Five Billion Years of Change: A History of the Land
Encyclopedia
Five Billion Years of Change: A History of the Land is a book by Denis Wood
that attempts a holistic
view of reality that ranges from the Big Bang
to the World Wide Web
. Specifically, this books deals with the formation of various structures:
A key theme is repeated through this book: humans have a tendency to divide our understandings into "history
" and "prehistory
". People are shocked when some event from prehistory intrudes upon their current lives; Wood likens the shock of this intrusion to an expulsion from the Garden of Eden
. This division is a metaphor for various artificial divisions; for example:
Instead of thinking in terms of artificial divisions of "now" and "back then", readers should develop an intuitive mindset of graduated changes in which the "fossil
s" of the ancient past are intermingled with contemporary objects; for instance, the "oxygen holocaust
" of the paleoproterozoic
eon exists in today's oxygen-rich atmosphere.
Also, the hero
ic saga induces another faulty thinking style that obscures the true nature of the world. To understand the real story of humanity, Wood argues that people must focus on the mass actions of people or of large impersonal forces rather than a few heroes or kings. Hollywood movies dealing with ecological threats are especially misleading; rather than imparting an accurate image of ecological issues, movies present a villain
such as a mad scientist
or a greedy, evil business
person. Instead, such entertainment and much news reporting distracts us from our individual actions that are at the heart of ecological problems.
Inaccurate ways of thinking induce a passive helplessness
. Instead, by presenting a sweeping story of successive, interlinked, long term trends, the author hopes to give readers a flexible, authentic model
of the world. With that model, readers will be capable of understanding (and possibly dealing with) current global challenges.
Denis Wood
Denis Wood is an artist, author, cartographer and a former professor of Design at North Carolina State University. Born in 1945, Wood grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, receiving a BA in English from then Western Reserve University . He received an MA and a PhD in geography from Clark University, in...
that attempts a holistic
Holism
Holism is the idea that all the properties of a given system cannot be determined or explained by its component parts alone...
view of reality that ranges from the Big Bang
Big Bang
The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model that explains the early development of the Universe. According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe was once in an extremely hot and dense state which expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion caused the young Universe to cool and resulted in...
to the World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
. Specifically, this books deals with the formation of various structures:
- the universeUniverseThe Universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space. Definitions and usage vary and similar terms include the cosmos, the world and nature...
- the EarthEarthEarth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
and its atmosphereEarth's atmosphereThe atmosphere of Earth is a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth that is retained by Earth's gravity. The atmosphere protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation, warming the surface through heat retention , and reducing temperature extremes between day and night...
, oceanOceanAn ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...
s, and continentContinentA continent is one of several very large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents—they are : Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.Plate tectonics is...
s - the origin of life
- the evolution of humanHumanHumans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
s - the development of agricultureAgricultureAgriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
- the rise and fall of civilizationCivilizationCivilization is a sometimes controversial term that has been used in several related ways. Primarily, the term has been used to refer to the material and instrumental side of human cultures that are complex in terms of technology, science, and division of labor. Such civilizations are generally...
s - contemporary globalizationGlobalizationGlobalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
A key theme is repeated through this book: humans have a tendency to divide our understandings into "history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
" and "prehistory
Prehistory
Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...
". People are shocked when some event from prehistory intrudes upon their current lives; Wood likens the shock of this intrusion to an expulsion from the Garden of Eden
Garden of Eden
The Garden of Eden is in the Bible's Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God. Literally, the Bible speaks about a garden in Eden...
. This division is a metaphor for various artificial divisions; for example:
- the formation of the earth, the pre-biotic chemistry, and the origin of life
- before the Industrial RevolutionIndustrial RevolutionThe Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
and our subsequent modern era
Instead of thinking in terms of artificial divisions of "now" and "back then", readers should develop an intuitive mindset of graduated changes in which the "fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
s" of the ancient past are intermingled with contemporary objects; for instance, the "oxygen holocaust
Oxygen Catastrophe
The Great Oxygenation Event , also called the Oxygen Catastrophe or Oxygen Crisis or Great Oxidation, was the biologically induced appearance of free oxygen in Earth's atmosphere. This major environmental change happened around 2.4 billion years ago.Photosynthesis was producing oxygen both before...
" of the paleoproterozoic
Paleoproterozoic
The Paleoproterozoic is the first of the three sub-divisions of the Proterozoic occurring between . This is when the continents first stabilized...
eon exists in today's oxygen-rich atmosphere.
Also, the hero
Hero
A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion...
ic saga induces another faulty thinking style that obscures the true nature of the world. To understand the real story of humanity, Wood argues that people must focus on the mass actions of people or of large impersonal forces rather than a few heroes or kings. Hollywood movies dealing with ecological threats are especially misleading; rather than imparting an accurate image of ecological issues, movies present a villain
Villain
A villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters...
such as a mad scientist
Mad scientist
A mad scientist is a stock character of popular fiction, specifically science fiction. The mad scientist may be villainous or antagonistic, benign or neutral, and whether insane, eccentric, or simply bumbling, mad scientists often work with fictional technology in order to forward their schemes, if...
or a greedy, evil business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
person. Instead, such entertainment and much news reporting distracts us from our individual actions that are at the heart of ecological problems.
Inaccurate ways of thinking induce a passive helplessness
Learned helplessness
Learned helplessness, as a technical term in animal psychology and related human psychology, means a condition of a human person or an animal in which it has learned to behave helplessly, even when the opportunity is restored for it to help itself by avoiding an unpleasant or harmful circumstance...
. Instead, by presenting a sweeping story of successive, interlinked, long term trends, the author hopes to give readers a flexible, authentic model
Model (physical)
A physical model is a smaller or larger physical copy of an object...
of the world. With that model, readers will be capable of understanding (and possibly dealing with) current global challenges.