THE ‘most irrevocable’ fact is that Earth is an integral part of the universe. All of its peoples, the mountains, the oceans, fishes and insects, clouds and droplets of rain or the blood that flows in our veins, all the animals that roam freely, the breeze and the skies belong to the universe which is the most, the everlasting of all objects.

(In the time it takes you to read this article, the sun, along with the entire Solar System will have rushed a million miles into the space, going around the galaxy). All those irrepressible stars and great planets will vanish without a trace (almost) and they will be swallowed by the universe, again without a trace. As for Earth; it is a child of the universe, albeit a tiny child.

There could be a million earths harbouring life which again is a tiny number compared with trillions upon trillions of blazing stars, living a turbulent yet organised existence within a hundred billion galaxies — besides those countless, elusive black holes that populate every single galaxy.

If earth is indeed the one unique place in the universe harbouring life of a million varieties, it is a matter that will be settled with the passage of time, maybe a million years hence. Maybe never. If man is a unique specimen of God’s creation so is a wasp and all the other living things, a bolt of lightning especially of the kind here on Earth and a whale or a giraffe; all distinctly different from one another.

The conditions that dictate the emergence of life anywhere are too well-known to be swept under the carpet without first realising and believing that the universe is a buzz with activity at a furious pace and has always been.

In fact, if we carefully consider the planets and the moons of the Solar System alone, we reach the predictable conclusion that some of them (if just a few) do fall just a little short of the conditions as would qualify them for the coveted position. Maybe the conditions for the origin of life were there a billion years earlier or will be a billion years hence. One never knows.

Here is the story of an interesting produce of an ordinary planet (the final discourse) of an ordinary star merrily doing the rounds of an ordinary galaxy.

Once in 240 million years. It should be taken into account that climates on planet Earth have been alternating regularly between hot, humid, wet and cold over the past many millions of years. It was what you may call a ‘forest planet’.

For instance, a large part of Europe, Asia, South Africa and the Americas were covered with thick, impenetrable forests some 20 million years ago — hence the coal deposits galore, though many of these deposits are from a later period. I have seen various parts of Europe densely covered in forests replete with medium sized and small wildlife to this day.

As compared with the other forms of life, the fact that man walked in a straight-up posture, offered him a decisive advantage compared with those walking on all fours.

It made man feel secure when he could see the approaching enemy from afar and either scurry for safety or else stalk in waiting for the next meal.

Finally, let us take a review of some of the main features of our blessed planet. Firstly, it took one billion years for Earth to cool for any form of life to become ‘liveable’. Then began the long wait in which we must persevere for its crust to break apart and roam around all over the globe. The last of the major splitting of land mass into continents was about 300 million years ago. All of the continents gradually took their shape. The process is not complete yet. We’ll never know how many times the process was repeated, if at all, before we finally got the world that we live in.

All of this has come into our reckoning already. However, 800-900 million years ago life arose in the most elementary form. This ended up into a plethora of variety as the time gradually passed. Hence there are all the animals. Although some animals are particular to some areas, the same is not true for many others. They are well spread out globally. Among a large number of such fauna (animals) are dogs, some cats, goats, cows, some kinds of birds and mammals to speak the least which live everywhere. I often wonder why are elephants, lions, pumas, mice, butterflies or whales so well spread out.

As we are aware of the moving continents, we also know that they move about very slowly. Compare their movement with a child just learning to walk. As the toddler walks across the room, he does this in speed no less than one hundred times faster than the speed in which the continents move.

Secondly, the highly enigmatic Van Allen Radiation Belts are vital to the existence of all living things on the planet. Without them, we would be roasted alive. In fact, there wouldn’t be any life at all. Or no life of the kind we know and enjoy.

In fact, in God’s infinite mercy we do enjoy every moment of our existence. Thirdly, gravity, which is pressing down on our bodies with a punishing load of about 14 lbs. per square inch really means nothing because we do the same to the force of gravity. The struggle between gravity and us comes to a nought because we push back an equal amount without even knowing it.

Lastly, the atmosphere which obligingly bears down on us is a product of indigenous forces. First it was the centre of the planet that supplied whatever atmosphere there was. Lethal, though. Then, gradually, it dissipated and disappeared (this condition lasting more than 2 billion years) making way for a benign form.

Oxygen came from the endless trees and jungles, nitrogen from the clouds splitting and giving us the all-important lightning. The game has been going on for billions of years endlessly, all over the planet.

The much-touted ‘hole in the ozone layer’ is said to have formed over the North Pole. To begin with, gases are very dynamic. Even if a ‘hole’ forms it is quickly filled up by the rapidly moving gases in all directions.

Any ‘hole’ even if it is formed is sure to be filled up before long. It will not stay there in its previous form. Not that I deny the depletion of ozone layer, or our concern over it, but the presence of a ‘hole’ is what defies my scientific mind. Think about it.

Here we come to the end of our exhaustive debate on planet Earth. Our next topic will be an intruder from outer space, a comet till then good bye.