Geological Upheavals Research Articles

Deep Time and Microtime: Anthropocene Temporalities and Silicon Valley’s Longtermist Scope

Living in Anthropocene times entails living in relation to two seemingly separate temporalities – the microtime of digital operations and the deep time of geological upheaval. Though divergent, these temporalities are united by their unavailability to perception; microtime proceeds too fast to perceive directly, while deep time is too vast to apprehend. Taking these temporalities as a point of departure, this paper develops three arguments. First, it asserts that the temporalities of deep time and microtime increasingly impact contemporary existence, complicating familiar categorizations of temporal experience. Second, it argues that these ostensibly separate temporalities are ontologically connected through the operations of the tech industry, which is constructing a microtemporal system that extracts the planet’s deep time resources to delimit the future both materially and cognitively. Third, it suggests that Silicon Valley legitimizes these processes by funding the philosophy of longtermism, which appeals to distant timescales to marginalize injustices in the present.

Собрание сочинений Владимира Нарбута: архивы, тексты, подходы

The last lifetime poetry collection of Vladimir Narbut was published in 1922. Started by the poet in the 1930s, work on the preparation of the book of selected poems Spiral was interrupted by his arrest and, subsequently, tragic death in Kolyma in 1938. Since then, separate editions of Narbut’s works have been published three times: in 1983 the poet Leonid Chertkov compiled a collection Vladimir Narbut. Selected Poems in France; in 1990 N. Panchenko and N. Byalosinskaya published the book Vladimir Narbut. Poems in the USSR; in 2018 the OGI publishing house published the book Vladimir Narbut. Collected Works. Poems, Translations, Prose. The third, latest in nearly a hundred years, reference to the works of one of the most distinctive poets of the era in the context of preparing a separate collection of his oeuvre actualized the issue of developing approaches to be guided by when compiling the forthcoming collection. The key element here seemed to be the comprehension of the experience of preparing the previous separate editions of 1983 and 1990, as well as the scientifically commented publications of Narbut’s works made by researchers in the literary periodicals of the late 20th - early 21st centuries. The closest correlation of the tragic ups and downs of Narbut’s life with the “geological upheaval” of the 1917 Revolution and the Civil War led to the ambiguous dependence of the posthumous fate of the poet’s creative heritage on the context of the era, diametrically opposed and mutually exclusive attitudes in the perception of key events in Russian and world history of the 20th century. The preparation of Narbut’s collected works was planned in the interconnection of two directions: (1) the continuation of work to eliminate the “blank spots” in the poet’s biography, and (2) the formation of the most complete collection of Narbut’s fiction for the first time supplemented, in addition to poetic texts, with prose and translations. In preparation for the publication of Narbut’s literary texts included in the collected works, the issue of using a real commentary as the main approach in preparing notes was updated, taking into account the biographical, historical, literary, folklore, mythological, and linguistic aspects. Directions were set by the thorough work that began in the 1983 edition, and especially in the 1990 edition. The bulk of research on Narbutov’s texts and biographical facts was carried out in the funds of the Odessa Literary Museum and the Odessa National Library named after A.M. Gorky (Odessa periodicals of the 1920s), in state and private archives and funds of Moscow, including the Manuscript Department, the main and newspaper funds of the Russian State Library, in the department of manuscripts of the Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts, in the archives of the Federal Security Service, the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History, the State Archive of the Russian Federation.

Phylogenomic Analysis of Ultraconserved Elements Resolves the Evolutionary and Biogeographic History of Segmented Trapdoor Spiders.

The segmented trapdoor spiders (Liphistiidae) are the sole surviving family of the suborder Mesothelae, which forms the sister lineage to all other living spiders. Liphistiids have retained a number of plesiomorphic traits and their present-day distribution is limited to East and Southeast Asia. Studying this group has the potential to shed light on the deep evolutionary history of spiders, but the phylogeny and divergence times of the family have not been resolved with confidence. We performed phylogenomic and molecular dating analyses of 2765 ultraconserved element loci from 185 liphistiid taxa. Our analyses show that the crown group of Liphistiidae appeared in the mid-Cretaceous at 102 Ma (95% credibility interval 92-113 Ma), but it was not until the Neogene that much of the diversification within the family occurred in mainland Southeast and East Asia. This diversification was coincident with tectonic events such as the extension of the East Asian continental margin, as well as geological upheavals in Indochina induced by the collision between India and Asia. Our study highlights the important role of major tectonic events in shaping the evolutionary history, present-day diversity, and geographical distribution of mesothele and liphistiid spiders. [biogeography; concatenation; Liphistiidae; molecular dating; summary coalescent; UCEs.].

Looking Back at the Phenomenocene

This essay is conceived as a supplement to Masao Miyoshi’s only book of photography. Miyoshi was an avid traveler and photographer all his life. He called his practice “anti-photography” and left a book titled This Is Not Here (2009). His photographic images are interesting in many ways, surprisingly fresh and often beyond words. But what is essential about photography is the fact that photography is never controllable. Photography, by its nature, is anti-ethics and anti-aesthetics. My thoughts are about the world of phenomena, appearances, and bodiless ghosts. These come in a thousand layers around the surface of the globe to allow you to inhabit within this shapeless realm, or a realm with too many shapes. Just like geological upheaval, this regime of images offers a new era that might be called the phenomenocene. This is our commonplace, our common destiny.

Molecular systematics of the Triplophysa robusta (Cobitoidea) complex: Extensive gene flow in a depauperate lineage

Gene flow between populations assumed to be isolated frequently leads to incorrect inferences of evolutionary history. Understanding gene flow and its causes has long been a key topic in evolutionary biology. In this study, we explored the evolutionary history of the Triplophysa robusta complex, using a combination of multilocus analyses and coalescent simulation. Our multilocus approach detected conspicuous mitonuclear discordances in the T. robusta complex. Mitochondrial results showed reticular clades, whereas the nuclear results corresponded with the morphological data. Coalescent simulation indicated that gene flow was the source of these discordances. Molecular clock analysis combined with geological processes suggest that intense geological upheavals have shaped a complicated evolutionary history for the T. robusta complex since the late Miocene, causing extensive gene flow which has distorted the molecular systematics of the T. robusta complex. We suggest that frequent gene flow may restrict speciation in the T. robusta complex, leading to such a depauperate lineage. Based on this comprehensive understanding, we provide our proposals for taxonomic revision of the T. robusta complex.

Strangers on Familiar Soil: Rediscovering the Chile-California Connection by Edward Dallam Melillo

<i>Strangers on Familiar Soil: Rediscovering the Chile-California Connection</i> by Edward Dallam Melillo

India-Madagascar vicariance explains cascade beetle biogeography

India and Madagascar drifted apart more than 80 Mya, yet few taxonomic groups currently found in these regions bear any signature of this split. When drifting in isolation, extensive volcanic activity covered almost half of India in lava flows, likely triggering widespread extinction on the island. Consequently, most of India's rich extant flora and fauna are considered to be the result of recent Cenozoic dispersal, and no lineages are conclusively a result of ancient vicariance. Many of Madagascar's lineages also stem from either Cenozoic diversification or dispersal events, with the latter being a result of the close proximity of the island with mainland Africa. In the present study, we focus on two remarkable lineages of cascade beetles in the genera Scoliopsis and Tritonus (Coleoptera, Hydrophilidae), respectively, dwelling in the mountains of south India and Sri Lanka, as well as in Madagascar. Based on a molecular phylogeny of the family Hydrophilidae dated with eight fossils, we show that these two lineages are sister taxa, and diverged when Madagascar and Greater India (India, Sri Lanka, Seychelles) separated, suggesting a pattern of Gondwanean vicariance. The results of the present study show that, despite geological upheaval, the present-day fauna of India still retains traces of its Gondwanan past.

RadioQuake: Getting back ‘on air’ after the Christchurch earthquakes

Abstract Local independent radio stations in Christchurch, New Zealand, had their operations severely disrupted by major earthquakes in September 2010 and February 2011. This article examines the experiences of three radio stations that were shut out of their central city premises by the cordon drawn around the city after the 22 February quake. One of the stations continued broadcasting automatically, while the others were unable to fully get back on air for several weeks afterwards. All of the stations had to manage access to workspaces, the emotional needs of staff and volunteers, the technical ability to broadcast, and the need to adapt content appropriately when back on air. For the locally based radio managers decisions had to be made about the future of the stations in a time of significant emotional, physical, and geological upheaval. The article explores how these radio stations were disrupted by the earthquake, and how they returned to air through new combinations and interconnections of people, workspace, technology, content and transmission.

Neotropical Plant Evolution: Assembling the Big Picture

This paper and this issue attempt to address how, when and why the phenomenal c. 100,000 species of seed plants in tropical America (the Neotropics) arose. It is increasingly clear that an approach focusing on individual major biomes rather than a single aggregate view is useful because of evidence for differing diversification histories among biomes. Phylogenetic evidence suggests that Neotropical-scale diversification patterns are structured more ecologically than geographically, with a key role for phylogenetic niche or biome conservatism. Lower geographical structure reflects the fact that long-distance dispersal, inferred from dated phylogenetic trees, has overcome many supposed dispersal barriers. Overall, high rates of species turnover as inferred from palaeontological and molecular data have been the hallmark of plant evolutionary dynamics in the Neotropics throughout the Cenozoic, with most extant species diversity post-dating the Mid- to Late Miocene, perhaps reflecting the conjunction of both global climatic changes and geological upheavals such as the Neogene uplift of the tropical Andes. Future studies of Neotropical diversification will be facilitated by taxonomically and genetically better sampled phylogenetic analyses, their integration with palaeontological, geological and ecological data, and improved methods to estimate biogeographic history and diversification dynamics at different spatial and temporal scales. Future biome-focused approaches would benefit greatly from better delimitation and mapping of Neotropical biomes. (c) 2012 The Linnean Society of London

基于线粒体控制区序列的黄河上游厚唇裸重唇鱼种群遗传结构

Gymnodiptychus pachycheilus,one of the endemic Schizothoracin fishes,is peculiar to China and mainly distributed in plateau lakes and rivers of the Yellow River on the Northeast Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.During the long evolutionary history,G.pachycheilus is characterized by slow growth rate,low fecundity,and late sexual maturation as adaptations to their rigorous environment.However,these life-history characteristics make it particularly sensitive to factors such as habitat destruction/alteration,climate change,biological invasions,pollution.Overexploitation is also likely to be having considerable effects on the species survival.To access the genetic diversity,genetic structure and population dynamics of G.pachycheilus,the control region DNA sequences of G.pachycheilus were checked and compared with the homologous sequences of 81 individuals,including 71 individuals from Maqu county,and 10 individuals retrieved from GenBank sampled from Guide county and Maduo county.And 729 bp length sequences were defined for 81 individuals.Sequence analysis results showed that there were only 26 variable sites,including 3 single variable sites and 23 parsimony informative sites.No site was found that had alignment gaps or missing data.The samples fall into 34 haplotypes,with only 0.844 haplotype diversity and 0.0054 nucleotide diversity.There was no geographic clustering observed in the haplotype network,haplotype H2 distributed most widely and on 32 samples(38.27%) from the Maqu county population.H2,H14,H23 were shared by all the three population.The median-joining network produced a complex pattern with no obvious phylogeographic structure.Although H2 was in the center,the network showed little evidence for overt phylogeographic structure and showed star-like radiation.The Fu′s Fs test,the distribution of pairwise differences and the network analysis indicate that G..pachycheilus in the research had experienced certain population expansion events,which is consistent with the hypothesis that the headwater area of the Yellow River was dramatically affected by the geological and climatic upheaval during the Pleistocene.Analysis of molecular variance(AMOVA) showed that 93.53% of the total genetic variance was contributed by the within groups variation and only 6.47% contributed by the among-groups variation(Fst= 0.0647,P0.05).Fst analyses produced similar results that significant Fst values were detected between Mq vs.Gd population.No significant(P0.05) genetic differences were found either within or between the different populations,indicating weak genetic structure among the three populations.Mismatch distribution and neutrality tests indicated that G.pachycheilus in this research had experienced population expansion.Our analysis indicated by mtDNA control region as the first approach to understand the genetic diversity of G.pachycheilus.We suggest that all the three populations should be managed and conserved as a whole.In situ conservation is first recommended to protect its original habitat from further destruction.The conservation of the unique habitat of G.pachycheilus is essential for the survival of the species.

Roman Neapolis and the Landscape of Disaster

Looking westward from Pompeii and Herculaneum, this paper examines the effects that geological upheavals – particularly earthquakes and the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 – had on the city and territory of Neapolis, just a few miles from the centers of disaster. Equal attention is given to literary and epigraphic sources on the one hand, and to geological research on the other.

Helping Haiti

The earthquakes devastating Haiti are an unpredictable but probably inevitable geological upheaval; however, the deaths, suffering and social misery that follow are not. Like a nightmare, we witness another disaster there, begin to prop the country up and prepare to wait for the next catastrophe.

Timing of morphological and ecological innovations in the cyanobacteria – a key to understanding the rise in atmospheric oxygen

When cyanobacteria originated and diversified, and what their ancient traits were, remain critical unresolved problems. Here, we used a phylogenomic approach to construct a well-resolved 'core' cyanobacterial tree. The branching positions of four lineages (Thermosynechococcus elongatus, Synechococcus elongatus, Synechococcus PCC 7335 and Acaryochloris marina) were problematic, probably due to long branch attraction artifacts. A consensus genomic tree was used to study trait evolution using ancestral state reconstruction (ASR). The early cyanobacteria were probably unicellular, freshwater, had small cell diameters, and lacked the traits to form thick microbial mats. Relaxed molecular clock analyses suggested that early cyanobacterial lineages were restricted to freshwater ecosystems until at least 2.4 Ga, before diversifying into coastal brackish and marine environments. The resultant increases in niche space and nutrient availability, and consequent sedimentation of organic carbon into the deep oceans, would have generated large pulses of oxygen into the biosphere, possibly explaining why oxygen rose so rapidly. Rapid atmospheric oxidation could have destroyed the methane-driven greenhouse with simultaneous drawdown in pCO(2), precipitating 'Snowball Earth' conditions. The traits associated with the formation of thick, laminated microbial mats (large cell diameters, filamentous growth, sheaths, motility and nitrogen fixation) were not seen until after diversification of the LPP, SPM and PNT clades, after 2.32 Ga. The appearance of these traits overlaps with a global carbon isotopic excursion between 2.2 and 2.1 Ga. Thus, a massive re-ordering of biogeochemical cycles caused by the appearance of complex laminated microbial communities in marine environments may have caused this excursion. Finally, we show that ASR may provide an explanation for why cyanobacterial microfossils have not been observed until after 2.0 Ga, and make suggestions for how future paleobiological searches for early cyanobacteria might proceed. In summary, key evolutionary events in the microbial world may have triggered some of the key geologic upheavals on the Paleoproterozoic Earth.

A natural history of conifers

Conifers are the most diverse, interesting, beautiful trees in the world, so why is it that our gardens are home to so few species? Part of the reason lies in their economic importance which, by focusing attention on relatively few species, has limited our understanding of one of the most remarkable plant groups on earth. Leading expert Aljos Farjon provides a broader perspective with this compelling narrative that observes conifers from the standpoint of the curious naturalist. It starts with the basic question of what conifers are and continues to explore their evolution, taxonomy, ecology, distribution, human uses, and issues of conservation. As the story unfolds many popular misconceptions are dispelled, such as the notion that all conifers have cones (untrue), and the extraordinary diversity of conifers begins to dawn as Farjon describes the diminutive creeping shrub Microcachrys tetragona, whose strange seed cones resemble raspberries, and the prehistoric-looking Araucaria meulleri. The taxonomic diversity of conifers is huge and Farjon goes on to relate how, over the course of 300 million years, these trees and shrubs have adapted to survive geological upheavals, climatic extremes, and formidable competition from flowering plants. Scarcely less remarkable is his explanation of how conifers, with only 627 species, grew to occupy every continent on earth ranging from the high latitudes to the tropics. This illuminating review will fascinate plant lovers who wish to discover the extraordinary relatives of ordinary garden conifers, natural historians, who will relish seeing conifers reviewed in a broad context, and all who seek to learn more about the early history of life on our planet.

Genetic constitution and diversity in four narrow endemic redwoods from the family Cupressaceae

The genetic constitution and diversity of four relictual redwoods are discussed in this review. These include monotypic genera of the family Cupressaceae: coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum), dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides), and alerce (Fitzroya cupressoides). All four species are narrow endemics, share a number of common phenotypic traits, including red wood, and are threatened species. Fossil history suggests that the ancestors of redwoods probably originated during the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods and flourished thereafter for millions of years. Towards the end of the Tertiary period began their decline and struggle for existence that continued during the subsequent geologic upheavals and climate changes, until the survival of the present-day redwoods in the current restricted locations in the world (USA, China, and South America). Although two species, Sequoiadendron and Metasequoia, are diploids (2n = 22), and the other two are polyploids: Fitzroya a tetraploid (2n = 4x = 44), and Sequoia a hexaploid (2n = 6x = 66); they all share the same basic chromosome number x = 11. The genome size in the hexaploid Sequoia is one of the largest (31,500 MB) in the conifers, while the genome sizes of diploid Metasequoia and Sequoiadendron are about one-third (~10,000 MB) of Sequoia. Genetic diversity in the redwoods is lower than most other gymnosperms, except in Sequoia, which seems to rank near the upper quarter of the coniferous forest trees. Genomic research is sparse in the redwoods, and should be pursued for a better understanding of their genome structure, function, and adaptive genetic diversity.

Marc Bloch, strange defeat, the historian's craft and World War II: Writing and teaching contemporary history

The roles of small and great books, and passionate yet well-considered writings in the general education of a “college” or “university” trained teacher are questions which should be turned back upon the historian as teacher and writer. Where resides the historian's classroom? Who are the students and how do (and did) teachers come to be? What subject matter should be used to prod and provoke an often dormant humanity awake? Professor Marc Bloch's work, his passion for history's rôles and its voices from the past speaking to the present, had a Renaissance in the cauldron of World War II. Bloch's commitment to teaching and writing history, teaching about the forceful, or surprising and shocking, “presences” of history's supposed past-tense experiences, remains seminal to the historian's craft. Bloch's own voice from the past was forged in an intensity of present-time experience. Reflection was searing experience. Memory was “now” and remembrance was an accident of preservation for futures then unknown. These futures need to know of the experiences of former, fragile, personal and generational memories if the very same futures were to be lived more surely and securely. Marc Bloch's The Historian's Craft (or, more accurately, Explanatory Defence for History or Craft of the Historian = Apologie pour l’histoire, ou Métier d’historien, original French title and abbreviation = A.P.H.), remains a vindication of the human-centred, purposive roles of history in a general education. Moreover, this general education can now be said to cover (if not embrace) the broad sweep of “secondary schooling” experiences. This sweep of schooling and post-schooling experiences is beginning, however tentatively and problematically, to extend itself into worlds of work, the futures of work and the academic futures or courses (what once might have been termed optimistically “the progress”) of higher education: the arena of tertiary and university education. In a not dissimilar fashion but in an even more intense spirit, Bloch's work, L’étrange défaite (E.D. = Strange Defeat: manuscript “finished” July–September 1940), examines the explosion and implosion of France and, in effect, Western Europe in the years, months and days leading up to the German offensive in the West of 10 May 1940. Bloch recognized that education and the failures to harness intellect, true intellectual freedom and innovative teaching weighed heavily upon the disastrous course of events in 1940. Professor Bloch's texts can serve two complementary purposes. First, his works, Strange Defeat and The Historian's Craft remain as significant, contemporary records of personal thoughts, argumentative methodologies, and recollections of world-shattering events. They constitute, quite literally, an historian's craft in action. Second, Bloch's texts can serve an equally valuable role where the writer seeks to take his reader (who might or might not be a fellow citizen) through and beyond the immediate historical question, methodology or series of unravelling events into an intellectual duel which stands upon the historian's engagement with worlds, past and present. Questions and actions, makings and doings matter in this world. Understanding is not only a prime responsibility of the historian; it is a duty which might well prove dangerous. Given the above observations, this essay will seek to emphasize that world history and the teaching of broad histories of humanity recognizes few, if any, borders which seek to block or hold at bay the presentation of the “passport” known as understanding. Teaching history is much more than teaching civics (however well-intentioned) or recognizing civilizational variety and its barbarous opposites. Teaching history is an act, however imperfect, of recognizing ourselves in time. (i) My brother (fraternal) “schoolmasters”—when it came to the point, you did, for the most part, put up a magnificent fight. It was your goodwill which managed to create in many a sleepy secondary school, in many universities—prisoners of the worse routines (habitual practices or routinism—) the only form of education of which, perhaps, we can feel genuinely proud. I only hope that a day will come, and come soon, a day of glory and of happiness for France, when, liberated from the enemy, and freer than ever in our intellectual life, we may meet again for the mutual discussion of ideas. And when that happens, do you not think that, having learned from an experience so dearly purchased, you will find much to alter in the things you were teaching only a few years back? Strange Defeat, 142).1 (ii) What was at stake was a geological upheaval of thought …2

Précis of Upheavals of Thought*

Emotions shape the landscape of our mental and social lives. Like the geological a traveler might discover in a landscape where recently only a flat plane could be seen, they mark our lives as uneven, uncertain, and prone to reversal. Why and how? Is it because emotions are animal energies or impulses that have no connection with our thoughts, imaginings, and appraisals? In the passage from which my title is taken, Proust denies this, calling the emotions geological upheavals of thought. In other words, what changes the Baron's mind from a flat plane into a mountain range is not some subterranean jolt, but the thoughts he has about Charlie Morel, a person who has suddenly become central to his well-being, and whom he sees as inscrutable, undependable, and utterly beyond his control. It is these thoughts about value and importance that make his mind project outward like a mountain range, rather than sitting inert in self-satisfied ease. Upheavals argues that emotions are evaluative appraisals that ascribe high importance to things and people that lie outside the agent's own sphere of control. This thesis, associated with the ancient Greek and Roman Stoics, is first developed in a general, and deliberately preliminary, way. Dissecting a complex example of grief and mourning, I argue that emotions involve focus on an object and beliefs about the object. These beliefs are both evaluative and eudaimonistic, i.e. made from the viewpoint of the person's own most important goals and projects. While feelings and bodily states are typically involved in emotions, I argue that no specific feeling or bodily state should be included as a necessary element in the definition of a type of emotion, both because of the variety with which a single emotion is realized in different people and because of the fact that emotions can be non-conscious. Thus evaluation is central to defining a type of emotion (e.g. grief) in a way that feeling is not.

Mass extinctions: what can the past tell us about the present and the future?

The biosphere is undergoing a series of environmental perturbations whose impacts are collectively exceeding all but the greatest geologic upheavals of the prehistoric past. Among these current impacts is a mass extinction that portends the elimination of a large proportion, perhaps as many as half, of all species now extant. The predominant driving force behind the present-day perturbations is made up of two factors: growth in human numbers and growth in human consumerism. Since the start of this century human numbers have increased threefold, growth in human consumption of fossil-fuel energy has increased 12-fold, and growth in the global economy has increased 29-fold (Brown et al., 1989; World Resources Institute, 1989). The most rapid growth has occurred in just the past few decades. Of this century's economic growth, four-fifths has taken place since 1950; and the expansion of the global economy in 1988 and 1989, $600 billion, has been as great as was the entire economy in the year 1900. As a result of these various forms of growth in the human enterprise, along with inappropriate technologies and deficient economic policies, the biosphere now suffers from a lengthening list of environmental assaults: widespread pollution such as acid rain, soil erosion, tropical deforestation, spread of deserts and decline of water supplies, to name but the main forms of environmental degradation and biospheric impoverishment. Also underway are depletion of the ozone layer and the greenhouse effect. To comprehend the scope of our overburdening of the biosphere, consider the capacity of humankind to feed its present total of over 5 billion people. If we all lived off a basically vegetarian diet and shared our food supplies equally around the world, the biosphere could support roughly 6 billion people. If the diet were upgraded until 15% of calories were derived from animal products, making it the equivalent of what many South Americans consume today, the global total would be only 4 billion. Were the diet to be further improved to a full but healthy level with 25% of calories derived from animal products, being the equivalent of what many people in southern Europe consume today, the total would fall to 3 billion; and if the level included 35% of calories from animal products, or the equivalent of today's average North American diet, the total would be a mere 2.5 billion (Kates et al., 1989). Of course we can hope that better agro-technologies will improve the prospect. But despite the exceptional technological feats of the past few decades, the 1988 harvest worldwide was about 5% smaller than the 1985 harvest--while the global population was 5% percent larger (Ornstein and Ehrlich, 1989). Hence the present throngs of humankind press ever-harder upon the planetary ecosystem. To summarize the situation through an alternative analysis, humankind now co-opts some 40% of

Religious Advance in Fifty Years

The present day might seem a most unfavorable time for calm review or for any attempt to see the past in true perspective. The earth-shaking events beyond the sea distort our vision and confuse our judgment, as a violent wind sweeping over a lake shatters the reflection of all objects on the shore. Yet at just such a time we may see most clearly, because the tremendous issues now forced upon the world release us from those petty questions which so often befog religious men. Superficial things are being sloughed off, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Times of crisis should be times of understanding. The most noteworthy element in the religious advance of the last fifty years is the general diffusion of the idea that advance in religion is desirable. Darwin's great book was published fiftyseven years ago-the work of one of the most modest, patient, open-minded men of the nineteenth century. As a result of his ideas-received at first with indignation, then with ridicule, then with quiet readjustment of old ways of thinking-we learned to think in terms of time rather than in terms of space. Religion before his day was largely spatial in its conceptions. It conceived the world as a finished article, heaven as a distant place, revelation as completed in an oriental province, the second coming as an apparition in the clouds, the final judgment as a geological upheaval and a rending of the sky. Such a world was pictured by Milton as though laid out with a pair of celestial compasses. By Bunyan it was conceived as a road leading from a City of Destruction to a Celestial City-both cities being fixed in position and unchangeable in character. Hence religion was static, an adjustment of one's self

Geological Subsidence and Upheaval

SIR J. HERSCHEL thought that the earth's crust floats upon an ocean of molten matter, and that the washing of detritus from the land into the sea, by altering the relative weight of different portions of the shell, occasions a subsidence of the ocean's bed and an upheaval of the land, which may be either gradual and insensible, like the process of denudation, or spasmodic and by fits and starts producing earthquakes and sometimes volcanic eruptions.