Thoughts on the 04 May Townhall Meeting: An International Geoscience Initiative

After a set of presentations proposing different topics for global geoscience initiativies, senior scientists and leaders of several geoscience organizations engaged in a lively discussion with the YES Network members about how such global initiatives could be implemented. In the course of the discussion, the senior scientists and leaders stressed the importance of "passing the torch" to the younger generation of geoscientists who could further develop and distribute these projects within an international context through their use of current and emerging web-technologies. The senior scientists commended the YES Network for its rapid growth and geographic distribution of our membership (from just over 300 members from ~30 countries last October to almost 800 members from 85 countries today).

It was very good to hear the leaders of these geoscience organizations express their encouragement and support for the YES Network and in its ability to further develop these ideas and initiatives into global-reaching projects. By using our scientific knowledge and skills to solve social issues at local, regional and international scales, and by helping to build the capacity within developing nations by implementing professional and educational resources for young geoscientists, we will create global geoscience initiatives that will make truly make a difference in this world.

John Ludden (BGS), Edmund Nickless (GSL), Pat Leahy (AGI), and Jack Hess (GSA) will develop a summary document that will highlight the key points of this townhall meeting and provide a roadmap for the next steps in establishing the global geoscience initiative. This report will be delivered to UNESCO.

This was the third townhall meeting on the Global Geoscience Initiative project that is sponsored by the American Geological Institute (AGI), the British Geological Survey (BGS), the Geological Society of America (GSA), and the Geological Society of London (GSL). The previous townhall meetings were held at the 2009 GSA meeting in October 2009, and the 2009 AGU meeting this past December. For more information about the Global Geoscience Initiative and the results of the previous townhall meetings, visit: http://www.agiweb.org/members/ggi/.