Sketchnotes: Underland by Robert MacFarlane

If you like history, science, geology, geography, art, philosophy, nature, adventure … It’s all here. 

Robert MacFarlane’s book Underland: A Deep Time Journey is great introduction to incorporating geology and nature to your big picture thinking. The beauty of this book is that MacFarlane equally values the science and the arts while exploring exploring the mysteries of the planet and our place in it.

I also found this book to be a good read that didn’t leave me depressed and overwhelmed about climate change. Rather, it taught me new ways to appreciate Earth.

Below I’m sharing some of my favourite quotes from the book that I think I will carry with me for a long time. These quotes are in my sketchnotes but I’m also sharing here in case its hard to read and for accessibility.

We have proved to be good historians but poor futurologists. We have “BP” for Before Present and we have “MYA” for Millions Years Ago. We have no abbreviations for marking deep time in the future. No one speaks of “AP” for After Presents or “MYA” for Millions Years Ahead.

Robert MacFarlane, Underland: A Deep Time Journey.

I also did not know the debate among scientists around marking a new epoch – the Anthropocene. Humans current relationship with the planet has brought about some dark (and quite upsetting) concepts that highlight the imbalance that we are experiencing now that began in 1950 with the start of the Atomic Age.

Words are world makers and language is one of the great geological forces. This has generated some hopeless words for the epoch: geotraumatics, planetary dysphoria, apex-guilt.

Robert MacFarlane, Underland: A Deep Time Journey

And it taught me about the term Solastaligia, which is a form of psychic or existential distress from environmental change. I can identify with this term on a range of intensity. Level 10 when I read “On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal” by Naomi Klein… level 5 when I’m experiencing +4C in January during an Edmonton winter.

Despite what I just wrote, this book ‘keeps it real’ without overwhelming. MacFarlane writes beautiful passages of his travels in search of geological wonders and intertwines societal history with planetary history. It is completely engrossing and fascinating – I highly recommend it!

I learned all about:

• History of WWII and how it intertwined with geography in present-day Slovenia.
• Disposal plans for nuclear waste.
• Why particle research happens deep in mining caves in England.
• Melting of glaciers in Greenland and the scientific information found in ice that tells the story of deep time.
• The mycorrhizal network (or otherwise known as the “wood wide web”) in forests.
• Prehistoric Cave Art in France and Norway (PS – new cave art was just discovered in the Indonesia!)

Let’s end on a hopeful quote…

What might save us is a focus on collaboration: “symbiosis”, “mutualism”, and inclusive human work of collective decision making extended to more-than-human communities.

Robert MacFarlane, Underland: A Deep Time Journey.