IntroductionThere is a gulf between environmental geoscientists and those who could be using science in planning and decision-making. There are numerous examples in recent years where scientific work has clearly indicated a direction in planning and policy, yet this has been ignored. This ranges from the global scale, where some countries resist scientific advice on natural hazards or climate change; to the local, where people live in places that are highly vulnerable to landslide, earthquakes, floods, or other geological hazards. Policy makers frequently ignore or are unaware of the natural variation in earth systems when making decisions, and commonly lack the long-term perspective that palaeoenvironmental research can offer. To address this problem the International Union of Geological Sciences Commission on Geosciences for Environmental Management accepted a proposal to set up a working group on "Communicating Environmental Geoscience". Tasks of the working group The main task of the group is educating, training and assisting scientists in the following areas:
Forthcoming event: GAC-MAC Session: Communicating Geoscience
(an initiative of the Communicating Environmental Geoscience working group, GEM-IUGS) Why don’t people listen to us? Why do they continue to make mistakes, flying in the face of common geoscience knowledge? How can we increase geological literacy?Policy decisions are often taken without
effective input from geoscientists.
Rather than leaving this as an insolvable problem, a better approach is to
consider strategies, setbacks, and successes in getting geosciences messages to
policy and decision makers, as well as to general audiences. This session will
look at some of the challenges and possible answers to these common,
occasionally frustrating questions. Potential
topics include: effective explanation of geoscience issues to politicians and
public; communication of geoscience concepts to other professionals; strategies
and tactics for interaction with governments and institutions; discussing
geological hazards; issues in working with various news media; communication of
“bad news”; and what the would-be geosciences communicator needs to know to be
effective.
If we believe that we do have important things to talk about, and we’re interested in getting people to listen and incorporate our advice, communication will be a requirement. This session explores the issues and possibilities. Geological Association of Canada-Mineralogical Association of Canada, 27-29 May, 2012, St. John’s NL, Canada;
Outputs We have surveyed environmental geoscientists on their experiences and attitudes towards communication, and are currently compiling the results. The survey questions can be viewed here in either English or Spanish
Workshops and presentations have taken place, or will take place, from September 2006 through November 2011 at venues including the British Geological Survey in Nottingham jointly organized with the Geohazards Working Group of the Engineering Group of the Geological Society (London), the European Geosciences Union Annual Meetings(Vienna), the 33rd International Geological congress (Oslo 2008), and the Commission's Annual Meetings. The Geological Society published a book of papers on "Communicating Environmental Geoscience" in November 2008, edited by working group members.We have established a management committee of 5 people with international representation and crossing disciplines. They direct a programme of further workshops, training courses, meetings, publications and the establishment of a newsletter and web site to communicate the efforts of the group.
If you are interested in becoming a member of the working group, please contact the Working group leader, Norm Catto at ncatto@mun.ca |
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