PLANET HISTORY 

You probably know that Earth is the only planet in the solar system so far known to sustain life. Our planet started possibly from the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago when the universe began as a tiny, dense fireball that exploded. Initially, the sun was a rotating fiery disc from which the planets emerged.

When the Earth emerged from the rotating disc, it initially had an extremely high temperature, and the atmosphere was only composed of hydrogen and helium, that no life lived at that time. But later, as Earth cooled, an atmosphere formed mainly from gases spewed from volcanoes, known as terraforming. It included hydrogen sulfide, methane, and ten to two hundred times as much carbon dioxide as today’s atmosphere. Then slowly, the ozone layer was formed and the present atmosphere. 

The first life forms on Earth were microorganisms/microbes like bacteria, about 3.7 billion years ago. This was a theory by Leeuwenhoek, the father of microbiology. Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek first observed bacteria in the year 1676, and called them ‘animalcules’.

Then their came the age of prehistoric animals, dinosaurs, smilodons, pterodactyls, Canis dirus, and so on. The Ice Age, The Cretaceous, etc. Our current era is the Cenozoic, which is itself broken down into three periods. We live in the most recent period, the Quaternary, which is then broken down into two epochs: the current Holocene, and the previous Pleistocene, which ended 11,700 years ago.

The Stone Age was the era during which hunters and gatherers were predominantly present all over the Earth. The evolution of mankind took place through six stages:

• Dryopithecus: Dryopithecus is a genus of extinct great apes from the middle–late Miocene boundary of Europe 12.5 to 11.1 million years ago. 
• Ramapithecus: Sivapithecus (Ramapithecus) is a genus of extinct apes. Fossil remains of animals now assigned to this genus, dated from 12.2 million years old in the Miocene, have been found since the 19th century in the Siwalik Hills of the Indian subcontinent as well as in Kutch. Any one of the species in this genus may have been the ancestor to the modern orangutans.
• Australopithecus: The genus Australopithecus is a collection of hominin species that span the time period from 4.18 to about 2 million years ago. Australopithecus were terrestrial bipedal ape-like animals that had large chewing teeth with thick enamel caps, but whose brains were only very slightly larger than those of great apes.
• Homo Erectus: Like the name suggests, these species had an erect back. Homo erectus is an extinct species of archaic human from the Pleistocene, with its earliest occurrence about 2 million years ago. Its specimens are among the first recognizable members of the genus Homo. This species is also known as ‘the Upright Man’.
• Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis: Neanderthals, also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. The reasons for Neanderthal extinction are disputed. The brain size was roughly 90 cubic inches.
• Homo Sapiens Sapiens: These species are also known as ‘us’...haha. Humans are the most common and widespread species of primate. A great ape characterized by their bipedalism and high intelligence, humans have a large brain and resulting cognitive skills that enable them to thrive in varied environments and develop complex societies and civilizations. 

After the Stone Age, came the Agricultural Age where humans stopped hunting for food and began cultivating it. Then came the Industrial Revolution, where industries and factories were introduced. The workers in the factories worked continuously until the concept of 8 hours work, 8 hours of leisure time and 8 hours of rest was introduced.

After this age of a great discovery came the Information Age where people began learning things that were important for survival.

End of Information Age—Present is known as the Knowledge Zenith Age where survival is out of question and thrival is the new trend. The previously ape-like human beings have now transformed the world into something so new that if our old Stone Age ancestors came over to visit, they would break your computer with their club thinking it was a new wild animal.

Our planet has transformed so greatly that we can get anything to us in the comfort of our own home. We can travel in vehicles powered by fuels. Nowadays, even electric vehicles are being brought into use.

Unfortunately, we didn’t realise that our new inventions are releasing by-products which may be harmful to the environment. Vehicles emit a lot of greenhouse gases which is decisively leading to global warming. 

Deforestation had become inevitable to construct these industries, buildings and skyscrapers. Due to this, animal and plant species are getting wiped out. With an increasing emission of greenhouse gases, the atmosphere will begin to degrade into its initial stage and their won’t be plants to regenerate oxygen for us.

So let us save this world to make it a better place for everyone.

Picture credit: Google