As we welcome 2023, our Geoscience for the Future team is reflecting on 2022, the third year of our journey. This time last year, when we wrote our 2021 round up blog (which seems like two minutes ago, time flies!), Covid-19 was on everyone’s mind. The pandemic, its impacts and inequalities are still far from over, and, added to this, we now have on our minds the war in eastern Europe and cost-of-living crises, as well as the ongoing impacts of the climate crisis being felt across the world. The collective impacts of these multiple crises range from ripples to tidal waves, and none will be quickly resolved. But geoscience plays a part across them all.
At Geoscience for the Future, we hope that our stories can bring a bit of light, and show how geoscience can bring solutions and amazing ideas to improve our world.
Geoscience and the Climate Crisis
The climate crisis was at the forefront of many debates this year. Globally we have seen many extreme weather events, including devastating flooding in Pakistan and intense heatwaves in Europe – with temperatures in the UK hitting over 40°C for the first time ever. The latest global climate conference was held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt (COP 27), where it was agreed that a ‘loss and damage’ fund would be established to help low income countries recover from the catastrophic impacts of climate change. At COP 26 in Scotland last year countries agreed to ‘scale-back’ coal, oil and gas, but in Egypt it became clear that this has not progressed. Following COP 27, governments met yet again at a global nature conference where they agreed on a ‘peace pact with nature’ (at COP 15) and restore damage to biodiversity within the next decade. Whether these commitments can or will be met remains to be seen. The voices of climate activists from around the world continue to protest at the inaction of governments; in March, a landmark court case by Client Earth set a precedent for the future, holding the UK government to account for failing to clearly show how it will meet its net zero climate targets.
In our blogs in 2022, we brought you stories of how geoscience is doing its bit to tackle the impacts of the climate crisis or to reduce emissions; from geoscience’s role in helping biodiversity, to combining science and art to work towards Net Zero, to harnessing renewable heat from old coal mines or generating new renewable energy storage. We hope to highlight many more stories of the efforts of geoscientists to tackle these global challenges we face in 2023.
Equity, diversity and inclusion in Geoscience
We have much to be proud of in the geoscience community this year. Work to make our subject more equitable, diverse and inclusive has continued to gain ground, and although there is a long way to go, it is heartening to see awareness increasing and baby steps taking place. One of the UK’s major research funders, the Natural Environment Research Council funded a series of projects to improve the situation here in the UK this year, some of which we highlighted in our blogs this year (for example, check out Walking the Walk), and many of which were truly multidisciplinary efforts that brought together people from many different backgrounds and specialisms. Attention is also being paid to inclusion in the energy research community, which includes geoscience. Hopefully funding opportunities like this will continue in 2023, giving sufficient time and resource to ensure meaningful, sustainable change.
The group EDIG (Equity, Diversity & Inclusion in Geoscience), which brings together EDI grassroots organisations from across our discipline, held another conference in October, raising awareness and discussing the challenges that remain- you can check out the recordings from the conference sessions here. Mainstream geoscience journals are now giving more space to multidisciplinary papers focussed on equity, diversity and inclusion (recently a new special issue of the Geological Society’s Earth Science, Systems and Society journal covering these themes has been announced) – we hope that broader dissemination and discussion of EDI work encourages and enables more people working in geoscience industry and academia and beyond to improve the accessibility and inclusivity of their working environments.
Geoscience for the Future – the blogs!
We here at Geoscience for the Future all work in UK academia, and it’s no secret that 2022 has at times felt like a hard slog, with strikes taking place at many institutions around the country due to problematic and unsustainable working conditions across the sector. It has been hard to dedicate time to extracurricular work, but we never fail to be heartened and encouraged by the amazing contributions of our community, including our bloggers! We are so grateful to be able to continue bringing you all positive stories of sustainable geoscience! This year, our blogs have covered a whole range of topics (see the round up below), from film-making to lagoons. Next year, we hope we can continue to bring you diverse stories, from geoscientists around the world- we are keen to showcase blogs from more countries, more careers, and more research ideas, than ever before.
#AskAGeo
Our #AskAGeo activities are also thriving! In 2022 we virtually visited school classrooms and university students to discuss geoscience careers, hazards, sustainable mining and more. In July, we collaborated with Bordeaux University in France for the second year running in our Geology Exchange, using geoscience discussions as a way to improve language teaching (watch this space for French Exchange 2023 advertising coming soon!). Through the Autumn term we ran a seminar series in schools, and were invited to take part in a geoscience teacher development event in May. We’d like to continue to grow our #AskAGeo activities, so if you’d like to join the #AskAGeo community, or have our #AskAGeos come visit you, please find out more here!
Shouting from the rooftops!
In 2022, our team took on more invited talks than ever before, shouting loud and proud about sustainable, equitable geoscience. These events included a keynote talk at the Geological Society of London’s Energy Transition conference, an invited contribution to an ESG workshop on the Talent Pipeline for the energy transition (with representatives from the UK government) organised by the Critical Minerals Association, an invited lecture on Geoscience in Context in Cambridge, a public seminar at Geoscience Australia in Canberra, Australia, and an invited lecture on microplastics at a Geologists’ Association regional event. If you would like any of the team to speak about sustainable geoscience at your institution or organisation in 2023, please get in touch on geoforthefuture@gmail.com.
Thank you!
Finally, and as ever, we have to say that none of our activities this year would have been possible without the support from the amazing geoscience community, and without YOU- our readers! Who knows what is in store in 2023, but we know the future for geoscience is very bright (how can it not be, with students like those in our awesome Master’s Month blogs coming up through the system?!). Please help us spread the word! Happy New Year everyone!
Looking forward to 2023! From Hazel, Natasha and Jen
Blog Roundup!
A list of all the beautiful blogs we’ve had this year!
Climate crisis, environmental geoscience and the energy transition:
- Oliver Hall: Why I got a degree in Geoscience – and how it prepared me for a career in the Energy Transition – one of our most popular blogs this year!
- Lovely Lagoons – why our coastlines need our help by Sian Davies-Vollum
- How is the climate affecting our biodiversity? Ameila Penny discusses in her blog.
- Charlotte Adams told us all about the impacts of mines and the opportunities she has had to problem solve solution to treat mine water: Cleaning up the past – how my career in geoscience puts old mines to good use
- We couldn’t quite believe it when Lucy McKay let us in on the fact that structural geology can influence low carbon energy! : Ancient fault rocks – not just a thing of the past
Geoscience perspectives:
- What does Geoscience mean to me? By Chris Jackson
#mastersmonth: In October, we showcased stories from Master’s geoscience students:
- Alison Provost: MSc Soil Mechanics with Engineering Geology, Imperial College London
- Bryn Kearsey: Research Masters (MRes) in Hydrogeology at the University of Bristol
- Elizabeth Visick: Research Masters in Geological Sciences, University of Plymouth
- Millicent Harding: Master’s by Research in Physical Geography at Durham University
- Lauren Charlton: Masters of Geology (Integrated MGeol), University of Plymouth
- Scott Liebnitz: Part-time (online) MSc in Environmental Engineering at the University of Strathclyde.
- Audrey Pereira: MSc Environmental Management, Sheffield Hallam University
- Jess McKean: Masters by Research (MRes) in Geoenvironmental Engineering, University of Strathclyde
- Sam Curr: MSc Environmental Consultancy, University of the West of England
- Bishwjeet Binwal: MSc Environmental Sustainability and Green Technology, Keele University
- Gabby Radzeviciute: MSc in Volcanology and Geological Hazards, Lancaster University
- Jacob Southey: Jacob is a recent graduate in MSc Geochemistry now working as a laboratory technician at British Lithium in Cornwall.
- Samantha Ladan: MSc in Renewable Energy Engineering, Kingston University London.
Equality, diversity and inclusion
- Our very own Natasha leads on the Equator Project: The Equator Project- what did we do, why did we do it, and what did we find?
- Jordan Blanchard-Lafayette and Marissa Lo, with contributions from Aqil Rashid gave us their experiences of the Equator Research School: Playing “catch-up in a system that wasn’t built for us”: Experiences from the Equator Research School
- The members of the NERC-funded ‘Walking the Walk’ Project which looks at challenging diversity by helping people from minoritized backgrounds engage with the countryside: Walking the walk: together in nature
Creative geoscience: engaging hearts and minds:
- Roelf van Til talked to us about his role in promoting renewable geoscience: Stories of the underground: the challenges and rewards of geoscience filmmaking
- Hazel Napier explained how bringing people together from all disciplines can help us achieve net zero: Combining art and science: crafting exciting connections with geology