Absolutely, I'd be happy to break this down for you.
Let's start by imagining the 4.56 billion years of Earth's existence compressed into a 12-hour timeline.
If we think about the passage of time in this way, every hour on this clock would represent roughly 380 million years. To get an even more precise understanding, every single second on this timeline would equal approximately 105,555 years.
Now, let's consider Homo sapiens, modern humans. We've been around for a rough estimate of 300,000 years. In the context of our 12-hour clock, this is slightly less than three seconds.
Think about how much has happened in those three seconds. All of human history — from the earliest cave paintings, to the building of the pyramids, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, right up to the age of the internet and AI — has happened in that tiny fraction of time.
However, despite the short length of our existence in the grand scheme of things, humans have had a dramatic impact on the Earth's environment. Within our "three seconds," we've developed agriculture, built civilizations, and massively changed landscapes. We've become a major force in altering the Earth's climate, which is quite significant considering the scale of time we're dealing with.
In conclusion, while humans have been around for a relatively short period when compared to the age of the Earth, our influence on the environment has been immense and disproportionately large.