G. Burridge

Editorial

Glen Burridge, EFG Executive Director

For anyone who was in and around COP26 in Glasgow last autumn, they would have been struck by the frequent use of two words on the lips of campaigners and policymakers that carried a powerful punch: ‘Earth’ and ‘Science’.

But I never heard them together.

Only two geoscience organisations – our colleagues at the Geological Society of London (GSL) and Geology for Global Development (GfGD) – were present in the Blue Zone negotiations and then as “Observers”.

The long-term future of our society, but also the profession of earth science, is currently being shaped by events like COP, the World Economic Forum and dialogues held by a range of multilateral organisations, such as the IEA, the UN Global Compact, the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero and, incrementally, by our own industry and professional events.

And we need to be present. We are now at a dramatic and slowly pivoting point in society’s relationship with its planet and the unique web of life in which it thrives. As we move from the diagnosis phase of the planet’s climate crisis to the mitigation and rebuilding phase, we as earth scientists – and more specifically, geologists – will have a great role to play as major instruments of the solutions that are going to be devised in the decades to come.

In this 53rd edition of the European Geologist journal, we explore how this might transpire, the challenges we going to face and how we are going to have to translate our scientific know-how into messages that the public and their representatives understand and will act on.

There will be two great arms to this.

The first will be the technical appreciation of how this planet and its myriad, inter-locking, systems work. This will require a fresh-minded approach among our professional community to transcend boundaries of well-established disciplines, working cultures and technologies. From this change will spring innovation and new horizons for our profession. It is our recognised part of the puzzle.

The second is the ability to Get In The Room where the decisions around our relationship with our planet are being made: to translate the significance of the science, outline the uncertainties and frame the options. This is the arm which is dramatically less familiar to us as natural scientists; it is the art of the diplomat, the policy wonk and the great communicators. This is what we’re going to have to get very good at in the years to come as a profession.

At EFG and with our colleagues in our national associations, plus our partners in allied geoscience organisations, I know we are determined to take on this challenge and ensure the voice of geoscience is clearly heard in the arenas where it matters most. We hope that editions such as this will play their part in this progress.

Best regards

Glen Burridge