Timefulness How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World
Ratings4
Average rating4.3
15
Ratings4
Average rating4.3
Explains why an awareness of Earth's temporal rhythms is critical to planetary survival and offers suggestions for how to create a more time-literate society.
"Why an awareness of Earth's temporal rhythms is critical to our planetary survival: Few of us have any conception of the enormous timescales in our planet's long history, and this narrow perspective underlies many of the environmental problems we are creating for ourselves. The passage of nine days, which is how long a drop of water typically stays in Earth's atmosphere, is something we can easily grasp. But spans of hundreds of years--the time a molecule of carbon dioxide resides in the atmosphere--approach the limits of our comprehension. Our everyday lives are shaped by processes that vastly predate us, and our habits will in turn have consequences that will outlast us by generations. Timefulness reveals how knowing the rhythms of Earth's deep past and conceiving of time as a geologist does can give us the perspective we need for a more sustainable future. Marcia Bjornerud shows how geologists chart the planet's past, explaining how we can determine the pace of solid Earth processes such as mountain building and erosion and comparing them with the more unstable rhythms of the oceans and atmosphere. These overlapping rates of change in the Earth system--some fast, some slow--demand a poly-temporal worldview, one that Bjornerud calls "timefulness." She explains why timefulness is vital in the Anthropocene, this human epoch of accelerating planetary change, and proposes sensible solutions for building a more time-literate society. This compelling book presents a new way of thinking about our place in time, enabling us to make decisions on multigenerational timescales. The lifespan of Earth may seem unfathomable compared to the brevity of human existence, but this view of time denies our deep roots in Earth's history--and the magnitude of our effects on the planet."--Dust jacket.
Reviews with the most likes.
Geology concepts made simple! Audible narration a little disappinting.
Awesome insight into geology things and nicely adapted to explain concepts very simply. Narrator was disappointing for a semi scientific book - what stood out to me was mispronouncing decimal numbers, e.g. “one point thirty six” instead of “one point three six”. Call me a pedant, but I care about that stuff.
A fine book centered on Geology. It provides a long look at deep time, the basics and history of Geology, the story of the Earth written in rocks, and Geology's relationship to and significance for human society.
Bjornerud is a very good writer. In this book she brings Geology to life and makes its significance clear. Not dry science, but a loving look at the most basic of Earth sciences. It is not dumbed down but is still accessible to the intelligent and interested non-specialist.
Highly recommended.
A very lyrical, educational and thought-provoking book, pleading for a better time- and geo-literacy. I loved learning about geo-chronology. Traces of the past are in the rocks and rivers and air all around us. Everything is in motion, mountains grow at 0.5cm a year, particles in the global ocean take 1500 years to perfectly dilute. The earth is a seemingly forgiving, yet reactive and constantly adapting system. We tend to think of natural disasters as exceptions. But looking at the earth's past, we learn that they are part of cycles and reactions to atmospheric disturbances. As we move from the Holocene to the Anthropocene, a more powerful reckless humanity is suddenly at the rudder, blinded by the short-lived success of the Right Now, leading us all into a potential climate nightmare. Bjornerud adds her voice to the many advocating for a more long-term and sensible future thinking, by putting our humanity's lifespan into perspective to planet Earth's billions of years.
