Book Review:
"Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World."
by Marcia Bjornerud.
Princeton University Press.
I don’t read that many books these days, I must admit. Indeed, Jeff Goodell’s much celebrated "The Water Will Come" remains mostly unread on my nightstand. So when the request to review Marcia Bjornerud’s Timefulness appeared I gladly accepted this motivating opportunity. This little book is only ~180 pages, but its size masks the breadth of coverage and detail presented. In five substantive chapters and several informative appendices, the book explores geologic time, tectonics and landscapes, atmospheric evolution, and modern (Ice Age) time, and offers, in the last chapter, a reflective take on today and our future.
Following a brief introductory chapter, a series of four self-contained chapters offer a breezy approach to major topics in the Earth Sciences that are taught in most colleges these days. In fact, I assume that they reflect the activities of the author in this realm, given the relevant examples and key details in places. Combining a pleasant writing style with just enough science information creates informative long-form journalism style pieces on these major topics. The takes in each chapter reflect the majority opinion on a topic and do not stray into new or minority opinions. For example, when getting to climate action in the atmospheric section, the descriptions of geo-engineering approaches are (appropriately?) guarded and not about urgency for correcting, perhaps risky action. Given that the book’s name is a play on mindfulness, these chapters are less transcending than the title and sleeve cover would suggest, but they are certainly informative and complete. Much use is made of creative quotes and section titles, as well as (mostly dead) geo-star icons. The concept of geologic time, or Deep Time, is sprinkled throughout, hence the book’s title, although the latter chapters are mostly about Modern Time. The final chapter, ‘Timefulness, Utopian and Scientific’, is a joy to read. It is the engaging type of writing one finds in The New Yorker or similar, and the author’s skill as a writer shines. As before, no new ground is covered, but the content and structure make it a compelling read. Among other uses, it makes a wonderfully motivating piece for today’s students that grudgingly take their required science course.
This book will appeal to the ‘John McPhee audience’. It makes for a great gift to friends and family interested in meaningful science and Earth Science history. Unlike many of today’s pieces in magazines and blogs, it is not preachy and offers the reader the underlying science in sufficient detail to develop an understanding and perhaps an opinion on the challenges before us. The Anthropocene makes its appropriate entrance near the end, linking geology of the long past to issues of today and tomorrow. As the author philosophically concludes, ‘we need to grow up and navigate on our own’.
From:
Holocene book review: Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World. The Holocene, 2019, 29(2), 363–363.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683618819934
"Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World."
by Marcia Bjornerud.
Princeton University Press.
I don’t read that many books these days, I must admit. Indeed, Jeff Goodell’s much celebrated "The Water Will Come" remains mostly unread on my nightstand. So when the request to review Marcia Bjornerud’s Timefulness appeared I gladly accepted this motivating opportunity. This little book is only ~180 pages, but its size masks the breadth of coverage and detail presented. In five substantive chapters and several informative appendices, the book explores geologic time, tectonics and landscapes, atmospheric evolution, and modern (Ice Age) time, and offers, in the last chapter, a reflective take on today and our future.
Following a brief introductory chapter, a series of four self-contained chapters offer a breezy approach to major topics in the Earth Sciences that are taught in most colleges these days. In fact, I assume that they reflect the activities of the author in this realm, given the relevant examples and key details in places. Combining a pleasant writing style with just enough science information creates informative long-form journalism style pieces on these major topics. The takes in each chapter reflect the majority opinion on a topic and do not stray into new or minority opinions. For example, when getting to climate action in the atmospheric section, the descriptions of geo-engineering approaches are (appropriately?) guarded and not about urgency for correcting, perhaps risky action. Given that the book’s name is a play on mindfulness, these chapters are less transcending than the title and sleeve cover would suggest, but they are certainly informative and complete. Much use is made of creative quotes and section titles, as well as (mostly dead) geo-star icons. The concept of geologic time, or Deep Time, is sprinkled throughout, hence the book’s title, although the latter chapters are mostly about Modern Time. The final chapter, ‘Timefulness, Utopian and Scientific’, is a joy to read. It is the engaging type of writing one finds in The New Yorker or similar, and the author’s skill as a writer shines. As before, no new ground is covered, but the content and structure make it a compelling read. Among other uses, it makes a wonderfully motivating piece for today’s students that grudgingly take their required science course.
This book will appeal to the ‘John McPhee audience’. It makes for a great gift to friends and family interested in meaningful science and Earth Science history. Unlike many of today’s pieces in magazines and blogs, it is not preachy and offers the reader the underlying science in sufficient detail to develop an understanding and perhaps an opinion on the challenges before us. The Anthropocene makes its appropriate entrance near the end, linking geology of the long past to issues of today and tomorrow. As the author philosophically concludes, ‘we need to grow up and navigate on our own’.
From:
Holocene book review: Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World. The Holocene, 2019, 29(2), 363–363.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683618819934
