Deep time is the history of Earth going back to her beginning.  It’s hard for us to comprehend a time when humans did not exist but in fact humans are incredibly recent in Earth’s history.

McPhee Consider the earth's history as the old measure of the English yard, the distance from the King's nose to the tip of his outstretched hand. One stroke of a nail file on his middle finger erases human history

All the evolutionary work had been done long before we appeared and that’s what made it possible for us to come into being.

The atmosphere evolved to make it possible for plants and animals of all sorts to live. Fresh as well as ocean water evolved. A great diversity of creatures populated the sea, soil, air and land.

Plants that have value in their own right, that create a livable climate and water supply, that we use for food, healing, shelter, clothes, fuel, enjoyment, these were all here millennia before humans. If they were not humans would not have been able to evolve. Our food and life support system was here long before we were.

Each animal, plant or condition that supports life on Earth is the result of millennia of evolving and complex interactions with others. Everything works together to create a living whole.

Yet we do not value this life so unique in the universe and so long in the making, which makes it possible for us to live. The fruits of millennia of evolution are being destroyed.

Mass extinctions are decimating the diversity of beings, the land, water and air are poisoned and the very climate that makes life possible is at risk.

Some believe that humans are the end point, the crown jewel of evolution, even though it is modern humans who are destroying Earthlife and it’s life support system. There is a separation from reality, Earth’s history and morality. Denial and greed are institutionalized. Some go so  far as to deny that deep time even exists.

Robert A. Heinlein
A generation, which ignores history, has no past – and no future.

In order to make wise decisions in todays world we need to regain perspective, to reclaim the memory of our world.

If we lose the planet’s past we lose our past and our future. We need to see the value of Earthlife. We need to cultivate a reality based view of who we are, how we fit into the history of earthlife, and what our relationship and responsibilities are to the life of this planet.

An awareness of deep time, reclaiming the memory of Earth’s history, may help to open us to planetary awareness, the history of life, of which we are a tiny part. It may help us to properly value and preserve the wondrous and precious diversity of life and the life support system of Earth.

Earth is about 4.54 billion years old.

First life on Earth: 3 to 4 billion years

Horseshoe crab  300 million years

Gingko tree 121-270 million years

Lemur 50-80  million years

Homo Sapiens 100 thousand years

Drawing at top of page NASA.