Mineralogical Society supports GSL statements on climate change
The Mineralogical Society issued a press release in late November, lending its formal support to the Geological Society’s statements on climate change, and thanking its representatives ‘for their efforts in bringing together the specifically geological evidence contrasting present-day climate change with such changes in the recent geological past.’
The Geological Society first published ‘Climate Change: Evidence from the Geological Record’ in November 2010, with a subsequent addendum in October 2013. Intended for non-specialists and Fellows, the statement focuses specifically on the geological evidence. Subsequently, in the run up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP 21 in 2015, the Geological Society was a signatory to a communiqué signed by 24 academic institutions calling on national governments to take immediate action if they want to avert the serious risks posed by climate change.
In a press release, the Mineralogical Society Council stated that it ‘formally noted the strong public concern regarding anthropogenic climate change and welcomed the growing public appreciation of the environmental sciences…While most public discussion has focused on climate models, we are aware that the recent geological and geochemical records also provide detailed evidence for climate change in the context of the geologically recent past.’
Speaking after a Council meeting on 14 November, the Mineralogical Society’s President, Prof. Bruce Yardley, stated that ‘the Mineralogical Society supports the efforts of the Geological Society to place such geological evidence in the public domain and has offered its assistance to the Geological Society in any future revisions of its briefing documents where its members have appropriate expertise.’