We March For America

It’s hard to envision an area of our daily lives unaffected by earth sciences. It could be that it is related to the energy that powers our homes and vehicles, or natural catastrophes that fill on the evening news, to how much we rely in our everyday life on forecasts for weather or the metals that are used in electronic gadgets – to mention a few.

Australia has a wealth of minerals and energy sources and the economy of Australia is heavily dependent on the speed at which we extract riches from the Earth.

The first line from the chapter that concludes The Lucky Country by Donald Horne in 1964 The Lucky Country read:

Australia is an extremely lucky nation with a second rate population with a lot of luck.

I’m not sure about you I’m not averse to being fortunate however I’d rather have a head start than be second rate.

The Australian mining industry is aware that there’s not any more simple mining opportunities on the surface of Earth in Australia the last high-quality ore deposits are under the Earth’s surface, therefore, we must be more savvy and employ a variety of tools and skills for exploring and extract the underground.

That is to say, it is no longer possible to depend on chance.

We must be an intelligent country, regardless of whether we wish to keep basing a large portion of our economy around mining, or run the danger of being second class.

I am using the example of mining since it’s the most evident way in which earth resources are a major contributor to Australian economic growth. There is widespread acceptance that advanced economies need to transition from reliance on physical and natural resources labor to knowledge-based economies that is based on intellectual resources and expertise that can be utilized to generate prosperity.

How is Australia performing in this change? As we mine riches out of the ground but we also are an industry leader in the supply of mining technology and other services to foreign countries.

It’s not just the Chinese mine however, Australian earnings from education, which include a significant portion of China’s growing and growing middle class, make education the biggest export sector of services in Australia.

Exercising Our Geoscientific Muscles

There are some things right however, we live living in a world of competition and letting ourselves get complacent won’t do much. Our economy is still heavily dependent on the finite nature of our resources and must continue on the process of transitioning into an economy based on knowledge.

What earth science can aid Australia to make this transition? As geological and climatological phenomenon impact so many aspects that affect our daily lives, their wide-ranging significance also implies that the earth sciences have the potential to greatly contribute to Australia’s continuing well-being and security. I’ll give you the most prominent instances.

The geoscientific know-how has been crucial in the exploration and extraction of fossil fuels, which have led to the transformation of global economies from the beginning of industrial revolution.

Our economy is a slave to carbon, and it will stay the same for a while to come, despite the fact that we require more sustainable and green energy sources. The ability to know is the key to this vital change.

The process of capturing as well as storing emissions from carbon can be technically complex, but understanding of underground reservoirs which were a reservoir for hydrocarbons over decades is crucial to comprehend how we can conserve carbon captured into the future.

Geoscientists need to collaborate closely with engineers as well as other experts in order to reach this aim. As time goes by, increasing the efficacy of hydrocarbon extraction is crucial to bringing costs for energy low.

Australian scientists, physicists, engineers and mathematicians have joined forces to create 3D imaging technology that can visualize the tiny pores between the grains of sediment in rock essential in enhancing the extraction of gas and oil from the reservoirs they naturally hold.

This Australian technology has been attracting significant international investments that could increase the use of this innovative technique in the industry of hydrocarbons.

Not Known In The Dark About

Australia is among the regions that is more stable in terms of geology of the globe. Our neighbors in the north, which have fast expanding economies, face the constant threat of geophysical dangers, such as volcanoes, earthquakes land slides, tsunamis, and earthquakes. Our expertise in geology could be of benefit to our lives and the prosperity of our neighboring countries.

How? By helping identify, monitor and possibly forecast and reduce risk to the populations that inhabit mega-cities which are frequently highly susceptible to natural disasters.

What is the outlook for our climate? How can rainfall patterns change regionally throughout Australia due to the ongoing global warming? How will this impact the water resources as well as agriculture? What is the speed at which sea levels increase and how will it impact the coastal infrastructure, property value as well as long-term investment strategies?

The climate-skeptics too must realize that the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions could result in a greater degree of acidity the oceans. This could make coral’s skeletons to disintegrate.

How does this impact the natural wealth of Australia’s amazing resources as well as the economy of tourism that is associated with the Great Barrier Reef? What impact will this have on the food chain and the marine resources like fishing? The climate system is complex and there’s a lot to discover about the workings of it – research that is ongoing is essential.

Understanding the system of climate and the factors that are human and natural which influence it is essential to all areas that make up the growth of our economy. The climate science field will be increasingly influential in the decisions of investors, planning for infrastructure as well as insurance rates.

Intelligent, Cooperative And Hard-Working

With all the above cases, Australia is well placed to face the next challenges and has an abundance of talents in earth sciences, at the universities in federal and state government organizations, and in industry.

I’m a firm believer in the amazing ingenuity of humans and our capacity to find solutions to difficult issues. I’ve seen enough evidence to inspire me to believe in the potential of earth sciences to contributing to the growth of wealth in Australia.

However, is that enough? More often, when it comes to knowledge-based tasks each company or institute isn’t equipped with the entire array of knowledge required to tackle the most pressing issues.

The cooperation across borders is more and more needed which includes better communication between academia and industry as well as the establishment of and long-lasting strategic alliances.

It is also necessary to build an advanced system of innovation that has high-quality incentives for collaboration between the various players to translate ideas into viable methods, products or services.

They are significant and competition from around the world is intense. It is imperative to be sharp as well as collaborative and hardworking and not merely lucky and certainly not second rate in order to get the best value from our knowledge assets and drive the growth of Australia.

Mike Sandiford, Professor of Geology At The University of Melbourne

As Andrew says as the primary requirement for tackling the various challenges that are required to sustain success is having a deeper comprehension of the system of earth. In addition, I think we require a fresh method of defining the goal of such knowledge, based on acknowledgment that we are not just a passive observer to the Earth system.

Geologists can find an even more compelling illustration as the fact that the human race is moving towards a main consumption of energy at 44 trillion watts by 2060.

The average is of energy that is transferred through plates tectonics per year. This is the mechanism that creates the world’s volcanoes, mountains and earthquakes.

The majority of our energy requirements coming through fossil fuels, facing the task of trying to safeguard the energy needs of future generations requires a more thorough understanding of the consequences for our usage of these sources.

This is why the Earth scientists’ perspective can be crucial to reconsider our relationships with the earth and its resources. Earth scientists are suggested to follow in the footsteps of their colleagues from ecology who have always framed their understanding of the function of ecosystems based on service.

In naming these services explicitly, they can be attributed the value of them, focus on their limitations and threats and weigh the pros and cons of short- and long-term demands to provide these services. One of the biggest challenges is to re-think our planet’s status as the primary service provider. This includes not just the biosphere, but also the atmosphere oceans, and the The lithosphere.

Katy Evans, Senior Research Fellow At Curtin University

There are two essential characteristics of geologists, which are vital as we move through the change from a place which absorbs human activities to one that is directly affected by the latter.

The understanding of geologists about time is developed through studies of the mechanisms that run on durations ranging from seconds to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of million years. The sense of time that geologists have can be compared to political leaders, whose timeline is, in fact, restricted by a ticking time bomb that is set to be detonated when the next election is scheduled. Everyone should be practicing the sense of time that geologists have for us to grasp how we can use our power to alter the world.

Geology is the study of appreciation for, and compensation for missing and unreliable data. Geological records are never fully complete. The geological record functions as an album of photographs where images have been put together over each other, then pushed into a washer. Humans are altering natural systems in unprecedented levels and at a rate that is unprecedented Geologists’ ability to work effectively within a largely data-limited environment will become more valuable.

Geologists are needed not just to address the immediate and practical concerns posed by the Earth however, but also to grasp the stunningly beautiful and intricate Earth sufficient to be able to comprehend it so to allow us to move towards the most exciting future possible.

The African continent has many of the richest minerals. As an example that in the Democratic Republic of Congo produces majority of the world’s cobalt; Rwanda, Ethiopia and Mozambique have a major role in world production of tantalum. Minerals like these are essential components for modern electronics.

In addition, the continent has most of the world’s resources of palladium and platinum Metals that are crucial for the ever-changing markets for sustainable energy as well as electric vehicles.

With these resources available, African researchers should be making a significant contribution to the discipline of earth science, which is the chemical and physical makeup of the Earth’s core Earth as well as the oceans as well as the atmosphere.

A solid earth science discipline produces positive results: The South African minerals industry employs more than 500,000 directly and adds R350 million to the nation’s GDP each year.

However, how much knowledge and experience in earth sciences has been acquired by Africans as a whole, and especially from Africa? We decided to determine in a paper published in the journal. The study examined 182,996 published articles in top-quality Earth science journals that are internationally renowned. These journals are respected and include work from world-class scientists in the field of research.

The results were shocking 70 percent of all research papers on a particular aspects of earth sciences in Africa don’t have any African author. It is a stark contrast with other areas. Five countries that produce the highest amount of earth science research include five countries: the US, China, Australia, Japan and Canada, and all produce more than 60% of all research pertaining to their respective countries.

Also, we discovered that the contribution average of earth science publications written by Africans to international journals is 2.3 percentage from 1973. It is a very low percentage as the US which has the largest share of Africans has produced 47 percent of all the published works.

It appears that the development of knowledge about earth sciences in Africa is not advancing at all despite global fascination with (and the exploitation of) the mineral riches of Africa.

The motives are preparation as well as research costs as well as “parachute” scientific research.

Preparedness

The majority of countries across the globe have a geological survey that’s job is to analyze and map fundamental minerals, geology and geohazards. It also manages databases that are related to geology and minerals.

But two research studies of Geoscience Australia as well as Geoscience Australia and the African Minerals Development Centre, found that the vast majority of geological studies within Africa do not have the capacity or data on geology. Six countries have the capacity to conduct geoscientific research in a continuous manner: South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Morocco, Namibia and Tanzania. They are among the top 7 producers of Earth science research across Africa. It is possible that there’s an association between the country’s survey’s function and a country’s output in research. We don’t know regarding the reason these countries are having higher numbers of surveys, this may be related to their abundant mineral riches.

Another study related to research publication in the developing world has revealed that a relatively low research output may be linked to the perception of governments that research is not essential to meeting fundamental needs such as healthcare and food. Research usually requires laboratories and equipment that is specialized, as well as substantial budgets and skilled technicians.

There are many African scientists are also prone to write research pieces to African-focused journals with low impact and they are hesitant to work with high-impact research. One of the main reasons is that they are overwhelmed with the demands of teaching and other obligations as documented by several African institutions.

It is also well documented “brain exodus” of scientists out of Africa. It is reported by the International Organisation for Migration indicates that Africa has lost over 10,000 professionals who have been trained in the last decade, with 30percent of them are academics.

The Investment And Expenditure

The most insightful results of our study is the connection between expenditure on research and the outcomes from research as well as the impact.

In Africa the research expenditure has risen from $ 4 (1996) to 42 dollars (2017) per head. Globally, the average has risen between US$100 and US$300 per person in the same time frame. In high-income countries, these figures are much higher, averaging USD450 in the year 1996. This figure almost doubled over the last 20 years, reaching $1,064. When these patterns are mapped on top of trends in earth sciences research output, it is clear that lines of parallelism emerge between research funding inputs and outputs of research.

If there was not a great deal of Earth science research being conducted in African countries, it might explain the low figures. However, this isn’t the reality.

Through examining the individual papers We found that a large amount of research in earth sciences is conducted in Africa. However, a lot of it seems to have been “parachute” scientific research.

It happens when scientists from advanced nations are working in Africa (for example, performing research in the field and taking samples) but without the involvement of local researchers. African scientists can be completely excluded and/or left out of research articles are written to be published.

Within the health and medical science areas, doctors are becoming conscious of the negative effects these studies can cause. Some journals are becoming more stringent when it comes to accepting this kind of work because it is a continuation of colonial pattern in the field of science, and diminishes research conducted in countries.

Future Directions

If African economies want to increase their capacities in geosciences, build their own understanding and make use of their mineral resources in-house They must invest more money on retaining and developing earth scientists, and enhancing research capabilities.

Researchers who are visiting or working in Africa must work with their African colleagues, in order to build capabilities and produce outputs that have impacts. Universities and funding bodies in high-income nations should review their policies for funding and rewards to support this.

Journals shouldn’t condone the varieties of “parachute” research that devalue scientists from developing nations by publishing such papers.

In Africa It is crucial for research institutions and universities to recognize the value of research, and encourage international collaboration. It is also essential to retain highly-qualified employees and boost the investment.

Earth science is essential for Australia’s environmental and economic future, but we are drastically diminishing our capabilities in earth science. Earth scientists do not only work in the fields of mining and exploration (which are responsible for 11% of the GDP of Australia) as well as in other fields that include environmental sciences and monitoring groundwater for the agriculture and environmental industries geotechnical works for the construction industry, as well as satellite remote monitoring. The skills they possess will become increasingly crucial to face the issues from climate change, especially because renewable energy sources will require breakthrough discoveries of minerals that can be used in electric vehicles, batteries or wind power turbines.

The shortage of geophysicists, geophysicists, and technicians in earth sciences are all on the qualified occupation list of immigrants. However, Australian universities have recently cut huge budgets for the teaching of earth sciences. Over the last time, the University of Newcastle and Macquarie University have shut down entire departments of earth science.

The Earth Science jobs have gone at various universities, including ANU, UNSW, Tasmania and Melbourne. Nearly every Eastern state university has cut courses for undergraduates in earth science.

Government policies of the federal government bear a significant the blame for the loss of Earth science expertise. The absence of JobKeeper assistance for university campuses during the epidemic has been extensively discussed however the policies that are not helpful go much further https://unagi4d.com/.

Changes In Funding Impact Earth Science Teachers With A Hammer

However, despite its significance it is, the number of undergraduates studying earth science within Australia are comparatively low. In most years, only 200 students are awarded an honours diploma (the minimum required for employment within the field) In contrast, more than 15,000 are employed as geoscientists across Australia. Commonwealth support for teaching at universities depends on the student population which means that earth science departments have a low teaching budget.

The main goal in the Job-Ready 2020 Graduating Program was to deal with this issue by “better training students to find jobs that are in line with Australia’s anticipated industrial, economic and employment expansion”. The program did cut the cost of earth science education for students. But, it didn’t raise funds to pay for the gap in fee.

In the end, revenue from universities fell at a rate of 16% to students in science and by 29 percentage for environmental science students. As the universities are making decisions about which classes to remove, the more profitable classes have moved up the list of courses to cut.

Research Isn’t Funded Enough

Australia is an excellent place to conduct the field of earth research. The year 2020 QS World University Rankings, nine Australian earth science universities placed in the top 100 of the world. They were compared with five biology schools and three in physics. There was also one in chemistry, and no in math. But research funding policies have hit Earth science departments especially difficult.

A majority Australian government funding for research does not fully cover the costs for conducting research, which includes the cost of academic salary and university overheads. The funding system basically penalizes departments in earth science in their excellence in research since there’s no funding to fund the lab facilities, or the academic salary associated with success in research.

Universities are increasingly relying on fees for international students to fill the gap in funding for research. The revenue from these fees have been declining as our borders have been shut off to international students. Departments of Earth Science and Academics have been cut from university blocks.

The Research Excellence of Researchers Is Not Enough To Protect

The responsibility also falls on the institutions that made the decision to eliminate the earth science department and create jobs. These cuts weren’t all due to COVID-19. As an example, Macquarie University began earth science redundancies in 2019 prior to any budgetary COVID-19 problem.

The pandemic, however, is accelerating the decline of earth science education. In the case of Macquarie being a prime illustration, during the past period, Macquarie has eliminated the majority of academic positions in earth sciences redundant. It is also the university announced plans to construct an A$60 million law college.

Earth sciences was an area of strong research in the department at Macquarie University. It was home to the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence and produced six ARC Future Fellows in the last 10 years. The University is making crucial decisions on the basis of the number of students enrolled in undergraduate courses, rather than research excellence, or Australian demands for skilled workers.

What Can Be Done To Help These Issues Be Resolved?

The solution is required for Commonwealth funds to be changed. To begin the research fund should be able to cover the cost of conducting research.

In the event that the Australian government is committed to making graduates available for work in needy areas the government should create policies to encourage universities invest in these areas, rather as scolding those who invest in them. As public institutions, which seek the backing of the public, must commit to support areas that are vital for Australia regardless of whether they do not yield the highest profits for universities.

The first issue to be addressed to ensure the safety of the earth science education we have left is the low number of undergraduate students. A simple solution that could be taken by the Australian government is to expand the tiny amount of Earth science-related content included in school curriculum. However, current plans are designed to decrease the amount of earth science content.

It is also recommended that the government launch programs to teach students how many thrilling jobs, vital and rewarding ones that they can pursue as geoscientists. If nothing is done the future of earth science in Australia is looking bleak.