Ecological time scales vary across species and landforms

Evidence

Time as objective reality has never made much sense to me. It’s what happens that matters. How can minutes and years, devices of our own creation, mean the same thing to gnats and to cedars? Two hundred years is young for the trees whose tops this morning are hung with mist. It’s an eyeblink of time for the river and nothing at all for the rocks. The rocks and the river and these very same trees are likely to be here in another two hundred years, if we take good care. As for me, and that chipmunk, and the cloud of gnats milling in a shaft of sunlight—we will have moved on. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 1093

Categorization

• XREF: Relational over metric time echoes the polyad’s land/place thread and ch49 on circular time as prophecy; strong bridge concept for Eco-Justice. — connects to: Diversified flexibility confers resilience in unpredictable environments across scales — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural…, 343
• DEEPTHINKING: Compresses the book’s whole temporal argument into one passage: responsibility bound to deep time (‘if we take good care’) reframes stewardship.

Broader Connections

• Diversified flexibility confers resilience in unpredictable environments across scales #expands (0.72) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss, 343