Geoscience for the needs of Canadians GAC presidential address, annual meeting St. Catharines, Ontario 12 May 2004

Geoscience Canada, Sept, 2004 by L. Harvey Thorleifson

Geology plays an increasingly critical role in our society. Whether helping to ensure our health, secure our heritage, enhance our wealth, or to augment our security, the geosciences affect all aspects of our lives. We do this work in the earth sciences to protect our water, cope with our climate, support construction, deal with toxic substances, manage our waste, prepare for hazards, ensure our supply of energy and materials, know and protect our land, survey and manage our oceans, understand the history of life, and to comprehend our planet Earth. The Geological Association of Canada (GAC) can best serve Canadians by effectively supporting the progress of the entire Canadian geoscience knowledge sector, thus complementing the roles of geoscience-related business and professional groups. The measure of our success can be the pace at which new geoscience knowledge is being acquired, and the degree to which this new knowledge is enhancing the lives of Canadians.

NEEDS

Canadian geologists are contributing a broad Earth science approach to an ever-widening list of needs. We help ensure health by addressing toxic substances and waste disposal, and we secure our heritage by providing an understanding of our land, our oceans, the history of life, and a comprehension of our planet. We enhance our wealth by ensuring a supply of energy and materials, and by facilitating construction and land use management. We augment our security by helping society prepare for and cope with climate change and hazards. And we have broad contributions to make to the study of water, which, more than any other topic, comprehensively dictates our well-being.

Climate

The climate change debate requires insights into how the global climate system works, so that linkages are better understood, and scenarios for what can occur are outlined. This requires insight into the carbon cycle as well as climate trends and events throughout Earth history. And consideration of the impacts that climate change will have and how we can adapt to these changes requires work on topics such as permafrost stability and groundwater recharge.

Construction

All engineering activity on the land requires knowledge of the substrate, in relation to excavation, drainage and availability of materials. Optimal contributions of geological knowledge to these activities are critical to keeping costs down and ensuring good design.

Earth

Geology is the discipline that allows us to understand our home. As our perturbations intensify, there is an ever more urgent need for us to fully understand how atmosphere, biota, oceans, freshwater, glaciers, soil, volcanoes, sediment, rock, and Earth evolution as a whole interact.

Energy

The search for energy resources has been at the forefront of Canadian geology since the inception of our field, when coal was the primary target, and this focus continues today in the search for oil and gas, as well as topics such as uranium, gas hydrates, and geothermal resources. In our energy capital, Calgary, the geoscience community is active and vibrant.

Hazards

As our insights intensify, and as population and vulnerable infrastructure increase, we are being called upon to help defend Canadians from natural phenomena that cause injury and damage. Catastrophic threats include earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, floods, volcanoes, windstorms, extreme precipitation, magnetic storms, avalanches, and impacts, while chronic hazards include shoreline erosion, wind erosion, and permafrost degradation. We can augment local knowledge regarding processes, we can outline the character of events predating observations, and we can assess factors that may be changing risk.

Land

Canada consists of a people, and we also consist of a landmass. We know and understand this landmass primarily on the basis of the knowledge accumulated by the people who have lived on the land. And we as scientists can contribute immensely to this knowledge. In many regions, our activity in working out regional geology is one of the only ways that we occupy the land, so our work is a key to establishing sovereignty, especially in the Arctic.

Life

One of the most rapidly expanding fields at present are the genetic sciences. We can contribute to the fundamental understanding of this topic by explaining how genomes came about, the timescales involved, and the processes by which biological evolution takes place.

Materials

Mineral exploration conferences in Toronto, Vancouver, and across Canada, as well as the international role played by our financial markets, are shining beacons of Canadian leadership in this field. We are world leaders in geophysical surveys, and progress is active in geochemical methods. The diamond boom taught us how tremendously powerful and sensitive indicator mineral methods are. So whether the markets dictate that there is a need for base metals, precious metals, gemstones, industrial minerals, or emerging high-tech materials, our knowledge is rapidly advancing regarding what likely is out there to be found, how to find these materials, and how to mine them in an acceptable manner. By providing this knowledge, we are the front end of the materials flow that fuels our economy and thus our way of life.