Governments and civil society forged a unity in the face of such stupendous adversity.

And they're being traded by a species of almost seven billion individuals, who are linked by trade, travel, and the Internet into a global system of stupendous complexity.

The stupendous time spans of the evolutionary past are now part of common culture outside the American Bible Belt, anyway but most people, even those who are familiar with evolution, aren't mindful that even more time lies ahead.