far fewer still are thinking about what human society (and the natural world) might look like beyond the year 2100. In this way, the inferences in this book are unusual. Though the content can be applied to the issues that now dominate the airwaves, this book expressly does not address events of the next few years. We take a hard look at the underlying trends that will impact humanity and our planet for much of the coming century, irrespective of what news – and nuance -happens in the near term. TaaL: Bear in mind that the average life expectancy for a mammal species is about a million years 4 . The human species has been around for 300 thousand years, only one-third of that average, which would imply that you have at least another 700k years of productive existence, and thus trillions of happy hominid childhoods to plan for. The decisions you make today impact next year, ten years, 100 and 100,000 years into the future. Deep time is an uncommon but important timeline – and current human culture is ‘time blind’.
The Bottom Line: We tend to focus just a year or two in advance, but the human story is a deep time story and our deep time future deserves a chance.
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