‘Save the Earth’ says the slogan. ‘The planet’s in danger. It’s not going to survive’, the message we’re to take away.

The Earth has been around for 4.6 billion years. Give or take a day. It was billion years later (3.6 billion years ago) that life on Earth began.

For most of that time life equalled nothing more than single-celled organisms. It wasn’t until 600 million years ago that the first animals emerged. Not elephants and giraffes and sh*t, or even dinosaurs, the first animals were much different. Since then life has adapted and changed. Splitting into separate species and subspecies. Many died out en masse along the way, killed off by some change in conditions or other. Survival isn’t easy.

Eventually, the right monkeys f*cked (so to speak) and we popped up. Our arrival was relatively recent. The oldest ‘us’ – homo sapiens – fossil found is around 200,000 years old. A mere blip on the history of the planet. But we’ve been busy in that time. We’ve come a long way to mastering the art of survival. Just watch Bear Grylls drink his own p*ss for no reason. Bad example. Instead look at our use of tools and technology to overcome disease. As a result our population has exploded. From where we stand, survival looks easy.

Despite becoming better and better at holding death at bay we are far from safe. We remain vulnerable. Our environment can kill us – earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, hurricanes, heat from the sun. If that wasn’t enough we have caused environmental changes that are a growing threat. We have created plenty other new dangers for ourselves. Humans have even developed weapons to kill each other and everything else on this rock with us.

Whatever we unleash, the rock itself would, of course, survive. It’s in no danger. Cries of ‘Save the Earth’ ignore that it’s us that need saving.

At the top of the food chain survival looks easy. Don’t take it for granted.