Why You Wouldn't Survive on Earth One Billion Years Ago

Picture yourself travelling through time, your destination a billion years in the past. The time machine sputters and howls, but then it stops working all together. Engaging emergence procedures sees the fearless traveler prepare for an unforeseen landing. It's not a matter of where they'll land, but when. Therefore, when they find themselves in the process of survival, setting up priorities for their existence becomes a crucial issue.

Planning is of vital importance for a person whose priority is survival. We've all heard the hypothetical scenarios posed by prepper uncles: what are you going to do to survive on a desert island?In the Alaskan wilderness?The questions might seem very futuristic but they eventually result in the joy of creating a survival strategy. Then what if surviving in a different epoch becomes the issue?

Time travel, a subject that is usually the province of science fiction, raises many questions about the problems of survival in the distant past. How would you feel if you were a human and were to suddenly find yourself a billion years ago, in a place totally different from what you know right now?

In history, that would mean anything from trying not to frighten the locals with an iPhone or modern clothing to avoiding accusations of witchcraft or even executions. However, as we go back in time, the problems become more and more difficult. Imagine a planet which was not yet inhabited by Homo Sapiens, with gigantic animal, undeigestible plants, and new pathogens.

Earth, one billion years ago, was a totally changed world. In the Proterozoic Eon, which lasted for almost two billion years, life was just beginning to come out. The planet was still unstable, tectonic plates rearranging and the atmosphere taking shape. This was an altogether different world being totally alien to our own today.

The very first living organisms, the simple one-celled creatures, lived in the primeval ocean. There was a little bit of photosynthesis that was being done, and this, of course, led to an increase in the level of oxygen in the atmosphere. Nevertheless, pure air still remained beyond reach.

The climate at the start was unstable, harsh and nearly the same as the poles with their temperature extremes. A rapidly rotating globe led to the development of shorter days, as a single super-continent, Rodinia, dominated the primeval ocean.

A person who wants to go to this savage world must wear spetsial clothing and do thorough preparations to increase his chances to survive. Oxygen supplies and space suits would have to be provided to be able to navigate the cold, thin atmosphere and unpredictable weather changes.

Yet food and water, though, the two necessities in sustaining human lives, could be pretty scarce. Both land and sea were inhabited by primitive plants and single-celled organisms that had a doubtful taste and could be very toxic.

The primordial oceans, the source of life, are not enough of a shelter either. Despite being colonized by microbial organisms, the seas did not have the type of intricate ecosystems that we now know are in the modern seas.

Water, too, presented challenges. Seawater containing minerals and microbes in excessive amounts isn't suitable for drinking unless employing costly filtration systems. The water sources were limited, with the only rain being the source of hope for the required hydration.

Indeed, despite such a difficult problem, the human spirit still continues to be victorious. Probably, the environment that is not suitable our hypothetical time traveler would be considered because it has got adapted by instinct.

But beyond the immediate struggle for survival lies a deeper question: shall we stay clear of the past and what is left there?The fine equilibrium of ecosystems, the complicated network of life, could be beyond the reach of our presence.

On the lookout for the past one billion years of human existence, the harder challenge of surviving on this planet, and the facet of adaptability of the human spirit make us contemplate about the impermanence of life and resilience of humanity to any challenge. Maybe, it is the journey that matters rather than trying to conquer the past but, instead, marveling at the unknowns of what may lay on the other side.