Geology for sustainable development
Geoscience knowledge, experience and guidance are critical for addressing many of society’s most acute resource needs and environmental challenges. Yet few geoscientists have directly engaged in current discourse around sustainable development. This is surprising given how well-placed modern geoscience is to make critical contributions to societal challenges.
Since its launch in 2019, members of the IGCP project 685 team have been at the forefront of global efforts to integrate geoscience knowledge and expertise into the global sustainability agenda. The group has become established as a key player in international advocacy, developing close links with major geoscience organizations and their sustainability initiatives. They have worked closely with the UNESCO Secretariat and the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) to advance the international promotion of geoscience for society, forging close links between academics and industry.
The project tackles the apparent disconnect between geoscience, and the public and policy arenas. Bringing together an international, interdisciplinary network of researchers, industry professionals and geoscience association partners, the project addresses three fundamental research questions:
- What are the geoscientific principles and practices that underpin ‘sustainability’ and how are they manifest across the georesources sector?
- How can current sustainability-related practices in real-world geoscience (mining, oil & gas, construction) be better integrated into geoscience education and training?
- How can geoscientific knowledge be more effectively communicated for publics and in policy?
By integrating the results of these research questions, the project aims to establish a global framework by which geoscience and geoscientists can more effectively confront critical societal concerns. Integrating the experience of geoscience practitioners across a range of fields, we explore how geoscience and geoscientists are directly confronting and overcoming societal challenges.
Key information
Duration
2019-2023
IGCP Theme
Earth Resources
Project Leader
UNESCO Chair in Geoscience and Society
Director of the Sustainable Earth Institute & Professor of Geoscience Communication, University of Plymouth, UK.
Highlights
Earth Futures festival
The Earth Futures Festival, an international film and video event organized in collaboration with the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), was among the main activities of the IGCP project 685 in 2022. The festival showcased the important role geoscience plays in tackling our most pressing global challenges: climate change, the management of our natural resources, the transition to cleaner energy, mitigation of risks from natural hazards, and building sustainable cities.
The event took place in September and October 2022 with screenings and award events hosted at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, and venues in Sydney and New York. Professionals and students in the realms of Earth Science, the Arts, and Science Communication, along with community associations, school students and First Nations peoples were encouraged to submit works in video format to the Festival. This could range from feature length documentaries, to short video pieces and spoken stories, to visual and musical performances. Over 968 works from 88 countries were submitted.
The work of short-listed finalists was presented during the festival under three themes: Dynamic Earth; Future Earth; and Human Connections.
‘Geoscience in Action' report
IGCP project 685 members took a prominent role in the creation of a new freely-available resource that maps geoscience skills against the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The Geoscience in Action report, jointly published by UNESCO and the American Geophysical Union (AGU) offers a practical roadmap to illustrate how geoscientists can apply their expertise to solving the world’s environmental, social, and economic problems. The report showcases illuminating examples of projects and initiatives in which geoscientists have developed solutions alongside health experts, regional policymakers, educators, community leaders, and other stakeholders. Geoscience in Action also includes a catalogue of geoscience competencies and a series of questions and activities for motivating engagement. By sharing how multinational, multidisciplinary initiatives are being shaped with contributions from geoscientists, we hope to inspire and enable the proliferation of similar projects.
Almost half of the team that compiled and designed the Geoscience in Action report are from IGCP project 685: Denise Cox, Vimal Singh, Kombada Mhopjeni, Heather Handley, and Iain Stewart. The project leader, Maria Angela Capello, presented the group’s preliminary version at the SEG/AAPG ‘International Meeting on Applied Geoscience and Energy’ in Houston, USA, and the soft-launch of the final version took place at the American Geophysical Union Fall meeting in Chicago, USA.
The ‘Geoscience Futures’ project
The UNESCO-IGCP – BHP Geoscience Futures project was designed to stimulate broad interest in Geoscience in the service of global society, and to provoke discussions on how geoscience will best address challenges facing society. Exciting content has been generated through interviews with global leading geoscientists, however the impact remains limited to a narrow band of geoscientists.
In 2022, the leaders of the Geoscience Futures initiative (Iain Stewart from IGCP project 685, and Cam McCuaig and Neil Evans from the resources company BHP) engaged with Jessica Keast of GeoHUG (Humans United with Geology), a Communications Architect, to elevate the breadth and depth of outreach of the project, to engage both the younger generation, and policy and decision makers, to work collaboratively on these challenges. Jessica Keast, who has been working in the minerals industry for more than 10 years, presents fun and positive weekly online geoscience talks and has gained a popular following, both in Australia and globally.
The new collaboration established a new geoscience podcast site, Geoscience Futures, managed and operated by Jessica Keast, but financially supported by BHP and with UNESCO-IGCP input.
Geoscience education in Namibia
The National Earth Science Museum of the Geological Survey of Namibia (GSN) houses a large collection of rocks, minerals and fossils found in Namibia, while the National Earth Science and Energy Information Centre has a vast collection of publications on the Earth Sciences and mining. Despite this, few Namibians are aware of the relevance of Geoscience in society, and STEM education in Namibia needs a boost. Sadly ‘information that has no audience has no value’.
IGCP project 685 has supported work enhancing geoscience literacy and the involvement of girls, in Namibia. The Geological Survey of Namibia (GSN) has been actively engaging in science outreach activities under the banner of the IGCP project 685. Previously, the Namibian team led by Kombada Mhopjeni, developed a 3-minute, motion graphic outreach video on ‘Geology for Sustainable Development’ to raise awareness on the geosciences among African audiences, especially in Namibia.
In 2022, IGCP funding supported the creation of a ‘Geoscience and Society’ poster that visually depicts the multiple ways in which geoscience can directly tackle societal problems from a southern African context.
Project leader Iain Stewart visited the GSN in December 2022 and gave a workshop to researchers. However, a planned Geoscience Education workshop for Secondary school teachers had to be postponed and will be re-scheduled in 2023.
Geoscience workshop
Prof. Iain Stewart presented a short course at the First EAGE Workshop on Geothermal Energy and Hydro Power in Africa, which took place over three days in December 2020.
This virtual workshop sought to highlight the critical role of geoscientists in addressing wider societal challenges around sustainable development. Securing the 'social licence to operate' is emerging worldwide as one of the critical investment and implementation barriers in both geothermal energy and hydropower development. But gaining social acceptance of geo-energy projects is hampered by low public awareness about geo-energy and poor community participation in energy development projects. Therefore, the key to gaining social license is effective communication of highly technical science to non-technical audiences, from local residents to political decision-makers.
This project was developed with the generous financial support of the Jeju Province Development Co. (JPDC).
