Geoscience is the Bedrock of Modern Society

It is common to walk down any street in any city and see people on their handheld devices, living through the lens of social media and news feeds. People are frequently more concerned about their self-image in this hyper-personal universe that we live in than the eminent danger of not looking up from their phone while crossing the street. While many people think this is a relatively new phenomenon, where people are very self-focused, this has actually been around in many forms as society has progressed.

One such example – we used to think Earth was the center of the universe. For much of human existence on this planet, people believed that the stars and the heavens revolved around Earth, as outlined in Ancient Greece by Ptolemy’s geocentric model of the universe. As science advanced, this idea was challenged by revolutionary thinkers, such as Copernicus and Galileo. It was through their innovative thinking and scientific observations that we came to know that, well, everything doesn’t actually revolve around us.

Despite that discovery that the Earth was not the actual physical center of the universe, the study of the Earth, geoscience, fundamentally is. Just look around you - whether up or down to the ground you are standing on.

Geoscience is quite simply the nexus of modern society as we know it on Earth. 

In the weeks ahead, I will return to this theme to share with you ten reasons why I think that geoscience is truly the bedrock of our modern society. These topics will cover the applications of geoscience to health, agriculture, energy, infrastructure, clean water, public safety, natural resources, ocean health and sustainability, waste disposal, and jobs. 

Stay tuned. In the meantime here's a post-Independence Day teaser: fireworks & geoscience.