Our mission is simple: to enhance and expand applications of geoscience in service of the common good and to aid in local and regional efforts to advance resilience and sustainability.
We do this by:
- Building bridges to further collaboration between geoscientists and other disciplines,
- Working to enrich public understanding of the earth sciences and how they can be utilized at the grassroots level to protect future generations,
- Advising resource-poor communities on measures they can take to advance their resilience and sustainability, particularly those communities that live with a legacy of natural resource exploitation, and
- Facilitating the judicious application of geoscience and geoengineering where they can make a significant impact in mitigating environmental and social deficits.
In the bigger picture, our efforts are founded on the goal of advancing true sustainability. We advocate the application of full-cost accounting in all cases, by which we mean that all new development and redevelopment should be designed to be carbon-free from the outset or even include provisions that remove carbon from the atmosphere. We realize that this is an aspirational standard rather than a practical standard in some cases, but we see no reason that such a high standard cannot be met for the wider community over the longer term if the will is there to do it.
Interested geoscientists (and geo-friendly people) are invited to join us.
Examples of our recent and ongoing efforts:
In 2016, we organized and co-edited a Special Paper published by the Geological Society of America: Geoscience for the Public Good and Global Development. The volume includes 39 chapters with sections on development fundamentals, mineral and water resources, geologic hazards, public safety, waste management, and regional approaches. It is still in print and available from the Geological Society of America.
In March of 2019, following three years of planning, we co-hosted the Geoscience and Society Summit in Stockholm (https://connect.agu.org/gss/home). To accomplish this, we partnered with the American Geophysical Union, the Bolin Center for Climate Research, the Geological Society of America, the American Geosciences Institute, the Geological Society of London, Geoscientists Without Borders, the International Association for Promoting Geoethics, Geology for Global Development, and the Geology and Environmental Science Department at Wheaton College. About 70 people from 20 nations met to discuss ways to enhance the contributions of geoscientists in advancing resilience and sustainability worldwide.
Following the Stockholm summit, we were invited to present a short course on Geoscience and Sustainability at the Grassroots: Facilitating Social Change for Sustainable Livelihoods at the European Geosciences Union general assembly in Vienna in May of 2020.
We are also working on a plan for a global-scale internet-based sustainable development exchange platform, which will include substantial input from others and globally coordinated planning.