Numbers

During my first excursions into the then young world wide web, I stumbled upon a 'world clock'. I cannot recall the site URL but there are plenty of similar pages on the web today.

All of them have one thing in common. They show counters for world population, births, deaths and other indicators counting up (or down) based on statistics and estimates.

World Clock by Peter Russell

It's a mesmerizing experience to watch these counters. Every second a human is born and the same instant a human life ends. It is as if you have a vantage point from where you watch Earth and see life pop up and dissolve breathlessly.

In the time it takes for you to breathe in and out, there are countless births and deaths. Life is coming and going but goes on forever.

Don't get me wrong, I do not feel sad or depressed in any way while watching these clocks and thinking about the implications of these numbers going up or down. Thanks to these pages I feel connected to life itself and reminded of my own evanescence.

Here are some more:

World Clock by Poodwaddle
worldometers
livepopulation.com

peace