Our universe is 13.7 billion years old and our planet is 4.5 billion years old.
Humans are around 6 million years old. For
most of this 6 million years, humans barely clung to life on this planet. We as humans ebbed-and-flowed with planetary conditions, experiencing a number of shocks to our population that on at least
one occasion drove us down to bare bones numbers, around 1300 human individuals. This long story finally changed its tone around 11,700 years ago, when a cosmic accident occurred in the form of the
Holocene.
This Holocene period brought stable temperatures that allowed humans to exist beyond meagre subsistence. The shift in surface temperature and stabilisation of climate allowed humans to focus on increasing the caloric density of our food, which we translated into more powerful brains, security and an increased ability to multiply at a startling rate.
Advancements like agriculture came about in 7 separate places on the planet within a 150 year time range, this is no coincidence, it is the reality of what happened when temperatures stabilised.
In the past 150 years we have produced enough emissions to threaten stable temperatures and entire ecosystems. We risk a world we recognise, and urgent action is required now.
