out 4 billion years

Our Earth emerged from its probable origin, a cosmic dust cloud (bottom left), over 42 billion years ago. About 4 billion years elapsed before the planet was able to sustain complex life-forms. Various life-forms grew, multiplied and evolved for nearly a half-billion years before the appearance of man. Man's presence represents only a hairline of time (top left arrow) in the evolution of the Earth.

Some 7 to 10 thousand years
ago the dim beginnings of
civilization broke through
when man first domesticated
animals, formed communities
and made other adjustments
to ease his life.
The adjustments eventually
resulted in an industrial
society, with nature tamed
and harnessed to fit man's
life styles. But, as man
progressed, he also polluted.
His numbers mushroomed
and his technology did the
same, until the delicate
balances of nature were
threatened.

Now, as we begin the last third of the 20th century, man finds himself at a crossroads.

His survival may depend on whether he repairs his ravaged environment and learns to live in harmony with nature.