Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World Hardcover – Illustrated, September 11, 2018

I bought Timefulness because I enjoyed her earlier book, Reading the Rocks: The Autobiography of the Earth. In both volumes, her writing is a delight. She frequently makes comparisons that are apt and fun. In Timefulness, Bjornerud explains geological processes that I knew about, but didn't understand fully. For instance, the age of the Earth is well known, and that it has been determined by analyzing meteors. Bjornerud goes into just how those meteors were dated - and radiometric dating in general. Another example: volcanoes are much more often found where plates subduct, of course, but how that happens is clearly presented. The detail in the book, though, is succinct, not ponderous. In fact, the book is too short for my taste. I would have enjoyed a longer book.

This is a book of science, told so a layman can understand it, and told without passion or drum beating; but told firmly and in a "grandmotherly" way, as to consequences and impact of our disregard for the consequences of our "mastery" of the environment..Professor Bjornerud begins by describing and narrating Earth Time, providing an overview of the geological ages of this planet. Her narrative completely reinforces and humbles one into the reality of a tamped down ego and our being a totally insignificant speck, less in size than a grain of sand, But as history unfolds, a speck that influences negatively, the planet.The author describes the creation of the earth, and the formation of the crust of the earth, and the tectonic plate movements. While this may seem familiar, Professor Bjornerud provides a running commentary on the history of knowledge of the earth and how it has changed over recorded history as our knowledge, observational skills and insights and technology have provided information to reshape our understanding, constantly and in so many exciting way. Following the creation of the Earth, she devotes herself to explaining the development of Air, complimenting the history its information wiyh the interactions of the crust of the Earth and the Waters, impacting the Air content.The development of CO2 and O in our atmosphere are very recent events. Her description of how the discovery of ancient air occurred, is truly enlightening. The balance that Nature maintained between presence and exchange, or more correctly the consistency of air quality and CO2, is a sobering story. Also when she explains the non consistency of climate, forever, the Professor puts into perspective how we have created a rather unhealthy situation for life, at this moment, as the order of magnitude of CO2 in the atmosphere is beyond any reasonable historical predictive model.Reading the story of billions of years of Earth time can only be described as a revelatory moment. Professor Bjornerud then devotes an extremely insightful chapter to the question of "what can we do?" She is not a person advocating radical stifling of capitalism, and returning to tribal hunting and foraging. She develops several approaches in a multi-pronged analysis. A contemplative person is illustrated boldly.The only reason I will not give it an Amazon 5 is because of her digressive berating of personal irritants of knowledge and the scientific method. Specifically, she devotes many, many pages denouncing students of Creationism as if she has to prove their errors rhetorically, illustrating her debating skills and ability to 'put down' others who challenge her. She is wasting her time. And throughout the book, there are digressive and sarcastic comments about colleagues or other academics with whom she is disgusted; example , page 135 speaking of an scientist, she says, "...in my view, he should have an asterisk next to his name in the annals of science, like an athlete whose medals was rescinded for doping" and continues with a rather unflattering reference.

I want to recommend this book to you highly. Bjornerud says, eighteen pages in:“I’ve written this book in the belief (possibly naive) that if more people understood our shared history and destiny as Earth-dwellers, we might treat each other and the planet, better. At a time when the world appears more deeply divided than ever by religious dogmas and political animosities, there would seem to be little hope of finding a common philosophy or list of principles that might bring all factions to the table for honest discourse about increasingly intractable environmental, social, and economic problems.But the communal heritage of geology may yet allow us to reframe our thinking about these issues in a fresh new way.”… and she goes on to welcome the reader into the discipline of “lowly geology (that) has never achieved the glossy prestige of the other sciences.” Whether or not Bjornerud's lofty goal will be even partially achieved, she is truly a delight to hang out with. Here are her opening sentences:“For children who grow up in wintry climates, few experiences in life will ever elicit the same pure joy as a Snow Day. Unlike holidays, whose pleasures can be diminished by weeks of anticipation, snow days are undiluted serendipities. In the 1970’s in rural Wisconsin, school closings were announced on local AM radio, and we’d listen with the volume turned way up, trembling with hope, as the names of public and parochial schools around the county were read, with maddening deliberation, in alphabetical order. At last our school would be named, and in that moment anything seemed possible. Time was temporarily repealed; the oppressive schedules of the adult world magically suspended in a concession to the greater authority of nature."She goes on in terms reminiscent of Dylan Thomas’s Child’s Christmas in Wales. And then on to her doctoral work and then the history of this so recent of sciences and then into the depths of the discipline. The charts in the appendices are an education in themselves. She ends her epilog with:Our Holocene snow day is ending now, and tomorrow’s the Anthropocene. We’ve all enjoyed the fantasy that we can keep playing our self-absorbed and careless games - that when we choose to come inside, our supper will be waiting for us, and nothing will have changed. But no one is home to take care of us. Now we need to grow up and navigate on our own, doing our best with the Atlas of the Past to make up for so much lost time.I think this is a book that deserves lots of prizes.

Liked the easy read

This book by an expert geologist looks at the precarious state of our planet and how in the past it has tipped into environmental conditions that caused mass extinction of most living creatures at that time. It compares the way we are despoiling our planet and the likely consequences for our species if we do no change out ways. It argues convincingly for acting in ways that do not have long term effects rather than the current pre-occupation with short thinking and the lack of understanding of the long-term consequences. It is a book that all politicians should read.

It’s an interesting review of recent geological thinking but the concept of saving the world by thinking like a geologist is tenuous.

Marcia Bjornerud provides an eloquent and brief overview of the history of the earth and the evolution of life. She argues for the necessity of broadening our very short term perspective to encompass deep time and our responsibility for the survival of our ecosystem. Inspirational and sobering.

A history of the Earth, a readable account of the main science around climate change, a mix of stories over different time scales and a proposal for a better, "timeful", way of viewing and governing our planet. A very enjoyable read.

recommended to Thanet U3A Geology Interest Group as the first book to read.