Book ID: CBB456036923

Timefulness: How Thinking Like A Geologist Can Help Save The World (2018)

unapi

Marcia Bjornerud (Author)


Princeton University Press


Publication Date: 2018
Physical Details: 224 pp.
Language: English

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. The author 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.

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Reviewed By

Review Rasoul Sorckhabi (2019) Review of "Timefulness: How Thinking Like A Geologist Can Help Save The World". Earth Sciences History: Journal of the History of the Earth Sciences Society (pp. 150-151). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB456036923/

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Authors & Contributors
Rosenberg, Gary D.
Clary, Renee M.
Olga Smith
Jayne C. Aubele
Shaul Bassi
Cristina Baldacci
Concepts
Science and society
Geology
Earth sciences
Museums
Popularization
Natural history
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
21st century
20th century, late
Early modern
Renaissance
Places
Venice (Italy)
Philadelphia, PA
Florence (Italy)
France
Paris (France)
Vienna (Austria)
Institutions
California Academy of Sciences
Habsburg, House of
Rutgers University
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