Genesis 2

Verses 1-3

4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,
5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. 
7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. 

Now we are getting into an area where Atheist and the non believers start citing conflicting details within the Bible, however there really is no conflict here.  First off, Moses is not reciting the creation story here, he has already told the detailed creation of the earth.  The generations are not as one might perceive a generation of man, but rather the use o the term is to imply as to how the heavens and earth were generated, through the divine spoken word of God.

During the creation God made water to come up in the form of a mist into the air to water the earth, much the same way we see moisture operate in a terrarium.  The earth was very different before the flood than it is now, there was a layer of water in the firmament making a covering blanket that protected the earths atmosphere, and also served to block out radiation and lots of other things from space.  This could be partially the reason why men lived so long.  Trees grew huge also, we can see in the Redwood forest of northern California, trees that are so tall, they do not grow anyplace but this area.  The reason for this is they are so tall, they cannot affectively pump water from the ground, through it's root system to the tops of the tree's.  Instead this area has fogs that roll in from the ocean on a regular basis and by osmosis through it's upper leaves it receives the moisture it needs.  If you could transplant these trees into the Midwest, the desert, or any other mountainous region, they would probably die, or at least the tops of the trees would die off.

Verse 7: Here man is given special details on how God created him.  Man is the only creature that is given this dignity or care similarly we saw God announcing His design for man back in Chapter 1.  Man was formed from the dust of the ground, then God breathed the breath of life into his nostrils.  The word for breath in this passage is nâshamah, which has been translated breath on several occasions in the Bible, (17 times), but is also translated and used for soul, spirit, and inspiration. No other animal was spoken of as being given the Breath of God, or the spirit, or soul depending on your own interpretation of the use of this word.  It does however increase the distinction of Mans Creation and Gods special attention to man as well as His special attention in letting us know the care He has given us from the very beginning.