This chapter starts by distinguishing between the primitive and conservative equations of MHD in 1-D, emphasising that the former deal only with continuous flow, whereas the latter admit flow discontinuities. The first application is to MHD waves including Alfvén, slow, fast, and magneto-acoustical waves. An intuitive analogy is given describing what one might experience in an MHD atmosphere when a “thunder clap” occurs. The MHD Rankine–Hugoniot jump conditions for MHD are introduced and solved (using difference theory) revealing tangential/contact/rotational discontinuities and, most importantly, shock waves including slow, intermediate, and fast shocks. In the context of the not strictly hyperbolic nature of the MHD equations, both the entropy and evolutionary conditions are used to determine the physicality and uniqueness of the shock solution. Finally, discussion of MHD shocks includes the special cases of switch-on/off shocks and Euler shocks.

The Introduction provides a theoretical and conceptual framework of the book by defining ecological disequilibrium and slow violence. It also provides a historiographical discussion on collective violence against Armenians in the late Ottoman Empire.

Mark Goble uses the concept of convergence to explore the implications of formal and temporal compression, economy, and slowness in an age of unprecedented expansion and speedup. Richard McGuire’s Here presents an extreme example of spatial restriction and temporal expansion, while novels by Ruth Ozeki, Richard Powers, and William Gibson juxtapose ecological, scientific, technological, and theological timespans to human ones in ways that echo postmodern and science fiction precursors, but with very different aims and warnings in mind for denizens of the Anthropocene.