One of the core issues that the Year of Science addresses is why science matters, so it seems apropos to start off my guest posts for October's theme of Geosciences and Planet Earth with the question, "why do the Geosciences matter?"
While there are a number of answers, the one I want to focus on is that humankind lives and dies by the geosciences.
And you don't have to go far at all to see why this is so. Pick up a newspaper (or for most people, turn on television news) and you will find headlines about climate change, natural resources (including energy), natural disasters, water, and sustainability of our ecosystem. These are all issues where Earth scientists are playing important if not central roles in characterizing the problems, and seeking responses and solutions to them.
As I waited to board a plane this morning, I saw news videos of a landslide in Italy that killed dozens. Combined with this week's news of multiple devastating earthquakes across the south Pacific, with death tolls growing rapidly, these are very grim examples of one reason why Earth science matters.
I was at the at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst today, giving talks including one on Earth fissures, a geologic hazard that has developed only in the last 60 years, as a result of basin subsidence caused by unnaturally huge drops in groundwater tables from over-pumping for agriculture and urbanization. Groundwater tables don't normally decline hundreds of feet in the matter of a few decades, so we have not seen Earth fissures in the geologic record. As a result, we don't have complete understanding of how they form and more importantly, how to predict or mitigate them to prevent threats to lives and property.
Yesterday I had a great tour of the now seven-year old Office of the State Geologist of Massachusetts, headed by Dr. Steve Mabee. The Office is transitioning to become the Massachusetts Geological Survey and dealing with a broad range of societal issues related to groundwater, energy, resources, etc, that need good objective science to help make important decisions. One of the requests they responded to was to predict the impact of rising seas on the coast of Massachusetts and particularly Boston. The map they produced is posted on the wall, and the changes in a drowned coast are striking. Cape Cod is an island, as is Beacon Hill, where the State Capitol is located. There are many more revelations on the map that will no doubt be startling to residents of the Bay State.
Waiting in my email in box was a link to a post by fellow blogger Dave Curtis about growing national concern about rare earth deposits. The New York Times, US News & World Report, and the journal Science, have all carried prominent reports lately about global demand for rare earths to use in green energy production and in military applications. Yet China produces 93% of these critical minerals leaving the US and other consumers vulnerable to supply disruptions or limitations.
I think these few anecdotal references get the point across. I talked with a group of students at UMass the other day about careers in the geosciences and made the same point. Many of the biggest challenges facing this country (and the world) are addressed in all or in part by the geosciences. There is a need for more bright energetic engaged students to enter the scientific profession and we especially need them in the geosciences.
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