In a dozen essays on life, Pieces Across Time tells a multilayered story that echoes highlights in the evolution of Earth and its inhabitants. Focus is the natural world and the spectrum of possibilities in the tool kit of human nature. This book provides important food for thought concerning the miracle of life on earth and the future of life as we know it.
The basic theme is life, the driving evolutionary force of nature across time, and humankind’s relationship with it. Nature is the interaction of all forms of life with everything inanimate, even rocks and minerals. Geoscience deals with all aspects of our earthly home, including its origin and ours, what came before us, how Earth has been shaped by us, and how, in turn, it has helped to shape us.
Memories fade, and, saddled with environmental amnesia, current conditions are viewed as more or less normal. Industrial society hones the disconnect between nature and human beings. Nature-based awareness is smothered by our passion for having, rather than being.
Long ago we made our stand as hunter-gatherers, whereas today the mass of humanity is the most powerful force affecting change on the planet. However, human nature has scarcely changed since the height of the last Ice Age, and attempts to manage our home on this small blue dot in the void are increasingly called into question. Ours is a fast-moving global society perched on the razor-thin edge of sudden change. From an ethical perspective our place in nature must be to serve as stewards of our living planet.
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