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Timefulness : how thinking like a geologist can help save the world / Marcia Bjornerud.

By: Publisher: Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2018]Description: vi, 208 pages : illustrations, map ; 23 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780691181202
  • 0691181209
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 304.2/3 23
LOC classification:
  • GF98 .B56 2018
  • GF98 .B56 2018
Contents:
Prologue: The allure of timelessness -- A call for timefulness -- An atlas of time -- The pace of the Earth -- Changes in the air -- Great accelerations -- Timefulness, utopian and scientific -- Epilogue -- Appendixes. Simplified geologic timetable ; Durations and rates of Earth phenomena ; Environmental crises in Earth's history: causes and consequences.
Summary: 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.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-202) and index.

Prologue: The allure of timelessness -- A call for timefulness -- An atlas of time -- The pace of the Earth -- Changes in the air -- Great accelerations -- Timefulness, utopian and scientific -- Epilogue -- Appendixes. Simplified geologic timetable ; Durations and rates of Earth phenomena ; Environmental crises in Earth's history: causes and consequences.

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.

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