish species, after all. What I always find difficult is to imagine what a future world – that is greener, closer to nature, more sustainable, however we frame it – is going to look like in reality, and particularly given the massive inequalities plaguing the world we have right now. How can we help the big swathes of the world’s population stuck in poverty to ‘catch up’ (if not in rampant, destructive consumerism, then at least in quality of life) without locking in further destruction of the world? Is there a way to design the transition that doesn’t just exclude people who are never going to afford electric cars, or live in energy efficient housing in a carbon-free city? Is there a way to make the transition a win-win situation for everyone, or at the very least, make sure the costs are borne by those of us who can best afford them. And if it’s the latter, how do we convince our peers to bear those costs?
This project helps capture the true vastness and scale of cosmic time and makes us realize that humans are such a recent addition to the life on earth. And yet, human actions are pushing life toward mass extinction at an unprecedented rate. I truly hope that life will bounce back.
It is really enlightening, thank you Tim! In a way it is reassuring to know that the planet will go on although I wish we could simply protect all life on earth and finally acknowledge that we, humans, are just one little component of the beautiful and rich Earth community.
Nice way of looking at — and presenting — evolution! I agree we should go back to living in harmony with nature. The thing is, mankind (man is no so kind actually > weird framing) does not really want to. The earth can’t take on so many of us, to the detriment of other living beings. Over population is never addressed and yet this is one of the biggest issues — and taboos.
Great reminder to me that it is indeed not about “saving the planet or nature” it’s about saving human kind. Will spread this and make more people aware of it, as it really matters!
Really well thought through and gives perspective even to people who thought they had perspective.
Life will carry on for a while after us, shame we are taking so many other species along with us in are accelerated exit.
Hi Tim, here’s what this threw up for me: it’s time to look after our very short stay on Earth properly (as you say in the video; we may make an early exit) by living in harmony with the nature that got here before us. A question this prompts is, when did our divorce from nature start? Was it in living memory? The industrial revolution? Colonialisation? More crucially, how long is it going to take to undo the damage? I read this quote in a book about rewilding recently: “Until we understand what the land is, we are at odds with everything we touch,” (Wendell Berry). I think it’s a neat fit with your project!
You’re so right, Zoe – ‘our divorce from nature’ as you aptly put it is the core of the issue.
I find this perspective, based on total earth lifespan, very eye opening. I have particularly been struck by the gap between the speed at which humanity will consume the needed resources to survive (fish, energy, as per the examples given here) and the time (even if counted in only seconds in total) it will take our waste (plastics, nuclear waste…) to disappear. Tolkien’s quote should speak to us and make us indeed reflect on “what can we do with the time we are given”
Many thanks for your comment, Christelle – I’m glad you find it eye opening!