TURNING TO STONE

A story of a lifelong love for our “wise old planet.”

“Earth is vibrantly alive,” writes geologist Bjornerud, “and speaking to us all the time.” This she has believed since she first began working, though she has not always felt comfortable admitting it. Scientific orthodoxy demands a dispassionate and analytical approach; animism is taboo in the academy. Now, after several other geology books for general audiences (Reading the Rocks, Timefulness, Geopedia), Bjornerud has written the story of her deepening relationship to the idea of an “animate, sentient, and creative” Earth. Thirty years into her career, she is no longer wary of owning this belief. In fact, she argues, we may need it now more than ever. Our species is dangerously out of alignment with “the system that sustains it,” fantasizing about Mars or the "metaverse" as potential new human homes. If we were to understand that Earth is "distinguishe[d] from its lifeless siblings" by its sacraments and rituals—if we "came to think of ourselves as Earthlings with deep bonds of kinship with each other, and all components of nature”—we might get ourselves into sync with that system. Bjornerud would like readers to feel love for the Earth, but it can be difficult to get passionate about abstractions; her passion for the planet comes across most vividly in the book’s specifics. When Bjornerud explains in interesting, accessible language how plate tectonics makes Earth’s volcanoes different from those on Mars, how the appearance of vegetation altered the life cycle of sandstone, or what it is like to live in tents and study rocks in polar bear country under a midnight sun, readers can experience for themselves an earth scientist’s enthusiasm and joy in knowledge.

Urgent lessons about the Earth, told through one geologist’s career.