This series explores the many ways that living systems create and regulate environmental conditions on our planet. Without a living system, Earth would be a dry barren rock, like Venus or Mars.Life has created the planet as we know it, a place where all species, including humans, co-evolved. The symbiotic relationships that created this Eden are badly damaged. The Life Saves the Planet Series, presented by [Biodiversity for a Livable Climate](https://bio4climate.org/), will introduce you to people (and other species) doing amazing work all over the planet to regenerate systems, repair crucial relationships, and make this a healthy place once again. Without this work being done at scale, we will not have a habitable home for very long.
Archaeologists have uncovered what is thought to be the world's oldest known wood structure, whose estimated age suggests woodworking is at least 175,000 years older than.
Along the banks of the Kalambo River in Zambia near Africa's second-highest waterfall, archaeologists have excavated two logs of the large-fruited bushwillow tree that were notched, shaped and joined nearly half a million years ago. The logs, modified using stone tools, appear to have been part of a framework for a structure, a conclusion that contradicts the notion humans at that time simply roamed the landscape hunting and gathering resources. "Not only did the working of trees require considerable skill, the right tools and planning, the effort involved suggests that the makers were staying in the location for extended periods whereas we have always had a model of Stone Age people as nomadic," Barham added.