Three Concepts of Time: Why a Clock Does Not Tell us Everything About Time and Why One Can Miss Time

Despite numerous publications about time, which is so ubiquitous in people’s lives, it is not easy to say what time is. It is a constant companion, it is always there, even before and after our lives, even before and after the existence of humanity. Time is intuitive on one hand, we all have some sense of time, on the other hand, it is so complex that it is difficult to grasp time, to talk or write about it. Even the Roman bishop Augustine of Hippo (354–430 AD) expressed his difficulties in dealing with the concept of time: “What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is; but if I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know” (Augustine, 1980, p. 629). We will not be able to grasp time in its entirety in this chapter either. However, when dealing with environmental problems, it is necessary to think about time or develop a sense of time. Each of our climate goals refers to time, the drafting of (environmental) laws takes a certain amount of time, the often demanded industrial, societal and political change does not happen overnight, and the success or failure of movements like Fridays for Future is—at least in parts—dependent on the timing of the protest. We introduce three dimensions of time that are particularly important to consider when dealing with environmental problems. These are 1. the Chronos, 2. the inherent time and 3. the Kairos.