The temporal paradox: reconciling the climate clock with geological time

“ Whereas climate change impacts will be felt disproportionately by communities of color and low-income communities; Whereas to address the urgent need to limit global warming to 1.5° Celsius, the IPCC has recommended increasing installation of renewable energy systems, with a goal of such systems generating 70 to 80 percent of global electricity by 2050; Whereas investing in the clean energy economy, with strong labor and procurement standards, will create quality jobs ”

“ At the high end of the range—an unlikely but possible prospect—the world could face an abrupt change in climate that would be roughly as large as the one at the end of the last ice age but much more rapid. In the more plausible middle of the range, the effects of climate change might still be quite significant. Moreover, even if emissions were eliminated before the end of the century, the oceans would continue to warm—and thus further warm the climate—for centuries thereafter. ”

“ Tomorrow you’re going up to New York City where you’re going to, I assume, see people who are still suffering the effects of Hurricane Sandy, which many people say is further evidence of how a warming globe is changing our weather. What specifically do you plan to do in a second term to tackle the issue of climate change? And do you think the political will exists in Washington to pass legislation that could include some kind of attacks on carbon? ”

“ Last September, when I gave my first speech on energy, I talked about how our dependence on oil is hurting our economy, decimating our auto industry, and costing us millions of jobs. A few months ago, I discussed how the oil we import is jeopardizing our national security by keeping us tied to the world’s most dangerous and unstable regimes. And when it comes to climate change, it’s the fossil fuels we insist on burning – particularly oil – that are the single greatest cause of global warming and the damaging weather patterns that have been its result. ”

“ Shortly before dusk I tossed the now-useless welder on top of the other junk and climbed onto the 'dozer and pulled out. There weren't any brakes on what was left of the tractor, but that would have to not matter. We were going to have to drive 'round the clock or not get there in time. A bulldozer is not a fast vehicle under any circumstances.
Logically, I couldn't see that we had much chance of covering eleven hundred miles in that rig, without having to make at least one stop quick enough to collapse the towbar and land the tractor on top of the 'dozer. ”

“ The six thousand years which we call the historical period is but the beat of a second on the clock of eternity, and what the historian calls primeval times is the latest and most recent period in the last of all the geologist's ages. For while the historian deals with revolutions of the sun of only 365 days, the geologist is only satisfied with thousands and millions of years. ”

“ The absolute settlement of the question must ever be above our powers. For a few centuries only we have the comparative daylight of historical times; thence backward lies the rapidly-gathering twilight of tradition; beyond that, geological periods the duration of which can be only vaguely guessed at, and beyond all these, far back in past eternity, the epoch when Time began. The old belief, which limited the existence of the earth to less than seven thousand years, gave way once for all, almost within living memory. ”

“ I can hope only to point out a few landmarks which may aid the geological adventurer in traversing the slippery and treacherous surface of the hypothetical ice-sheet of pleistocene times, and in avoiding the yawning crevasses by which it is traversed.
No conclusions of geology seem more certain than that great changes of climate have occurred in the course of geological time ”

“ The conception of the vast duration of geological time is one with which most persons are now more or less familiar. It is well to remember that great though the changes in human affairs have been since the most remote epochs of which there are records in monument or history, nothing indicates that within this period there has occurred any appreciable modification of the main outlines of land and sea, or of the conditions of climate, or of the general characters of living creatures. ”

“ Meteorology, the science of weather, and climatology, the science of climate, have progressed slowly, and for this reason various misconceptions and superstitions concerning weather and climate have persisted even to the present time. While much is still to be learned about the atmosphere it is already possible to disprove many of these false notions. ”

“ We'll get there all right. We'll get there about the time the people upstairs pile up on the landing strip that isn't there. Then we can use the 'dozer to give them a good, Christian burial.
"Hell, Marsh, there's no sense trying to do it that way. That hole can't be very big. If we take the mercury out of the 'dozer and add what we can find lying around on the sand, and then pour it back in and weld the hole shut, we'll be all right. We'll get there a day or two later, but that won't be nearly as bad as if we try to tow with the 'dozer. Then we can swap mercury again and use the 'dozer. ”

“ We must commence with the known data that the earth revolves on its axis in twenty-four hours, or, to be more exact, in 23 hours 56 minutes 4 seconds. Astronomical clocks recording with scientific exactitude this phenomenon are on a plane apart, as are chronometers used by mariners. The astronomer uses a clock with numbers on its dial plate up to twenty-four; the common clock has only twelve hour numerals.
To come straight to modernity, it must be recognized that the measurement of time scientifically and the measurement of time according to civil law are two different things. ”

“ Man, being more perfect than the sun, makes a clock that keeps regular time. Also, he calculates how far the sun is ahead of its schedule or behind. The difference between the sun’s position and the position where the sun ought to be if it were a decent, self-respecting sun, man calls the Equation of Time. Thus, the navigator endeavouring to find his ship’s position on the sea, looks in his chronometer to see where precisely the sun ought to be according to the Greenwich custodian of the sun. ”

“ Last year, the Vice President launched a new effort to help make communities more livable--so children will grow up next to parks, not parking lots, and parents can be home with their children instead of stuck in traffic. Tonight, we propose new funding for advanced transit systems-- for saving precious open spaces--for helping major cities around the Great Lakes protect their waterways and enhance their quality of life.
The greatest environmental challenge of the new century is global warming. Scientists tell us that the 1990s were the hottest decade of the entire millennium. ”

“ Admitting, then, that there is a truth at the bottom of the once current doctrines of catastrophism, still it remains certain that the history of the earth has been one of law in all past time, as it is now. Nor need we shrink back affrighted at the vastness of the conception—the vaster for its very vagueness—that we are thus compelled to form as to the duration of geological time. ”

“ It is useless to add century to century or millennium to millennium. When we pass a certain boundary-line, which, after all, is reached very soon, figures cease to convey to our finite faculties any real notion of the periods with which we have to deal. The astronomer can employ material illustrations to give form and substance to our conceptions of celestial space; but such a resource is unavailable to the geologist. ”

“ If continents are disappearing in one direction, they are rising into fresh existence in another. Though the ocean tears down the cliffs against which it beats, the earth takes its revenge by upheaving the ocean's bed. When we look back, by the help of geological science, to the more remote past, through the epochs preceding our own, we find complete evidence that the globe has passed in succession through an infinitude of anterior states, by means of small modifications extending over a vast period of time, but not differing in essentials from those which we now see to be going on. ”

“ To see how, following a definite plan, the vast continents have grown to their present size and form; to see how animal and vegetable life have evolved successively higher and higher forms; to see where in this wondrous drama of creation, this strange unfolding of life, the first faint, indecisive traces of man’s presence are to be found; to learn what great changes in climate, in Geogony, and in life, had occurred before man’s appearance, let us pass in brief review the history of early geological periods. ”

“ THE peculiar climate of geological times has hitherto been treated as if it were a question of temperature only. Scientists have sought the cause of the remarkable warmth in arctic regions, but have left untouched other questions of equal and perhaps greater importance. ”

“ Now the geologist's spirit is so broken, that when the supposed discovery of glacial epochs in Silurian and Devonian time is announced, he hardly raises a dissenting voice, and appears to be resigned to the occurrence of glacial epochs at almost any time in the history of the earth. The theory of ancient climatic uniformity is definitely abandoned, and we must accept fluctuations of climate from the earliest geologic record all through the history of our planet. ”

“ The physicists tell us that uniformity of action in all time is impossible, while the uniformitarians say that such a shortening of geological time as would follow on the acceptance of the physical argument is against all geological experience. Not only do these opinions clash, but those also concerning the rigidity of the earth and the thickness of its crust are widely divergent. ”

“ But, if the geologist revises his data either way, the biologist will simply accept the result, and occupy the time. He only says: "There, in the vast succession of rocks, is our proof of evolution as a matter of fact; the geologist and the physicist may settle the question of time between them, and inform us, if they can, how long it has taken." And what is there here of tacit concession that his case was weak as against the "teachings of physical astronomy?" ”

“ The history of each country must be studied for itself. A general history of the earth would be impossible. But this also is not true. There is therefore still another element.
3. From time to time, at long intervals—i.e., critical periods—there are widespread readjustments of the crust to internal strain, determining changes of physical geography and of climate, and therefore wide migrations of species with mingling and conflict of faunas. This would produce more rapid movement of evolution, but at the same time more or less complete obliteration of geographical diversity. ”

“ If the geologist shall persist in repeating, that the phenomena are incompatible with the history, our reply is, "Your science is still in its infancy—a science of a day, feebly beginning to collect facts, and still so weak as to enjoy the indulgence of extravagant conclusions. There have been a thousand theories of creation—each popular, arrogant, and self-satisfied, in its own time ”

“ The geologist, taking into consideration the rate at which deposits are formed and the rate at which denudation goes on upon the surface of the earth, arrives at certain more or less justifiable conclusions as to the time which is required for the deposit of a certain amount of rocks, and if he tells me that the tertiary formations required 500,000,000 years for their deposit, I suppose he has good ground for what he says, and I take that as the measure of the duration of the evolution of the horse from the Orohippus up to its present condition. ”

“ This paper mill, I have found, old as it is, measures but one beat of the pendulum on the great clock of geologic time, a clock that was wound up millions of years before man came on earth, and will continue to run for millions of years after the last human being has gone.
A heavy rainfall came on before I had finished my digging, and when I visit my paper mill again it is flooded with water. Both work and study are useless here at present, and I pass an hour watching the pool, and noting how the added water has increased the activity of the aquatic animals that make it their home. ”

“ It is obvious that, in this speculation, as in other problems now presenting themselves in anthropology, the question of the antiquity of man lies at the basis. Of late no great progress has been made toward fixing a scale of calculation of the human period, but the arguments as to time required for alterations in valley-levels, changes of fauna, evolution of races, languages, and culture, seem to converge more conclusively than ever toward a human period short indeed as a fraction of geological time, but long as compared with historical or chronological time. ”

“ It is clear that all the upheavals and submergences of land which have so impressed geologists with the immensity of time required for their execution can thus be accounted for within periods, stupendous indeed if compared to historical time, or even to the duration of man on the earth, but still conceivable by human imagination. The nightmare of subsidence and emergence need no longer oppress the geologist. He has only to remark surface-changes and see how far forces now at work are capable of effecting them, and, if so, how long they would take. ”

“ Geological terms convey to us no definite ideas as to the lapse of time, and we have an instinctive desire to substitute for them some term of years. In most cases this is impossible, as we have no means to measure the flight of past time, nor are we yet prepared to discuss the question of time, since to do so we must learn a great deal more about the cause of the Glacial Age. ”

“ At present our knowledge of a definite limit to geological time has so little precision that we should do wrong to reject summarily any theories which appear to demand longer periods of time than those which now seem allowable. In each branch of science hypothesis forms the nucleus for the aggregation of observation, and as long as facts are assimilated and co-ordinated we ought to follow our theory. ”

“ The time will come when the truly intelligent man cannot be happy, cannot be satisfied, when millions of his fellow-men are hungry and naked. The time will come when in every heart will be the perfume of pity's sacred flower. The time will come when the world will be anxious to ascertain the truth, to find out the conditions of happiness, and to live in accordance with such conditions; and the time will come when in the brain of every human being will be the climate of intellectual hospitality. ”