Awards
2019 Association of American Publishers PROSE Award Winner In Popular Science and Popular Mathematics
2019 Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist In Science and Technology
A 2018 EcoLit Books' Best Environmental Book
Synopses & Reviews
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 multi-generational 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.
Review
"Timefulness
is a delightful and interesting read....Made me feel as though I
was having a glass of wine with a friend who was explaining geologic
history while sketching on a napkin." David R. Wunsch, Science
Review
"Bjornerud's lucid writing gives geology an energy it rarely has in popular imagination."
Justin Cober-Lake, Englewood Review of Books
Review
"A profound meditation on the richness, depth and entanglements of geologic time." Wall Street Journal
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.