He draws on research and compelling examples, from George Eliot’s 1871 novel Middlemarch (which examines the “threadlike pressure” on the deciding mind) to the supercomputer-based climate models now influencing climate-relevant decisions across the globe. Now, science writer Steven Johnson has his decisive moment, looking at the deep deliberations - mapping of variables, predictions of outcomes and balancing of aims and possibilities - that underpin life-changing choices. Many researchers (notably psychologist Daniel Kahneman) have wrestled with the subtle mechanics of decision-making. In this trenchant study, Bjornerud calls for a new geological literacy to instil deeper knowledge of planetary rhythms and processes - “thinking like a mountain”, as ecologist Aldo Leopold put it. That layered perspective has made her aware of the short-term thinking common in a society wedded to political terms of office and the news cycle - all of which has, she argues, contributed to our inadequate, sometimes wrongheaded response to climate change.
Marcia Bjornerud Princeton University Press (2018)Īs a geologist, Marcia Bjornerud works in many time frames: the 4.5-billion-year history of Earth, the academic year, the daily grind.
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