Programme / Thematic session I./g GeoScience for Sustainable Human Progress

Geoscience – the science of understanding planet Earth – has been a key driver for the economic development and wealth creation over the last century, not least by finding and exploiting the planet’ the fossil fuel energy sources and the metal and mineral deposits that have built our modern world. This consumption of the planet’s ‘natural capital’, however, has brought our society to the brink of a social and ecological crisis.

So, what now is the role and responsibility of geoscience in addressing the wider social concerns of global sustainability?  

This provocative session aims to introduce science policy makers to a new agenda for global geoscience around the broad conference theme of ‘social justice’. They will hear from leading practitioners in diverse Earth science fields – health, resources, energy, water and culture – about how geoscientists in academia, industry, government and civil society can address the broader challenges of social and environmental equity and best help to deliver the sustainable development goals and improve human wellbeing?