What happened between modern humans evolving 14 minutes ago (300,000 years ago in real time) and now? What will happen in the following seconds and minutes? Let’s have a look.
See these charts on page 2 of the poster.
Here I have a go at taking us though the minute before and minute after ‘now’, midnight 17 May:
Or if you prefer, below are the main events one by one.
By 2 minutes ago (50,000 years) our ancestors start wearing clothes and burying their dead (ref). Homo floresiensis & homo neanderthalensis had recently become extinct.
58 seconds ago the last ice age is at its height, the ‘Last Glacial Maximum’ – approx. 22,000 years ago (ref). The artist’s impression on the left shows the probable extent of the ice cap then.
About 48 seconds ago the Lascaux Caves are painted (17-19,000 years ago – ref)
Around 35 seconds ago the first sheep are domesticated in Mesopotamia (13,000 y ago), followed by the development of agriculture (ref). Jericho is founded 31 seconds ago (11,600 y ago)
The Hebrew calendar starts 15 seconds ago (5781 years ago). A second later Stonehenge is built (5100 years ago – ref). A second after that the Great Pyramid of Giza is built (4600 years ago).
The creation of the world 11 seconds ago (4004 BC) according to the Ussher Chronology. Left is the table of events from Picquot’s Modern History published in 1818.
6 seconds ago the Gregorian / Common Era calendar starts. On the right is its inventor St. Dionysius Exiguus (Dionysius the Humble).
1.5 seconds ago systematic European colonisation of other continents begins in North America. Here’s the 1892 replica of La Santa María (or La Gallega), the largest of the three Spanish ships used by Christopher Columbus in his first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492. (ref)
0.69 seconds ago the Industrial Revolution starts in Great Britain (c. 1760). Here’s the only surviving example of Samuel Crompton’s spinning mule, which produced high-quality thread with minimal labour. (ref)
0.57 seconds ago the human population exceeds 1 billion (1804). It exceeds 2 billion 0.25 seconds ago (1929) and 7 billion 0.03 seconds ago (2011) and reaches 8 billion in November 2022. (ref).
0.18 seconds ago the world’s first moving assembly line begins for the Ford Model T (1913). Driven by conveyor belts, it reduces production time for a Model T to just 93 minutes by dividing the process into 45 steps.
0.01 seconds ago (in 2014) the global atmosperic CO2 level passes the milestone of 400 parts per million (ref)
NOW – midnight 17 May
That takes us once again to now, midnight on 17 May.
In under a tenth of a second (2050) if we continue as at present, the world’s oceans are emptied of fish (ref) and the Earth’s support systems may collapse (ref).
In a fifth of a second – at the end of this century – the world’s rainforests are gone and the UN predicts that the global population peaks at 10.9 billion (ref).
In one second we have consumed all reserves of coal. Oil and natural gas have already been finished. (ref) The image shows our growing appetite for energy (by Efbrazil).
In 40 seconds the Sahara desert hes become tropical (ref). The image on the left will then be all green.
In 1 minute the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone returns to normal levels of radiation (ref).
We have zoomed right in to see all human activity flying by in a fraction of a second of the Life of Earth in a Year.
I absolutely love the explanations in the video! It’s mind-blowing to realize how insignificant and brief our lifetime is compared to Earth’s. Thank you for these fantastic analogies, I can’t wait to share them with my family !
Many thanks, Marion! I’m so glad it touches you. Hope your family also finds it inspiring.
Gives new meaning to the idea of ancient history! The stark severity and speed with which humans will have emptied the seas and deforested our planet is upsetting. Yet the planet will continue, just in an alternate state thanks to humans. The contrast in timescale between lifespans and tectonics is really well visualized.