Work Text:
The universe is 13.8 billion years old. 13,800,000,000 years. 5,040,450,000,000 days. 120,970,800,000,000 hours. 7,258,248,000,000,000 minutes. 435,500,000,000,000,000 seconds. 435,500,000,000,000,001 seconds. 435,500,000,000,000,002 seconds. A second is almost equal to a heartbeat. 435,500,000,000,000,003 heartbeats.
Sorry, that’s a lot of numbers. They’re too big to even begin to comprehend anyway. It’s best if we don’t try.
172,500,000 human life spans.
Humans have only been around for 300,000 years. There’s only been 3,750 generations of people at most.
That’s 172,496,250 human life spans that humans weren’t around for.
Of course, there’s reason to believe that the universe is only 12 billion years old and you could say humans have been around for 2.5 million years instead of 300k, or even that we’ve been around 7 million years. I’m not going to assault you with the numbers for that, but know that it’s not much of a difference.
435,500,000,000,000,500 heartbeats… probably. I stopped counting.
Sharks have been around a lot longer than people. I mean, not by much compared to the universe, but they say sharks have been around for 450 million years, 200 million years ago if you think they have to be recognizable to count.
There are probably 8.3 billion people on earth right now.
About 80,000,000 sharks are killed each year. Average of 152 sharks each minute. By people.
There are less than 4,500 tigers are left in the wild. Most tiger deaths are due to habitat loss. 124 tigers get poached every year.
In 2023 586 African Rhinos were killed by poachers. That’s 1 every 15 hours.
I want you to count to five real quick.
435,500,000,000,000,725 heartbeats
435,500,000,000,000,726 heartbeats
435,500,000,000,000,727 heartbeats
435,500,000,000,000,728 heartbeats
435,500,000,000,000,729 heartbeats
24 people were stung by jellyfish while you were counting. Don’t worry. Most stings aren’t fatal…
Look, I don’t know if you’re going to fact check any of this. I don’t know if you saw the horror tag and were disappointed by the lack of gore. I’ve been in enough math classes to know numbers are scary. I’ve been in enough church buildings to know we’re desperate for it to mean something but listen; we are one generation out of 3,750. There will be another after us. And another after them. 5 generations later you’ll be dead and it will keep going.
In 50 years, summers will be 10°F hotter than they are now. By then the rhinos will probably be gone. At no point while you wait will your little lonely floating consciousness connect with another; that’s simply not possible.
Goodnight.