Earth can survive without Humans, but Humans can’t survive without the Earth’s resources.

Some of these resources are exhaustible, and we’re leaving a huge footprint on some of Earth’s ecosystems. Every one of us is in some way responsible, but every one of us should also be able to enjoy life, both now and in the future.

The "It’s our Earth II" exhibition is designed with this perspective: the reconciliation of development with the planet’s resources, without placing blame, but without ignoring the issues either. Especially the huge gulf that has formed between us and the poorest countries in the South.

The exhibition will therefore focus on the harmonious development of our society, going beyond the single issue of global warming.
The exhibition is structured around time. There are four different perspectives...

We are currently working on the new version of the exhibition, but you can always go through the previous version hereunder:

Time for the Earth

The Earth is unique. It’s the only planet that we know of where Life has developed.
A fragile exception in this vast universe, it tells us its History, dating back 4.57 billion years. Retained in its memory, like a huge library with 4,568 books, each one 1,000 pages long, each one recording the memories of 1,000 years.

Mankind’s time can’t even begin to compare with Earth’s time... 

Time for Mankind

Mankind has only very "recently" appeared on the Earth. Our history is only a few dozen thousand years old. If you imagine that the Earth started on 1st January, and that it is now midnight on the following 31st December, our own history, that of the sons and daughters of Cro-Magnon, would have begun about 4 minutes ago...
The Earth hardly noticed us to begin with. But in the last two or three tenths of a second (half a century), everything has changed. Mankind’s time is no longer that of the Earth: Mankind’s consumption of the Earth’s resources has accelerated rapidly over the last 50 years.
The way that we consume these resources today creates huge problems for the poorest among us; and will inevitably keep creating problems for generations to come. 

Time for ecosystems

How humans act has an increasingly major impact on the regulatory cycles of ecosystems. Although it’s only perceptible over a long period, and often from a great distance, we all leave a “footprint” on the Earth. Like a scratch that can’t heal.
Ecosystems are complex, and they are permanently evolving. There are indicators which let us assess whether they are in decline or under control. Their effectiveness must be monitored, usually over a period lasting some decades.
Four ecosystems are particularly revealing: sea ice, estuaries, forest and earth.  

Time for solutions

If we don’t radically work on the footprints that we are leaving on our planet in the next few decades, future generations will have to deal with the catastrophic effects on many living species. Including Mankind.

So it’s not – yet – too late, but it is the time to change the way we are living, and the way we are using up resources which are in the process of disappearing.

The time has come for solutions. Because they are there.