Why an awareness of Earth's temporal rhythms is critical to our planetary survival Few of us have any conception of the enormous timescales of our planet's long history, and this narrow perspective underlies many of the environmental problems we are creating. The lifespan of Earth can 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. 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. Featuring illustrations by Haley Hagerman, this compelling book offers a new way of thinking about our place in time, showing how our everyday lives are shaped by processes that vastly predate us, and how our actions today will in turn have consequences that will outlast us by generations. This edition includes discussion questions for reading groups. Product DetailsISBN-13: 9780691202631 Media Type: Paperback(New Edition) Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication Date: 02-11-2020 Pages: 224 Product Dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)About the Author Marcia Bjornerud is professor of geology and environmental studies at Lawrence University. She is the author of Reading the Rocks: The Autobiography of the Earth and a contributing writer for Elements, the New Yorker's science and technology blog.Read an Excerpt Read an Excerpt CHAPTER 1 A CALL FOR TIMEFULNESS Omnia mutantur, nihil interit (Everything changes, nothing perishes). — OVID, METAMORPHOSES, AD 8 A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME DENIAL As a geologist and professor I speak and write rather cavalierly about eras and eons. One of the courses I routinely teach is "History of Earth and Life," a survey of the 4.5-billion-year saga of the entire planet — in a 10-week trimester. But as a human, and more specifically as a daughter, mother, and widow, I struggle like everyone else to look Time honestly in the face. That is, I admit to some time hypocrisy. Antipathy toward time clouds personal and collective thinking. The now risible "Y2K" crisis that threatened to cripple global computer systems and the world economy at the turn of the millennium was caused by programmers in the 1960s and '70s who apparently didn't really think the year 2000 would ever arrive. Over the past decade, Botox treatments and plastic surgery have come to be viewed as healthy boosts to self-esteem rather than what they really are: evidence that we fear and loathe our time-iness. Our natural aversion to death is amplified in a culture that casts Time as an enemy and does everything it can to deny its passage. As Woody Allen said: "Americans believe death is optional." This type of time denial, rooted in a very human combination of vanity and existential dread, is perhaps the most common and forgivable form of what might be called chronophobia. But there are other, more toxic varieties that work together with the mostly benign kind to create a pervasive, stubborn, and dangerous temporal illiteracy in our society. We in the twenty-first century would be shocked if an educated adult were unable to identify the continents on a world map, yet we are quite comfortable with widespread obliviousness about anything but the most superficial highlights from the planet's long history (um, Bering Strait ... dinosaurs ... Pangaea?). Most humans, including those in affluent and technically advanced countries, have no sense of temporal proportion — the durations of the great chapters in Earth's history, the rates of change during previous intervals of environmental instability, the intrinsic timescales of "natural capital" like groundwater systems. As a species, we have a childlike disinterest and partial disbelief in the time before our appearance on Earth. With no appetite for stories lacking human protagonists, many people simply can't be bothered with natural history. We are thus both intemperate and intemporate — time illiterate. Like inexperienced but overconfident drivers, we accelerate into landscapes and ecosystems with no sense of their long-established traffic patterns, and then react with surprise and indignation when we face the penalties for ignoring natural laws. This ignorance of planetary history undermines any claims we may make to modernity. We are navigating recklessly toward our future using conceptions of time as primitive as a world map from the fourteenth century, when dragons lurked around the edges of a flat earth. The dragons of time denial still persist in a surprising range of habitats. Among the various foes of time, Young Earth creationism breathes the most fire but is at least predictable in its opposition. In years of teaching geology at the university level, I have had students from evangelical Christian backgrounds who earnestly struggle to reconcile their faith with the scientific understanding of the Earth. I truly empathize with their distress and try to point out paths toward resolution of this internal discord. First, I emphasize that my job is not to challenge their personal beliefs but to teach the logic of geology (geo-logic?) — the methods and tools of the discipline that enable us not only to comprehend how the Earth works at present but also to document in detail its elaborate and awe-inspiring history. Some students seem satisfied with keeping science and religious beliefs separate through this methodological remove. But more often, as they learn to read rocks and landscapes on their own, the two worldviews seem increasingly incompatible. In this case, I use a variation on the argument made by Descartes in his Meditations about whether his experience of Being was real or an elaborate illusion created by a malevolent demon or god. Early in an introductory geology course, one begins to under-stand that rocks are not nouns but verbs — visible evidence of processes: a volcanic eruption, the accretion of a coral reef, the growth of a mountain belt. Everywhere one looks, rocks bear witness to events that unfolded over long stretches of time. Little by little, over more than two centuries, the local stories told by rocks in all parts of the world have been stitched together into a great global tapestry — the geologic timescale. This "map" of Deep Time represents one of the great intellectual achievements of humanity, arduously constructed by stratigraphers, paleontologists, geochemists, and geochronologists from many cultures and faiths. It is still a work in progress to which details are constantly being added and finer and finer calibrations being made. So far, no one in more than 200 years has found an anachronistic rock or fossil — as biologist J.B.S. Haldane reputedly said, "a Precambrian rabbit" — that would represent a fatal internal inconsistency in the logic of the timescale. If one acknowledges the credibility of the methodical work by countless geologists from around the world (many in the service of petroleum companies), and one believes in a God as creator, the choice is then whether to accept the idea of (1) an ancient and complex Earth with epic tales to tell, set in motion eons ago by a benevolent creator, or (2) a young Earth fabricated only a few thousand years ago by a devious and deceitful creator who planted specious evidence of an old planet in every nook and cranny, from fossil beds to zircon crystals, in anticipation of our explorations and laboratory analyses. Which is more heretical? A corollary of this argument, to be deployed with tact and care, is that compared with the deep, rich, grand geologic story of Earth, the Genesis version is an offensive dumbing-down, an oversimplification so extreme as to be disrespectful to the Creation. While I have sympathy for individuals wrestling with theological questions, I have no tolerance for those who intentionally spread brain-fogging pseudoscience under the aegis of (-suspiciously well-funded) religious organizations. My colleagues and I despair at the existence of atrocities like Kentucky's Creation Museum, and the disheartening frequency with which Young Earth websites appear when students search for information about, say, isotopic dating. But I hadn't fully understood the tactics and far-reaching tentacles of the "Creation Science" industry until a former student alerted me that one of my own papers, published in a journal read only by nerdy geophysicists, had been cited on the website of the Institute for Creation Research. Citation frequency is one metric by which the scientific world ranks its practitioners, and most scientists adopt P. T. Barnum's view that there is "no such thing as bad publicity" — the more citations, the better, even if one's ideas are being rebutted or challenged. But this citation was akin to a social media endorsement from an especially despised troll. The article was about some unusual metamorphic rocks in the Norwegian Caledonides whose high-density minerals attest to their having been at crustal depths of at least 50 km (30 mi) at the time the mountain belt was forming. Oddly, these rocks occur in lenses and pods, interleaved with rock masses that did not undergo the conversion to the more compact mineral forms. My coinvestigators and I showed that the nonuniform metamorphism was due to the extremely dry nature of the original rocks, which inhibited the recrystallization process. We argued that the rocks, with their low-density minerals, probably resided unstably for some period in the deep crust until one or more large earthquakes fractured the rocks and allowed fluids to enter and locally trigger long-suppressed meta-morphic reactions. We used some theoretical constraints to suggest that in this case, the spotty metamorphism might have happened in thousands or tens of thousands of years, rather than the hundreds of thousands to millions of years in more typical tectonic settings. This "evidence for rapid metamorphism" is what someon
Triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights remains a mystery today. Many respected experts in late gothic iconography have tried to interpret it.
With its giant strawberries and nudity, Hieronymus Bosch’s painting has been seen as a celebration and warning about sin – but it’s really about a Renaissance-era curiosity that helped better explain the world
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What is Diatomaceous Earth - Have you ever heard of Diatomaceous Earth? If so, you probably already know about its benefits! If not, you need to learn! Diatomaceous Earth is an amazing natural substance that has health benefits, home benefits and it's even safe for kids and pets!
One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood. – Lucius Annaeus Seneca There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true …
Our home planet is truly a wondrous place.
Finding humor in unexpected places is what makes life on Earth less of a drag. And the best part is that you can enjoy these surprises even if you were born under an unlucky star and don't come across that many yourself. All you have to do is go online; there are plenty of places where people share their entertaining everyday discoveries. Like the Facebook group 'Funny Signs.'
Royal Society Publishing photography competition 2015 Overall winner Winner: Ecology and Environmental Science Tadpoles of many anuran species come in high numbers, but not many make it to adulthood. Here a group of common toad (Bufo bufo) tadpoles is seen from below. The picture was taken with a canon G12 camera in a Recsea underwater housing and a Dyron dome port. No flash was used, only natural light. Post-processing, the picture was cropped to the 3:2 format, and changes were made on the levels, contrast and highlight and the saturation. Bert Willaert, Belgium.
One of the amazing destinations in the Fjalllabak region is Rauðibotn crater: A red and green emerald surrounded by the volcanic deserts and wastelands between Torfajökull and Mýrdalsjökull glaciers. A hike to Rauðibotn is made all the more spectacular by the river Hólmsá and its waterfalls, which form a spectacular string of pearls.
The world is full of mysteries, magic, and beautiful places that seem like they could only exist in our imagination or in books and movies. Believe it or not, some of these places are actually real!
Orcas are one of earth’s most intelligent animals. Benign and gentle, with their own languages and cultures, orcas’ amazing capacity for long-term memory and, arguably, compassion, makes the ugly story of the captive-orca industry especially damning. In Of Orcas and Men, a marvelously compelling mix of cultural history, environmental reporting, and scientific research, David Neiwert explores how this extraordinary species has come to capture our imaginations—and the catastrophic environmental consequences of that appeal. In the tradition of Barry Lopez’s classic Of Wolves and Men, David Neiwert’s book is a powerful tribute to one of the animal kingdom’s most remarkable members. Product DetailsISBN-13: 9781468313024 Media Type: Paperback Publisher: Abrams Press Publication Date: 05-17-2016 Pages: 320 Product Dimensions: 5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)About the Author David Neiwert is an investigative journalist based in Seattle. He is the author of many books, including And Hell Followed With Her: Crossing the Dark Side of the American Border and Strawberry Days: How Internment Destroyed a Japanese American Community. His reportage for MSNBC.com on domestic terrorism won the National Press Club Award for Distinguished Online Journalism in 2000. He is also a contributing writer for the Southern Poverty Law Center.Table of Contents Table of Contents Chapter 1 Close Encounters 1 Chapter 2 The People Under the Sea 15 Chapter 3 The Connected Life 37 Chapter 4 The Ancient Ones 67 Chapter 5 The Demon From Hell 95 Chapter 6 The Guardians 131 Chapter 7 Salmon, Boats, and Oil 161 Chapter 8 Freeing Willies 205 Chapter 9 Orcinus Ethics 247 Acknowledgments 265 Seeing Wild Orcas: A Note 269 Notes 273 Bibliography 289 Index 293
The Scottish Highlands sure are beautiful!
How to visit the Quiraing on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. How to hike the Quiraing even in the rain! How to get the best views of the Quiraing.
It seems there’s one fact about the Middle Ages that always seems to astound people: medieval people did not actually think the world was flat.
Triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights remains a mystery today. Many respected experts in late gothic iconography have tried to interpret it.
With its giant strawberries and nudity, Hieronymus Bosch’s painting has been seen as a celebration and warning about sin – but it’s really about a Renaissance-era curiosity that helped better explain the world
The study uncovers new insights into the evolution of life on our planet and the surge of atmospheric oxygen.
Earth's magnetic field, which protects the planet from harmful blasts of solar radiation, may be 750 million years older than scientists had previously thought.
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***Please note, this is a DIGITAL item. No physical items will be shipped. Protect Mother Earth hand-designed art print. Please contact me for other size prints. What you'll get: 1 printable design is included! Instant Access (Once your payment is complete, you will receive a pdf containing a link(s) for your purchased template) Unlimited uses! (Purchase once and print for life!) You'll receive an email containing 1 PDF file with 8.5x11 designs. You may resize to any desired size by choosing the 'scale' option when printing from home. An amazing deal! * Due to its nature, downloadable products are not refundable after the design is sent but please let me know if any problems occur, I'll do my best to help you :) ● Your file(s) will be available to download once payment is confirmed. ● Colors may look a bit different as seen on your screen due to different color monitors and printers. The final quality depends on the printing device, paper, and ink you use.Please contact me ([email protected]) if you have any questions!
Sometimes, you just need to be reminded that our planet is a beautiful place to be.
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EARTH’S core is not solid nor liquid as we have long believed but something “quite abnormal”, scientists have claimed. In fact, they believe it’s a weird mix of elements tha…
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