Given the many misconceptions about age of our species, the age of our planet Earth and the age of our universe, I felt that it was important to study the data about the time and forces that created our present day environment. I attempted to do this by graphically representing time flow from the present to the ancient past. My initial interest began in becoming curious about the earth’s changing climate and extinction events. A college course in historical geology helped. Once I started this endeavor, I got carried away and did research all the way back to the “big bang”.
A sense of proportion is critical. If you look at the first graphic for the Cenozoic period you see a narrow green band. It is probably twice as thick as it should be, but if I represent the Cenozoic in its actual size it would barely be visible. What is astounding to me, this narrow band represents the entire time that humanity has existed in it’s present form.
