Australia's oldest things: how mind-boggling timelines meet the climate emergency | Jeff Sparrow

They were here before us and should live on long afterwards. With 12 years to avert catastrophe, we need to imagine the aeons to come and consider the creatures that outlive us

Wilbur the tortoise has, in all probability, lived more than a hundred years.

"From his size and weight and general health," says Adam Lee, a reptile keeper at the Melbourne zoo, "we put him at about 110 but there's no real way of telling with giant tortoises unless you have them from birth or as a hatchling."