If you thought our influence on the environment was bad before... just imagine what it will be like when we are actually trying.

Agreed. I got lost right around here in the summary:

Maybe the paper has a really great argument to support this assertion, but it doesn't seem obvious to me.

Several of the sciences depend on extremely accurate timing. It's not a question of seconds lost over millions of years, but rather "how accurately can I time an event that is only a few nanoseconds long", or even better, "Exactly how far apart were these two events, even if the events are separated by hours, or days". It's misleading for the media to talk about timing in the way that they do, but apparently normal people's brains explode when someone says "nanosecond" or "parts per billion".

The object of a carpool lane is the object of a carpool lane. There can be no other.