Timefulness review – our impulsive and pugnacious age needs geology

If you want to save Earth, argues a new book, quit sitting around in the present hoping for the best and learn to think really long term, like a geologist

plainpicture/Nordic Life/Terje Rakke

By Mick O’Hare

THE first thought that springs to mind when picking up Marcia Bjornerud’s Timefulness is that the title is a nod in the direction of mindfulness, the notion of paying more attention to the present as our busy lives whizz by. Our psychological health, argue enthusiasts, benefits from living that way, offering a clarity that is absent when we worry, or concern ourselves with the past or future.

If that was the intention, then it takes only a few pages to discover that Bjornerud’s …