This variation in the shape of the elliptical orbit has a distinct periodicity of approximately 100,000 years. At times it is more circular, and at other times it is more elliptical. ![]() Milutin Milankovitch, one of my scientific heroes whom I will discuss later, determined that the elliptical path that Earth carves around the sun varies. This is only 3.4 percent of Earth history, but it is still a big number, so let’s pare it down some more. We have now determined that the Entrada Sandstone was deposited from approximately 162 to 165 million years ago, 4 so the Entrada Sandstone has been around for at least 162 million years. The Entrada Sandstone has created the splendor of Arches National Park, Goblin Valley and Kodachrome Basin state parks, and other spectacular scenery in Utah. Can we even comprehend what one billion years is? That is a very difficult task, so let’s pare it down.įor several years my students and I have been engaged in studying a Jurassic-age formation in Utah’s Colorado Plateau. For example, with solid evidence geoscientists contend that Earth is approximately 4.7 billion years old-assuming time as we know it. We geologists commonly throw around big numbers relative to time and the age of Earth. The questions resurface: What is my stewardship over my time on Earth? and How will I use it?Īs a geoscientist I have thought a lot about time. Maybe we should take better care of it. Indeed, just like fossil fuels, it is a precious commodity and a finite resource. May I suggest that time on Earth is pretty precious. In fact, in viewing our tiny blue planet from space, he said, “It underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the only home we’ve ever known: the pale blue dot.” 2īefore his premature death due to myelodysplasia, 3 Carl Sagan suggested that life on Earth is pretty precious and that we should take care of our planet. This concept was easy enough for LDS people to grasp yet after a lifetime of study, Sagan found no solid evidence for extraterrestrial life. Carl Sagan, the author and great spokesman for the television series Cosmos, used to browbeat us by telling us that we as humankind are arrogant to assume that there is not life beyond our planet, given the immensity of space and the universe. Today for a few moments I would like us to consider these same questions relative to our time on Earth-this short mortal existence. 1 This then begs the following questions: What is my stewardship of this resource? and How will I use it? Yet it is estimated that, starting from the Industrial Revolution, it will take humankind only 300 years to deplete this finite resource-a blip on even the human-history timescale. It has taken Mother Nature millions of years to deposit, generate, migrate, and trap this precious commodity in the rocks buried deeply beneath Earth’s surface. Yet fossil fuels are also a finite resource. To all of us, fossil fuels are a precious commodity. This alone would make fossil fuels a precious commodity, but in our modern hydrocarbon society, many of us also use them to heat our homes, cook our pancakes, and warm our morning showers. Think of it: we can dump a little bit of gasoline in a tank, start up an engine, pile ten people (or undergraduates, as the case may be) into an 8,000-pound van, and drive up a mountainside at seventy miles per hour-simply by depressing a pedal a couple of inches. I will be forever in their debt, for they shared their time with me-and time is one of the most precious commodities of this life.Īs a petroleum geologist, I am awed by the power of fossil fuels. ![]() These people have believed in me and have given me a chance. I, like you, have many heroes: the great coaches and teachers I have had, my PhD advisor, my colleagues, my brother and sister, my great parents, my sons, my sweetheart, and many, many others. To illustrate some aspects of time, I wish to tell you about a few of my heroes-one from the Book of Mormon, one from the field of science, and one who is very personal. ![]() Today I would like to share some thoughts about time. I pray the Spirit may dwell with all of us.
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