Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World"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."--Jacket. |
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Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World Marcia Bjornerud Limited preview - 2018 |
Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World Marcia Bjornerud Limited preview - 2018 |
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ancient Anthropocene Archean Arthur Holmes atmosphere basalt biosphere Bjornerud Cambrian carbon dioxide century climate change continents cooling Cretaceous crystal cycle Darwin dating daughter decades decay deep Earth earthquakes ecosystem emissions environmental erosion eruption evolution future geochronology geologic past geologic processes geologic timescale geologists glacial glaciers global greenhouse groundwater Hadean Himalaya Holmes Holocene human Hutton Ice Age idea impact Jack Hills Jack Hills zircons Lake land landscape layer lead isotope limestone Lyell magma mantle mass extinctions melting metamorphic meteorite million years ago mineral modern mountain belt natural Nier organisms oxygen period photosynthesizers planet planetary plate plate tectonic Pleistocene Precambrian Proterozoic radioactive rates ratio ridges rocks samples Science sea level seafloor seafloor spreading sediment sedimentary Siccar Point slow Snowball Earth solar species subduction sulfate surface Svalbard tectonic temperature Today tree uniformitarianism uranium volcanic warming weather Wisconsin zircon zones