Vision and Change in the Geosciences

Geoscientists play a central role in addressing global and societal challenges. With the critical state of our global climate and need for reliable energy and mineral resources, water, and societal resilience to earth processes, we must ensure that the future geoscience workforce is prepared to meet these challenges, including:

1. making the transition to sustainable and environmentally responsible energy and food sources; and
2. forecasting and mitigating the dramatic economic and environmental impacts from the increase in the number of detrimental weather, climate, and oceanic events and from geohazards.

These reports provide a robust vision developed by the academic and employer communities for transforming undergraduate and graduate geoscience education. The reports articulate this vision through key strategic findings and recommendations that capture the extensive work of the community participants and the initiative’s organizing committee.

The recommendations are comprehensive, and each department, program, or institution should consider how to appropriately implement them in the context of each institution’s educational mission. Geoscience educators have an unparalleled opportunity to capitalize on the expanding role the geosciences play in addressing global societal challenges and ensure the long-term health and future of geoscience undergraduate and graduate programs.

Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science graduate programs must educate students to understand Earth System Science, the complex interactions and feedback between parts of the Earth system, and the influence of human activities in perturbing this system. Geoscience undergraduate and graduate students need to develop the skills and competencies to investigate and find solutions to these challenges. Additionally, new expertise is required by the big data revolution, the explosive growth in AI, and the movement toward modeling the Earth system.