This is Throwback Thursday #120. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc ...), please sent them to [email protected] Thanks!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This Throwback Thursday is a look back at a column published in April 1952 called "What is "Earth Science"? It was written by William Allaway, the first Chairman on ESCONI. Dust-bowl, sinking water tables, city water supply, and flood control were the topics he touched upon. The water issues are still very relevant today. As surface water disappears, we are using up aquifers around the world at a prodigious rate. Coastal freshwater is being inundated by rising oceans. Even floods are still in the news, look at the flooding at Yellowstone National Park just this past spring and flooding in Germany last year. It may not be a dust-bowl, but droughts are common, with the western states suffering their worst drought ever recorded. All of these have one cause, climate change due to the release of greenhouse gases. Mr. Allaway doesn't mention climate change because it wasn't a mainstream issue in the 1950's. It was already happening then, just wasn't noticed. Climate change had been predicted way back in 1896 by Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius, and, in 1938, Guy Callendar connected carbon dioxide increases in Earth's atmosphere to global warming.
I wonder what Bill would write about if he was around today? Any guesses? Here's a hint.... similar topics with a more immediate and dangerous cause.
What is "Earth Science"?
At various times we have shown in these columns the individual benefits accruing from the pursuit of Earth Science the pleasures of exploring the particular specialty which interests us most, the joys of collecting beautiful or significant objects, the satisfactions of fellowship with like-minded enthusiastic "rockhounds" and so on. In addition to these very real benefits there are others of a less tangible nature, which are important, particularly from a consideration of the advancement and spread of Earth Science knowledge on an ever increasing plane.
This stems from the fact that "Science" in the broadest sense is more than observing, experimenting and accumulating objects, facts and theories. It also involves the communication of these basic facts, and the exchange of ideas about them. In short Science (and this includes Earth Science) is a social activity. It involves the passing on of one person's findings and observations to another. Without this process of communication, the findings of the greatest geologists or archaeologists of all time would be lost forever. Science must extend itself beyond the individual, or it operates in a vacuum.
When we bear this basic truth in mind, our club's activities become part of a larger pattern than we might originally have dreamed possible. For instance, who can assess the part clubs such as ours play in developing well-informed public opinion? And this opinion can be brought to bear in the halls of our legislatures, where earth science problems of great magnitude need intelligent action. A few of these many problems, which will not wait forever for a solution, are listed below:
- What is the best type of flood control system to prevent our large rivers from making their periodic rampages over the surrounding farmlands, with the appall ing loss in money, productivity and human suffering which now results yearly?
- What is the scientific answer to the problem of our sinking water table, with its exhaustion of the vital water supplies from this source required by industry?
- Can we best assure a stable water supply for our cities and farms through the creation of artificial lakes, made at the expense of inundating large areas of farm or forest land?
- What is the best approach to the problem of erosion? Are forest "shelter-belt" strips the answer to "dust-bowl" conditions of erosion in our great plains states?
Upon the wise solution of these problems, may eventually depend our continued existence as a great nation in the world, as no nation can remain preeminent which has lost its basic natural resources. In many other ways the influence of clubs such as ours may act in a manner analogous to the ripples which spread out in all directions when a pebble is thrown into the water. Some of these will be discussed in a later issue of the NEWS,
W. H. Allnway, Chairman
