The Workshop
The Deep Time Walk turns the age of the Earth into a distance you can walk. The route is 4.6 km long and each metre stands for a million years. Along the way, the group stops at key moments such as the formation of the Moon, the first oxygen-producing photosynthesis, the first cells with a nucleus or the arrival of multicellular life. At this scale, the dinosaurs die out 66 metres before the finish, and the whole history of our species fits into the last step.
Why It Matters
According to the IPCC, there is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today than at any time in at least 2 million years. On the walk, 2 million years is the last two metres. The industrial era, during which human activity caused that rise, takes up less than a third of a millimetre. Walking those distances shows participants how fast the planet is changing now, compared with everything that came before. It also gives the team a shared starting point for discussing the organisation's choices on climate and biodiversity.
Good to Know
The walk takes place outdoors on any 4.6 km route, at a slow pace with regular stops, and no prior knowledge is needed. It was created in 2007 at Schumacher College in Devon, England, by ecologist Stephan Harding and geologist Sergio Maraschin. Deep Time Walk CIC, a British community interest company, now owns and licenses the walk and its materials (deeptimewalk.org).
What to Expect
For groups of up to 16 people. Everyone meets at the start of the route, where the guide explains the scale. The group then walks forward through time: at each stop, participants hear what was happening on Earth at that point and look back at the distance already covered. The session ends with a discussion of what this change of scale means for each person and for the organisation.