And here we are again- a new year, another round-up blog, and the 4th birthday for Geoscience for the Future!
Since our initiative began in 2020, the world has been through a lot. The impacts of Covid-19 have been wide reaching and long term. At this moment, ongoing conflicts in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere, and the global (inequitable) impacts of the climate emergency, are at the forefront of our minds.
In the blog this week, we reflect back on 2023, through the contributions of our brilliant guest authors and outreach volunteers. These efforts truly demonstrate that geoscience and geoscientists are a positive, powerful force that can help save our world.
In 2023, Geoscience for the Future published 12 monthly blogs from experts working in awesome areas of geoscience, coordinated our French Geology Exchange with Bordeaux University for its third successful year, and facilitated outreach talks for school students at a variety of schools and universities. What are our highlights? Read on!
Geoscience and People
In 2023, we engaged with so many inspiring people on our hunt for cool geoscience stories- and found that some of the stories most worth telling are about how geoscience connects with people! We were privileged to hear from Collette Brown-Rodriguez on her work advocating for indigenous communities in the mining industry, and had a brilliant time at the European Geosciences Union conference learning about how geoscience can be a powerful tool in the prison education system, and in games that help people connect with important issues like climate change. Geolatinas taught us the incredible initiatives out there helping geoscientists bridge cultural divides. Agnessa Spanellis explained how geoscience can create meaningful outreach games that can directly contribute to risk communication and disaster risk reduction.
As always, we are passionate not just about how geoscience impacts people, but the experience of geoscientists within our field. We are grateful to all the fantastic contributors to our “Did this really happen”? blog, which explored sexism within geoscience. And we got involved in EDI ourselves, with editor Natasha Dowey heading up to Glasgow for a fun-packed day of outreach with A-level students at the Girls into Geoscience Scotland annual event.
The value of geoscience careers
At Geoscience for the Future, we are all about showcasing the vital importance of our subject- in 2023 the Scottish Geology Trust wrote us a brilliant piece explaining their “Geology Does” campaign and how it celebrates the role of geoscience in our everyday lives. Back in May our very own Jen Roberts contributed a blooming marvellous piece on how geoscience is connected to bees (and therefore to a whole range of other highly important things that bees are critical for!)
In 2023 we continued to link inspirational professional geoscientists with school students. With the help of our fantastic #AskAGeo network, we have brought outreach talks and sessions to students around the UK and beyond, from 8 to 18 years old, in classrooms, lecture theatres, and video calls. In 2023 we coordinated our second French exchange, which saw a whole classroom of Bordeaux University students use a range of geoscience case studies as a way to explore a critical topic and improve their understanding of the English language. We also arranged in person school visits, with talks and workshops on everything from volcanoes to hydrogeology to fossils to careers! We are so grateful to the many professional geoscientists from our #AskAGeo network who gave their time to these activities. You can find our open-access Geoscience Outreach Talk template here.
Climate and Geoscience
In 2023, the climate emergency was front and centre, in the news, in popular media (check out Channel 4’s The Great Climate Fight and Chris Packham’s: Is it time to break the law?) and in activism (for example, with the coming together of over 100,000 people from over 200 organisations for Extinction Rebellion’s ‘The Big One’). Although highly contentious, the United Nation’s climate meetings (COP) have included wording on phasing down fossil fuels, and there has been progress on loss and damage, hopefully positively impacting those countries most impacted by climate change. New work has been carried out to highlight the decline of the world’s forests and the species that depend on them in an attempt to reduce deforestation, a critical driver of climate change. There have been key steps forward in climate litigation, with the UK government’s climate strategy deemed “unlawful” in a landmark case at the High Court, and with young people holding governments to account, with the historic case of six 11-24 year olds taking 32 countries to court at the European Court of Human Rights for the impact of climate change on their health and lives.
This year our blogs have explored the climate emergency in different ways; from a very personal view of a geoscientist’s climate grief, to an understanding of critical geoscience research into geological carbon storage, and to geoscience careers in carbon accounting and helping businesses tackle their carbon footprint.
We’ve also spotlighted geoscience research that is actively seeking to understand the impacts of climate change on the natural world, with the work of the SLIDE Project on Greenland glaciers, and the Evoflood Project on the impact of a changing climate on rivers, flooding and migration.
We couldn’t do it without you…
We cannot say how much we love bringing you new stories from amazing people in geoscience, and how much we have enjoyed arranging and participating in outreach sessions. We are so grateful to our community of geoscientists, and to you, our readers. Without your support, Geoscience for the Future would not be possible. We would love for you to continue to support us in any way you can- you can now keep track of what we’re up to on Threads and Bluesky as well as Instagram, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn.
Our day jobs are hard- academia is a very difficult sector to find breathing space to volunteer- but in 2024, we will continue in our quest to make the benefits of geoscience better understood, and to make geoscience more accessible to as many people as possible. We’ll be trying (again) to secure some funding for some exciting new initiatives, continuing to connect teachers and geoscientists, and seeking out even more stories of awesome new geoscience for the future. Want to get involved as an author or #AskAGeo volunteer? We’d love to hear from you!
Here’s to 2024,
Natasha, Hazel and Jen x
(Your GftF Team)
The 2023 Blogs:
Geoscience and People
Balancing both sides: My career advocating for indigenous communities from within geoscience industry
Gaming and geohazards: Using games to improve risk communication at one of the world’s most dangerous volcanoes
Did This Really Happen? Perspectives on Sexism in Geoscience
The value of geoscience
What underlies everything? Geology does!
Making a buzz: Five ways that geoscience links to bees
The climate crisis
Locking Up Carbon Dioxide: A Climate Solution That Crosses Divides
Coping with Climate Anxiety as a Geoscienctist
Climate Change, Flood Risk, and the Future of Geoscience
Why are there hidden lakes underneath giant ice sheets?
How studying Geoscience led to my career in Carbon Accounting and Decarbonisation
Thanks BoliviaInteligente on Unsplash for the feature image for this round-up!