Slight rant alert; we hear a lot from @theAGU and @geosociety about the impact of #climatechange and how it is already affecting humanity, nature and the Earth. What we don’t hear much about from both of these geological societies is what to do about it, barring reducing CO2...
...emissions and increasing our use of renewables and green energy. This is great, but how do we do this? We need a shitload of raw materials and metals to make this change (see https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S136403212030085X">https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a... and http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/961711588875536384/Minerals-for-Climate-Action-The-Mineral-Intensity-of-the-Clean-Energy-Transition.pdf">https://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/961711... for examples). Who provides these materials...?...
...the mining industry. If you want the base and critical metals needed for this transition, that’s the only source for them. Yet mining is often seen as an old industry, polluting, and problematic. It can be all of those things, but also cannot be ignored if you want to reduce..
...CO2 emissions. The extraction of the raw materials needed to combat climate change also needs skilled geoscientists of all types (see this from the @AGI_Updates: https://www.americangeosciences.org/policy/critical-needs/2020">https://www.americangeosciences.org/policy/cr... and the associated PDF). So why aren’t we having conversations...
...that span this seemingly large gap. I know that some are happening outside of the Geosciences, but why not eg between @theAGU, @geosociety and the likes of @SocietyEconGeol and @SGA_Geo and more. Combating climate change needs all of us, and working together rather than...
... apart can be more effective. Let’s have conversations about how we can work together to understand climate change, to encourage and support the transition to green energy and transport, and to use the knowledge and skills we have as geoscientists to make this world better.