Polar Educators International (PEI) is an outcome of the 4^th International Polar Year. During this period (2001 – 2009) educators firstly were highly involved in a scientific initiative and a first bridge between scientists and educators was built. Since then PEI grew rapidly and nowadays has almost 200 members coming from all over the world.

The mission of PEI is to highlight and share the global relevance of the Polar Regions with the broader community. Therefore a vital network of educators and researchers are strongly cooperating together with relevant polar organizations such as IASC or SCAR. Thus PEI is able to provide up-to-date educational material for schools, workshop for teachers and many more. PEI Educators are bridging the gap between the scientists and community at large.

All information is available on a robust, flexible, and useful web presence.

PEI is a network that is open to everybody interested in outreach and education with a special focus on the Arctic, the Antarctic and Mountain Regions.

PEI is a common network where educators, scientists and general public can easily access the educative material especially focus on the Arctic, Antarctic and mountainous regions.  

How to cite: Lehmann, R., Beck, I., Dooley, J., Casarini, M. P., Singh, N., Weeks, S., and Wilkening, B.: Polar Educators International: A network of scientists and teachers that brings polar research into classrooms, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-21716, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-21716, 2020.

Title:  Companion modelling and participatory simulation: A glimpse

David Crookall (1) and Nicolas Becu (2)

(1) Université Côte d’Azur, Nice, France; (2) LIttoral ENvironnement et Sociétés (LIENSs), La Rochelle, France.

Simulation/games are ‘usually’ used to communicate science, such as in educational, environment or government organizations.  Another developing use is to help organizations to solve problems or make decisions.  Two successful and related simulation/gaming approaches, called companion modelling (ComMod) and participatory simulation (PS), have been developed over the last two decades, and constitute fairly elaborate decision-making aides and problem-solving tools.

Both approaches involve the full collaboration of stakeholders in the evolving development of a model and a simulation, in participating and in debriefing.  The underlying aim is usually to explore the relations among stakeholders (society) and between them and their environment.  For example, they have been used to help two communities in conflict over natural resources, to give authorities and inhabitants the opportunity to discuss and decide about coastal erosion and habitats or to help local authorities explore alternative coastal flood prevention measures.

They have also been used to bring together a wide range of stakeholders from the same territory to discuss and analyse their varied visions, objectives and interactions.  Indeed, some forms of these tools can be used to help organizations, such local authorities and professional groups, to discuss ideas on possible futures, to explore scenarios for marine policy or for flood planning, to generate ideas for a new constitution or ministerial policy.

ComMod generally entails building a model of socio-ecological interactions (maybe computerized), which underlies participation in a large-scale role-play with stakeholders who have contributed to the design.  Often the design process takes several meetings (each of two to three days or more) over a period of several weeks or even months: this is both a strength and a weakness.  The model is usually developed with agent-based modelling (ABM) tools.  One such computer tool is ‘Common Pool Resources and Multi-Agent Systems’ (CORMAS), designed specifically as a support tool for ComMod; another is NetLogo.

PS overlaps to a large degree with, and is sometimes seen as an offshoot of, ComMod.  One main difference is that does not necessarily use ComMod (i.e., a model built with stakeholders and/or an ABM).  A PS in this sense tends to be easier to develop and implement because its design does not require as much toing and froing between stakeholders and facilitators.  A PS tends to capture emerging phenomena and trace developing relations in regard to social, industrial and territorial resources and demands on those resources; it can manifest a fairly powerful forecasting or future projection element.

Our session will provide a small glimpse of the rationale behind the two strands and illustrate several ways in which they have been used effectively.  We will also provide a resource list of references, associations and training opportunities.

How to cite: Crookall, D. and Becu, N.: Companion modelling and participatory simulation: A glimpse, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-8968, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-8968, 2020.

Engaging the public with research and environmental issues can be challenging due to the complexity of the topics and pre-existing misconceptions. Independently, interdisciplinary approaches such as sci-art and games have shown some promise for engaging people with complex and unfamiliar issues. This raises the question: Can the two be paired together for the better?

This project aims to see if sci-art and card games can be used together as a more effective and enjoyable way to engage people with environmental issues, as well as inspiring interest in science more generally. It also seeks to find out if art can influence the retention of information when paired up with the card game format.

To test this, we designed a card game that uses varying levels and styles of art to engage people with issues around flooding and climate change. An open international invite has recruited a large number of participants to take part in the study. In the study, participants are given a random version of the game to play and afterwards, and asked to complete a short questionnaire related to the game’s topics. This is supported with targeted facilitated sessions at university campuses, outreach and public events across the UK.

The results will demonstrate whether combining sci-art and card games in combination improves on just using either on their own. These are expected to vary depending on a number of factors, including what version of the game was played, the demographic playing the game and the location.

How to cite: Stanford, K. and Skinner, C.: Resilience - Combining Sci-Art and card games for more effective public engagement, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-9987, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-9987, 2020.

Serious games can be useful to teach students about real-world challenges. Here we present a first prototype of the online game 'Staudamm'. In this game, each player operates a multi-purpose water reservoir. The goal is to optimize revenues from the dam by balancing flood protection, electricity production, and irrigation-water supply, while fulfilling the minimal requirements for environmental flows. For flood protection, an almost empty reservoir would be optimal, whereas for electricity production and irrigation-water supply a fully filled reservoir would be preferable for at least at some time during the year. While there are some seasonal patterns in the inflows to the reservoir, balancing the different objectives is difficult, as one never exactly knows how much water will enter the reservoir. The game illustrates the difficulty in balancing multiple objectives, as well as the use of uncertain predictions in decision-making. In this poster presentation, we present the first prototype of the game and ask for suggestions for improvements and extensions.

How to cite: Vis, M., van Meerveld, I., and Seibert, J.: Staudamm – a serious game on water reservoir management, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-11420, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-11420, 2020.

The Integrated Groundwater Modeling Center is a small research center with a focus on hydrological research and a mission to develop and promote education and outreach in our community. We believe that students of all ages learn better when learning is fun, social, and hands-on. We strive to develop games that will immerse and educate users in geoscience concepts by collaborating closely with computer scientists and software engineers. For the work presented here, we have partnered with the University of Arizona and Kitware, Inc., blending technologies and expertise to develop a game to teach hydrogeology concepts.

We have developed an interactive computer simulation of a physical teaching model for students. This computer simulation has a game-like web browser-based interface but builds upon open source software components developed by Kitware (e.g. ParaView and SimPut) executing the integrated hydrology model ParFlow, using a framework built upon the widely used Python scripting language. Students run the simulation using a familiar web-app like interface with sliders and buttons yet are learning real hydrologic concepts and can compare to the physical model. Here, we will present this interactive toolkit and the physical sand tank aquifer model on which it’s based.

How to cite: Gallagher, L., Farley, A., Jourdain, S., O'Leary, P., Condon, L., and Maxwell, R.: Collaboration for gaming: Partnership between hydrologists, computer scientists, and educators to develop an educational geoscience game, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-11849, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-11849, 2020.

A solid understanding of electromagnetic theory is key to the education of electrical engineering students. However, concepts in electricity and magnetism (E&M) are notoriously challenging for students to learn, due to the difficulty in grasping abstract concepts such as the electric force as an invisible force that is acting at a distance, or how electromagnetic radiation is permeating and propagating in physical space. Building physical intuition to manipulate these abstractions requires means to visualize electromagnetism concepts in a three-dimensional space. This project involves the development of 3D visualizations of abstract E&M concepts in Virtual Reality (VR), in an immersive, exploratory, and engaging environment, with the potential to be adopted by Engineering, Science, Mathematics and Medical college curricula across the country.

VR provides a disruptive platform for teaching and learning, in a realistic and most importantly, interactive three-dimensional environment. There are many advantages for using VR as a teaching tool, as it has the potential of addressing many challenges traditional teaching usually faces, and can lead to increased student engagement while removing some of the anxiety student experience while in active learning environments. Virtual Reality provides the means of exploration, to construct visuals and manipulable objects to represent knowledge, which in turns leads to a constructivist way of learning, in the sense that students are allowed to build their own knowledge from meaningful experiences.

The VR labs for E&M courses in the ECE department are generated by Electrical Engineering and Computer Science students enrolled in the “Virtual Reality" course at the same university, as part of the course term projects. This reflects the strong educational impact of this project, as it allows students to contribute to the educational experiences of their peers.  Student competencies around conceptual understanding of electromagnetism topics, as well as their understanding of mathematical concepts, are measured via formative and summative assessments. To evaluate the effectiveness of VR learning, each VR experience is followed by a short 10-minute multiple choice test, designed to primarily measure conceptual understanding of the various topics, rather than measuring the ability to simply manipulate equations, and will be tied to the specific contexts and topics of that lab's instruction.

This paper discusses the implementation and the pedagogy of the Virtual Reality laboratory experiences to visualize concepts in E&M, with examples for specific labs, as well as challenges, and student feedback with the new approach. We will also discuss the integration of the 3D visualizations into lab exercises and the design of the student assessment tools used to assess the knowledge gain when the VR technology is employed. In addition, we discuss the development of VR labs to visualize concepts pertaining to elements vector calculus, designed to enhance student understanding of the nature of operators such the gradient, curl and divergence, as well as the development of VR labs to visualize concepts pertaining to spatial geometry and coordinate transformations. 

How to cite: Ilie, R., Shaffer, E., D’Angelo, C., Kudeki, E., Coiado, O., Wagner, L., and Pool, M.: Learning by Immersion: Developing Virtual reality Labs for Engineering Courses, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-6114, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-6114, 2020.

The last decade had seen an emergence of a new more dynamic and inconsistent media ecosystem. Digital media (i.e. social media) are accused by many independent researchers and influential observers, to have played a significant role in spread of science misinformation. Wide-ranging discussions about so-called ‘post-truth’ or ‘fake news’ phenomena have significantly involved science-related topics such as vaccines, GMO’s, climate change or homeopathy.

The issue of credibility and reliability of information is therefore central for science communication and public understanding of science.

CONCISE (“Communication role on perception and beliefs of EU Citizens about Science”), an EU research project intends to understand the role of science communication in beliefs, perceptions and knowledge of science and technology issues among European citizens from five countries: Spain, Italy, Portugal, Poland and Slovakia.

This paper presents preliminary quantitative results from Italian public consultation analysis regarding preferred citizen´s information channels and sources of scientific information. We will explore data to understand how trust in science is built, how citizens form opinions about the science, which sources of information they use and how they think can science communication could be more effective.

How to cite: Rubin, A., Pellegrini, G., and Šottník, L.: Role of Science Communication in beliefs, perceptions and knowledge of science and technology issues among European citizens, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-2943, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-2943, 2020.

To make an impact on science policy, a relationship between scientists, community leaders, and decision-makers cannot stop at one successful event – it must grow and evolve. The Arizona Science Policy Network aims to facilitate collaboration between early career scientists and decision-makers to draft science-informed policy. Beyond providing interactive and cross-disciplinary training and curriculum to scientists, we facilitate opportunities to practice in real situations, including speaking at town halls and public hearings, organizing public science science cafes and science days, writing policy memos and briefs, and advising on bills. In 2019, we successfully brought more than 60 early career scientists to the Arizona State Capitol to discuss drafts of the complex, multi-state Drought Contingency Plan with decision-makers. Since then, the state government has invited us to help draft sustainability- and climate change-focused legislation. We consider issues like climate change, water quality and availability, heat adaptation and mitigation, science education, ecological and social impacts of mining and industry, waste management, and emerging technologies. As we worked in impacted communities, we soon realized that we were missing the voices of community leaders in the conversation between scientists and policy-makers. In order to correct this, we hosted several science forums in breweries and cafes throughout Arizona. The science cafes initiated collaboration between policy-makers, scientists and community stakeholders, including Native American tribes. These meetings gave scientists, community members, and policy-makers a platform to discuss the environmental and socio-economic  impact of mining sites specific to each forum’s location. Early career scientists contributed their scientific expertise to explain how we can address region-specific problems. Community members also shared their knowledge of each unique area and context of the impact of current business and policy. Policy-makers brought their perspective on how science is used to enact change. From these efforts, we have fostered a more equitable and inclusive environment to ensure that all perspectives and knowledge are included in new bills and policies. Our program has provided a unique experience for scientists to further understand the broader impacts of science on communities and society. This presentation will reflect on the lessons learned in drafting policy with decision-makers and community leaders.

How to cite: Hall, C., Howley, E., Morton, E., Murphy, E., Bercovici, H., Tindell, K., McCutcheon, G., Solves, J.-P., Kurtz, L., Phillips, M., Bersson, J., Bernard, M., Dirks, B., and Weller, N.: Keeping Up the Momentum: Early Career Scientists in Policy-making and Community Science, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-977, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-977, 2020.

Twitter is an established social media platform valued by scholars as an open way to disseminate scientific information and to publicly discuss research results. Scientific discussions on Twitter are widely viewed by the media who can then pass on information to the public. Here, we take the example of two 2018 earthquake-related events which were widely commented on Twitter by geoscientists: the Palu Mw7.5 earthquake and tsunami in the Indonesian island of Sulawesi and the long-duration (more than one year) seismo-volcanic crisis Mayotte island in the Comoros archipelago between Africa and Madagascar. We build our analysis on a content and contextual analysis of selected Twitter threads about the geophysical characteristics of these events. Most authors of this paper have participated to these Twitter threads and related discussions, and regularly explain geohazard events via this social media. From the two selected examples, we show that Twitter promotes very rapid building of knowledge – in the minutes to hours and days following an event – via an efficient exchange of information and active discussion between the scientists themselves and with the public. Combining these results with our own experience of communicating geohazard science via Twitter, we discuss the advantages and potential pitfalls of this relatively novel way to make scientific information accessible to scholarly peers and to lay people. We argue that scientific discussion on Twitter breaks down the traditional “ivory towers” of academia. It participates to the growing trends towards open science, making science accessible to any non-academics or citizen scientists who can follow and participate in the discussion. This may help people to understand how science is developed, and, in the case of natural/environmental hazards, to better understand their risks.

How to cite: Lacassin, R., Devès, M., Hicks, S. P., Ampuero, J.-P., Bossu, R., Bruhat, L., Daryono, D., Wibisono, D. F., Fallou, L., Fielding, E. J., Gabriel, A.-A., Gurney, J., Krippner, J., Lomax, A., Sudibyo, Muh. M., Pamumpuni, A., Patton, J. R., Robinson, H., Tingay, M., and Valkaniotis, S.: Rapid collaborative knowledge building via Twitter after significant geohazard events, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-5261, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-5261, 2020.

Worldwide, research community has studied the benefits of green and blue spaces implementation in urban areas, generating a great amount of literature regarding this topic. Since these solutions are of interest to face climate change impacts in cities, the European Commission (EC) has funded several projects to make an extensive review of the available literature. Three of these projects were especially studied here, namely EKLIPSE, Mapping Assessment of Ecosystem and their Services- Urban Ecosystem (MAES: Urban Ecosystems), and NATure-based URban innoVATION (NATURVATION). They all aim to identify the physical and social impacts, benefits and trade-offs of Nature-Based Solutions (NbS).

To objectively compare findings presented in the deliverable reports, a text-mining approach was carried out. This methodology coupled with a data visual representation allowed to convert the EC projects reports (corpus) into a meaningful structured analysis. As a result, a graphical representation was created, making possible to recognize concepts, patterns and attributes addressed by each text, as well as stakeholders and their position with respect to the topic.

 The text mining analysis was implemented through Gargantex Blue Jasmine Version (an open source software developed by ISC-PIF). Gargantex results permitted to recover a list of key-terms from each corpus based in their co-occurrence in the whole text. These terms were used to elaborate a visual representation or network, placing the words strongly related close to each other and characterizing the obtained clusters by a similar color.

This approach underlined the specific focus of each project: the conciliation between urbanisation and urban ecosystems (MAES), or the economic valuation and monetisation of NbS (NATURVATION) for instance. Moreover, it demonstrated that despite the different literature review methodologies of each report/project, there are some common trends exhibited by the obtained graphical networks and their statistical attributes. For instance, the need to assess the NbS performance with some adapted indicators; and the important EC supporting role in the implementation of NbS. Similarly, some regulating (e.g. water quality or temperature reduction) and cultural (e.g. recreation or health benefits) services are more addressed.  

This analysis can be applied to all kind of corpus, which makes it easy to understand different and similar concepts and approaches of a set of text data. A text-mining analysis can be conducted over the direct references of NbS benefits, on a collection of publications of a research database like Scopus or Science Direct. 

How to cite: Castellanos Diaz, L. A., Versini, P. A., Tchiguirinskaia, I., and Bonin, O.: A text-mining approach to assess impacts and benefits of Nature-Based Solutions , EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-14433, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-14433, 2020.

The Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) Programme of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is driven by the need to understand the variability and trends in the composition of the global atmosphere and the related physical parameters, and to assess the consequences thereof. GAW provides reliable scientific information for a broad spectrum of users, including policymakers, on topics related to atmospheric chemical composition. The programme supports international environmental and climate agreements and improves our understanding of climate change and long-range transboundary air pollution through its work on greenhouse gases, aerosols, reactive gases, atmospheric deposition, stratospheric ozone, and ultraviolet radiation. GAW provides information based on combinations of observations, data analysis and modelling activities, and supports a number of applications at the global, regional and urban scale. This implies a variety of target groups and communication vectors.

To sustain the credibility and increase the visibility of GAW within the WMO community and other national/international bodies, the broader scientific and policy communities, as well as the general public, communication efforts are required. Several activities during the EGU General Assembly 2019 have been carried out to celebrate the 30^th anniversary of GAW.

For instance, a Union Symposium explored the 30 year journey from fundamental Atmospheric Composition Research to Societal Services. It showcased the importance of atmospheric composition research to climate, weather forecasting, human health, agricultural productivity and food security. The session highlighted the progress made in translating research into services, but stressed that much more needs to be done. A mentimeter survey during this Union Symposium revealed that among the scientific community GAW is valued for its coordination, observations, capacity building, outreach and its global focus.

Reflections on communication of atmospheric composition and outcomes from the 30^th anniversary celebration of GAW will be presented.

How to cite: Volosciuk, C.: Reflection on communicating atmospheric composition and its impacts, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-16061, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-16061, 2020.

Algarve is one Portugal regions’ in where the tourism activities are most relevant both socially and economically. Although Algarve’s most important touristic products are beaches resorts and summer weather conditions, as well as golf and gastronomy, this region still preserve a wide variety of topographies and geographical features that could constitute the basis for Geotourism activities.

Here we present some examples of how Science Communication (SC) and a Science Museum/Centre (SCM) are the ideal intermediates between the tourists and the tourist site or scenic resource. We also disclose how SCM’s could act independently or with less obvious partners, private and public, in developing or complementing Geoutourism activities.

Geoutourism activities’ and intervention areas of the Lagos Ciência Viva Science Centre and its partners could be grouped and will detailed in:

1. a) Scientific advice and training of tour operators or visit co-guiding; b) scientific residencies programs and field trips; c) production of materials - exs. thematic guides, 3D reconstructions, and printed and mobile interpretative information; d) SCM partners participation in research projects (Citizen Science).

Finally, we present examples of how SC and SCM could adapt the informal education techniques into tourist operators training contributing this way to an increase and diversity of the tourist professionals that work in Algarve and enrich the tourist experience further than the landscape appreciation.

Here we use and adopt the following definition: “Geotourism is sustainable tourism with a primary focus on experiencing the earth’s geological features in a way that fosters environmental and cultural understanding, appreciation and conservation, and is locally beneficial” (Dowling & Newsome, 2006).

How to cite: Azevedo Rodrigues, L., Bamberger, A., and Blum, A.: Geotourism – practices, challenges and potentialities in Algarve, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-10641, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-10641, 2020.

As researchers we attempt to engage the public with our work in many different spaces yet we hardly ever seriously consider how we might manipulate, or control, that space in order to enhance that engagement. The theatrical research discipline of Scenography concerns itself with understanding how space can be used, through mediums such as stage design and performer/audience interaction, to control engagements and help maximize the impact of the activities within that space.

The Earth Arcade is a series of public engagement activities within an exhibit space that can be tailored for different events, depending on scale and audience. It uses games and game-like activities to share environmental research and inspire people to take actions to address environmental issues. The Forest project was established to explore how scenographic techniques could transform the spaces in which Earth Arcade exhibits are deployed.

Inspiration for The Forest was drawn from a visit to the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space 2019, where several of the exhibits were themselves inspired by environmental concerns. The space was debuted as a distinct part of an Earth Arcade exhibit at the 2019 Freedom Festival in Hull, UK, an annual arts and culture festival with over 130,000 visitors, and included elements like mindfulness, conversation circles, craftivism, and interactive soundscapes. These elements have subsequently been incorporated into further Earth Arcade exhibits.

The Forest demonstrates a successful, inter-disciplinary approach, where environmental researchers and theatrical researchers combine their work for mutual benefit and engage the public with vital environmental issues.

How to cite: Skinner, C., Skinner, A., and Fergusson Baugh, C.: Earth Arcade’s The Forest: Scenographic engagement spaces, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-13264, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-13264, 2020.

With geoscience student numbers dwindling, there is a strong need for Earth scientists to enthuse a new generation of prospective students. We created several hands-on activities to introduce members of the general public of all ages to the fundamentals of, and current research in paleomagnetism. We developed these activities at different outreach events in the UK, such as a family science fair (at the Ness Gardens) and a holiday workshop (at the Victoria Gallery & Museum). In the first week of July, 2019, we contributed to the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition, a science exhibition in London with almost 14,000 visitors of the general public, including many school groups. Visitors came from all educational backgrounds. We had a stand that consisted of 4 hands-on experiments, and an informative backdrop. The four activities allowed visitors to explore the range of tasks that a paleomagnetist does, from the collection and measurement of samples to understanding the behaviour of the Earth’s magnetic field. Visitors could measure real lavas from Iceland on a custom-built magnetometer that was designed specifically for outreach, and determine the magnetic polarity of the samples. We also created an information booklet with ’10 things you might not know about Earth’s magnetic field’, which is openly available under a CC-license. To measure the impact of our stand on visitors’ knowledge of paleomagnetism, we designed a quiz. Our results show that especially for school kids, our stand had a significant impact on their knowledge of the Earth’s magnetic field. In this contribution we share lessons learned through designing the ‘Magnetic to the Core’ stand, hands-on activities and evaluations.

How to cite: van der Boon, A., Paterson, G., Kavanagh, J., and Biggin, A.: Magnetic to the Core - Communicating paleomagnetism with hands-on activities, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-7269, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-7269, 2020.

Planets in a room (PIAR) is a DIY kit to build a small, lowcost spherical planet simulator and planetarium projector. Teachers, science communicators that run a small museum or planetarium, planetary scientists, geologists and other individuals can easily build it and use it on their own, to show and teach the Earth and other planets and to develop and share material with a growing online community. (http://www.planetsinaroom.net/)

The project is being developed by the italian non-profit association Speak Science, with the collaboration of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) and the Roma Tre University, Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica. 
It was funded by the Europlanet Outreach Funding Scheme  and  was presented to the scientific community at EPSC (European Planetary Science Congress) in 2017 and 2018. Today it is being distributed to an increasing number of schools, science museum and research institutions from all over Europe. PIAR is also one of the projects selected by the new-born Europlanet Society for education and public outreach of planetary science.

At EGU2020, we will present an improved, new version of the project. Having started with 3d-printed technology,  PIAR is today going green,  with a new wooden, plastic-free version of the kit that will be presented for the first time. 
To help you engage a larger audience, we will also present a selection of educational material and projects that have been developed for PIAR by scientists, teachers and communicators  and that are focused on Earth and on planetary habitability inside and outside the Solar System.

How to cite: Giacomini, L., Aloisi, F., De Angelis, I., and Capretti, S.: (Green) Planets in a Room, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-22153, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-22153, 2020.

Every month, millions of people read about climate change on Wikipedia. However, the information is often outdated and written by non-experts with strong opinions, such as climate activists and climate contrarians. Based on my six years of experience of writing on Wikipedia, I’ve come to the conclusion Wikipedia that is an undervalued piece of the science communication landscape.

Wikipedia as a medium enjoys high levels of trust compared to traditional news media, at least in the UK. It is built by a game of consensus building and negotiation between people with differing views. I will distill the experiences I have had on effective collaboration with non-experts who expose complexity in my explanations, dealing with those in denial of climate change and more recent examples of the presence of climate activism.

For me editing has also been useful for my research, and I believe the same will be true for other experts,. As writing for Wikipedia is very similar to carrying out a literature review, it is especially worthwhile for early career scientists or others venturing into new topic. It has often helped me to better put my own research into context. Rewording scientific literature for a broad public allows for a better appreciation of the material as well. A further validation can be obtained by submitting your Wikipedia article as a scientific paper to various WikiJournals.

How to cite: Nijsse, F. J. M. M.: Contributing to world's largest encylopedia: my experiences as a Wikipedia science communicator, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-19777, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-19777, 2020.

We took science to the streets of Helsinki using urban art in order to foster communication between scientists and the general public.

Researchers from the Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR) and Finnish Meteorological Institute, together with artists from Helsinki Urban Art co-designed a public mural that joined climate research, art and literary characters of Alice in Wonderland. The Climate Wall illustrates the 1.5°C and 4°C pathways and highlights the need for a transition from a greenhouse-gas spewing caterpillar into a sustainable butterfly. The wall includes the hashtag #ScienceInHelsinki and INAR’s twitter handle inviting passers-by to ask scientists questions anytime.

The design of the mural was a joint effort, from posing the starting question, “what is the key message we want to deliver?”, to the final imagery used on the wall (and some actual painting!). Methods used for the co-design process included in-person workshops, a facebook group, and online virtual ‘whiteboards’, which resulted in a collateral result of this project: how scientists and artists can work together effectively.

The Climate Wall was inaugurated in a public event at Helsinki Central Library Oodi auditorium in December 2019 with a short presentation, a panel discussion with some of the scientists and artists, and a children’s workshop (“The Art of Asking Questions”).

The project took place from May 2019 until the mural’s completion on October 2019, and was funded by the Finnish Arts Promotion Center (Taike).

How to cite: Buenrostro Mazon, S., Lauri, A., Duplissy, E. M., Lampilahti, J., Makkonen, R., Mielonen, T., Pulkkinen, M., Rantala, M., Riuttanen, L., and Ruuskanen, T.: Painting Science in Helsinki , EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-16140, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-16140, 2020.

Teaching, researching, knowledge transfer and innovation are important drivers of the development of any Country, provided by higher education in humanities, e.g. social and political sciences or clinical medicine, as well as in science and technology. In Europe these items correspond to the heart of a strategy, which aims to enforce a more inclusive, cohesive and competitive continent. Sometimes, science teaching fails because educational programs do not satisfactorily meet social needs, or research does not achieve innovation targets since it is not enough social-impacting. Scientific reductionism favours the individual point of view rather than shared perspectives, which integrate different disciplines and better answer to real problems. Many researchers, highly specialized in their knowledge fields, often transfer clear scientific concepts but unrelated to life or social and ethical values. Moreover, teaching today uses increasingly advanced tools to improve active learning, placing great trust in technology and forgetting the basics of good communication, which lies in the skills of communicator, his authenticity, his sincere interest in the listener’s growth. Following teaching experiences gained with a scientific communication course realised in the last two years at the Polytechnic and Basic Sciences School (Federico II University of Naples, Naples, Italy), we propose a distinction between science popularization and science communication, which establishes interesting guidelines for dealing with the complex interaction between higher education and society's needs. We have recovered the basic of communication skills, highlighting the importance of the sender-receiver relationship and strengthening the idea that effective communication occurs when receiver and sender simultaneously grow: the former improves his knowledge and his ability to choose, and the second one changes himself as an effect of the receiver’s reaction. Achieving effective communication in education is primarily a matter of taking care of the interpersonal relationship. Finally, we demonstrate that there is not only one way to communicate, but there are many approaches, depending on the peculiar relationship between sender and receiver.

How to cite: Vitagliano, E., Di Maio, R., and Calcaterra, D.: Which communication for higher education in scientific disciplines?, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-2727, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-2727, 2020.

EGU General Assembly is one of the world’s biggest conferences dedicated to geosciences. It gathers experts from all science fields connected to the study of past, present and future climates. Many of them have an historic perspective on their area of expertise: such knowledge is useful to develop an integrated view of the history of climate sciences.

We propose EGU2020 attendees to help building a collective timeline of the history of climate science. Everyone is invited to come to our poster to add to the printed timeline a scientific breakthrough in her/his field of expertise. This will be an opportunity to come to chat on climate science history and to construct together a wider picture of climate sciences.

The final cut of the timeline produced during EGU2020 will be available on our web page EarthBreath (https://www.sophia.mines-paristech.fr/earthbreath/), and our Twitter english (@eb_climate_data) and french (@eb_climat_fr) accounts.

EarthBreath is a non-profit initiative that we develop for promoting climate and Earth sciences to diverse publics.

How to cite: Tournadre, B. and Trolliet, M.: Your collective timeline of climate science history, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-3526, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-3526, 2020.

In an era where communicating your science goes hand in hand with doing your science, many scientists devote time to develop tools and learn new skills and strategies for Science Communication. The European Geosciences Union (EGU) has put in place one of those tools: the Divisions’ Blog. Most of the current EGU Divisions has an active blog run mainly by one or more volunteer early-career scientists. 
Regularly, both editors, and regular and guest authors write about research in their field, talk about relevant topics discussed within the scientific community, and highlight interesting facts for scientists and the general public. The goal is to provide a platform for enhancing communication among geoscientists in ways that go beyond the means of peer-reviewed publication or scientific conferences. At the same time, we aim at engaging with the general public, by writing in a technically sound, but more accessible form. Each Division’s blog has its character, like the teams behind it, making the blogs a diversified and exciting digital environment.

Here we show the main numbers, statistics, and feedback from each Division Blog, thus providing a measure of the efforts put in and the impact made so far by the broad Geoscience community. We discuss best practices, blog styles and topics which do work well or not, based on readership statistics. We also show the channels chosen for advertising the blogs, such as social media, and the impact of the choices made. Finally, we show that even though EGU has its base in Europe, we reach an audience beyond Europe thanks to active members based outside Europe and to topics addressing particular geographical areas.

We conclude that, within the increasingly essential role played by Science Communication in every research field, the EGU Divisions’ Blogs are successful at sharing research related to their fields with the broad geoscientific and non-scientific community. This success mainly relies on the time, effort, motivation, and creativity of editors and guest authors.

How to cite: Cigala, V., Burgard, C., van Rijsingen, E., van Zelst, I., Trani, O., Alberti, T., Sprenger, M., Jurikova, H., Barnard, L., Amato, G., Roder, G., Rizzi, J., Lombardo, L., Fernández-Blanco, D., Gürer, D., Papeschi, S., Davies, H. S., Franzke, C., Faranda, D., von der Heydt, A., Vannitsem, S., Dal Zilio, L., Glerum, A., Gülcher, A., Lourenço, D., Meier, T., Rozel, A., Shephard, G., Coulon, V., Berger, S., and Cavitte, M.: #SciComm via the European Geoscience Union Divisions’ blogs: experiences from the editorial teams., EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-10775, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-10775, 2020.

The academic literature is the primary source for current developments in science. But limited access to journals as well as the widespread use of technical jargon can inhibit the dissemination of new knowledge to scientists from other fields and to non-scientists. These serve as major barriers to interdisciplinary collaboration with non-geoscientists and to efforts to further public understanding of geoscience research. Meanwhile, traditional science news focuses on topics of obvious interest to the public, such as geohazards or climate change. While engaging with non-geoscientists on these topics is important, the majority of geoscience research lacks a mechanism for generating public interest.

“Bites” sites, originally introduced in the astronomy community, are blogs dedicated to communicating new developments in science to a broad audience. Each bite is an engaging, short (400-700 word) summary that explains an exciting new scientific paper and discusses its importance in the field. Bites are typically written by graduate students and other early career scientists about recently published articles that have not been picked up by more traditional science news outlets. These sites serve three key purposes: 1) to keep the interested public – especially university students who may consider careers in geoscience – up to date with recent developments in the field, 2) to generate attention for new work that traditional science media outlets may miss, and 3) to give early career scientists practice with public-facing writing and editing, which are critical skills both within and beyond academia.

Here we present the new site Geobites, targeted at communicating new geoscience (broadly defined) research to the public. We show examples of articles on Geobites, diagram the structure of a good article, present initial site analytics, and solicit feedback from the geoscience communication community.

How to cite: Shobe, C. M., Vrouwenvelder, K. T., Moerchen, M., and Giampoala, M.: Geobites: Down-to-earth summaries of new geoscience research for a broad audience, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-11135, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-11135, 2020.

The pan-European SeaDataNet marine and ocean data infrastructure started in early 2000, by means of a European funded project to create a framework for the management of large and diverse sets of data deriving from in situ measurements. It has been improved thanks to different European projects, it represents the joint efforts of several marine institutes around the European and the Mediterranean seas. The current project that is improving the infrastructure is the SeaDataCloud Horizon 2020 project; it involves a network of 56 partners across 29 countries.

According to our main objectivest he project designed and implemented actions which can spur a response on an international level, creating the basis to reinforce the pan-European SeaDataCloud community.

Information Technology (IT) has an important impact on how people work together. In the SeaDataCloud project the following web communication tools are used:

• SeaDataNet website and Extranet;
• Partners’ websites;
• Mailing lists;
• Electronic newsletters;
• On line educational materials;
• Videos and video tutorials;
• Twitter;
• Articles in e-journals;

Members of the SeaDataCloud and SeaDataNet I and II, have had the opportunity of face to face meetings, the norm is to travel even for meetings of short duration. This investment in time and money allows direct contact between the partners of the projects. This creates an opportunity for people across Europe to meet each other, to work together and to speak openly.

The IMDIS (International Conference on Marine Data and Information Systems) conferences have been organized in the framework of the European funded projects that have allowed the SeaDataNet infrastructure to be developed and upgraded. The meetings started in 2005 with the first conference organised in Brest (France), to share knowledge and best practices on marine data management. IMDIS is a unique platform and has the following goals:

• Raise awareness of the SeaDataNet infrastructure, new development and standards;
• Share experiences in ocean data management;
• Enable synergies between data providers and data managers.

It has been a breeding ground for inspirational ideas, for example the project ODIP (Ocean Data Interoperability Platform) that led to its successor ODIP II project was conceived during one of the conferences. The challenges and objectives of the projects were to find common interoperability solutions to problems in ocean data sharing, in collaboration with institutions from Europe, USA and Australia. In this case the IMDIS series of conferences have represented an opportunity not only for knowledge exchange in ocean data management but they have led to significant results in terms of new synergies that made it possible to find new partners and projects.

The direct interactions during the meetings as well as the on line tools have had a positive impact on reinforcing the development of a large SeaDataNet community across Europe and beyond.

The SeaDataCloud project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement Nº 730960.

How to cite: Pecci, L., Fichaut, M., and Schaap, D.: The communication and the organization of events in a scientific multidiscipinary community: the SeaDataNet experience, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-19182, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-19182, 2020.

Societies deploy technologies and infrastructures to interact with natural systems – for which geoscience expertise is key, including understanding changes due to unsustainable human practices. Despite its geoscience basis, however, human interaction with natural systems primarily is an economic, social and cultural endeavour about a desirable human niche. Depending on the ‘political spin’ of given actors – stewardship or engineering, for example – a geo-societal narrative is created when shaping the global human niche. These narratives explain how a given technology or infrastructure shall support production, consumption and societal well-being, as well as societal change and environmental alteration. Relatedly, as highlighted by the geoethics approach [*], geoscience research has ethical, social and cultural implications – for example, in terms of explanatory narratives. Led by climate research, contemporary Earth System Science illustrates that anthropogenic global change is as much a socio-cultural than a science theme ^1–3, which cannot be neatly disconnected.

Because the science and the socio-cultural spheres are so inevitably intermingled, a holistic approach to geoscience is required, e.g. when it comes to the future of humankind. Applying the ethical concept of responsibility for future generations (intergenerational justice), the geoscience community should engage with studying pathways to possible futures; that is: to embrace integrated assessments, which are holistic, involving personal and societal concerns, economic and environmental choices as well as philosophical conceptions of the world, human histories and human futures. While some geoscience domains, such as climate sciences, embarked on integrated assessments, others focus on past and present dynamics.  In particular, studies of hydrology, nutrient cycles, soils and natural hazards seem prone to engage with holistic, future-oriented integrated assessments.

Swift geo-processes such as the rise of the global sea-level are a ‘geological present’. However, human perception sees them shaping ‘a later future’ only – which sometimes blurs people’s sense-making of the present. Therefore, intergenerational justice calls upon geoscientists to engage with studies of possible future configurations of the Earth System; that is, geoscientist should study the networked geo-, bio-, techno- and societal-cultural systems holistically. It would be negligent grounding political governance on a body of expertise that lacks the integration of future-oriented geoscience knowledge with social science and humanities. More specifically, we argue to envisage a highly integrated exploration of alternative future policy pathways ⁴. This approach envisages a deliberative learning process about policy alternatives in light of their practical (geoscience and socio-cultural) implications, engaging the potential of geoscience research for humankind.

 [*] http://www.geoethics.org/definition

1. Kowarsch, M., Flachsland, C., Garard, J., Jabbour, J. & Riousset, P. The treatment of divergent viewpoints in global environmental assessments. Environ. Sci. Policy 77, 225–234 (2017).
2. O’Neill, B. C. et al. The roads ahead: Narratives for shared socioeconomic pathways describing world futures in the 21st century. Glob. Environ. Chang. 42, 169–180 (2017).
3. Schill, C. et al. A more dynamic understanding of human behaviour for the Anthropocene. Nat. Sustain. (2019). doi:10.1038/s41893-019-0419-7
4. Edenhofer, O. & Kowarsch, M. Cartography of pathways: A new model for environmental policy assessments. Environ. Sci. Policy 51, 56–64 (2015).

How to cite: Bohle, M. and Kowarsch, M.: Taking responsibility: Geo-societal studies of alternative futures, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-2759, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-2759, 2020.

Many businesses and organizations of all types have adopted ethics codes or codes of conduct. Examples relevant to geoscience include the Cape Town Statement on Geoethics of the International Association for Promoting Geoethics,  the Scientific Integrity and Professional Ethics policy of the American Geophysical Union, and the Joint EGU-AGU Statement of principles for a  code of ethics for the geosciences. The Government of Canada is implementing a Science Integrity Policy across its science-related Departments. Successful implementation of such policies can be challenging and many breaches have been and continue to be reported. Humans make ethical or unethical decisions and understanding the sociological processes that are involved and applying this knowledge to the implementation of ethics codes may improve their success rates. This paper analyzes these sociological processes through the lens of symbolic interactionism theory. In spite of its somewhat forbidding name, the theory is actually quite simple. It shows how interactions between people lead to the meanings they give to other people, organizations and things. It describes how these meanings lead to the interpretation of situations, and how groups arrive at normative decisions based on this interpretation. These normative decisions involve ethical considerations. The paper describes the approach and seeks audience feedback on a proposed survey of the members of the International Association for Promoting Geoethics  to collect empirical evidence on which to base a symbolic interactionist approach to effective implementation of ethics codes in geoscience.

How to cite: Boon, J.: Making ethics codes more effective, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-1260, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-1260, 2020.

The INFACT project aims to reinvigorate mineral exploration in Europe by engaging society and using new technology and research to improve mineral exploration practice. The consortium is formed of geo- and social scientists working together to achieve a new vision of mineral exploration. As a key part of INFACT, expert stakeholders from across Europe and other jurisdictions such as Australia and Canada have been engaged in a series of online and face to face discussions to determine and address identified challenges to exploration and a way to overcome them. 

Five key environmental and social challenges and barriers to exploration in Europe have been determined by INFACT through a mix of qualitative and quantitative research. These were (i) existing land use, (ii) the cost of mineral exploration, (iii) public perceptions and negative attitudes toward the exploration and mining industry, (iv) sustainability and the environment, and (v) governance and regulatory structures and processes. 

Through a series of workshops and interviews, discussing ways to address these challenges and barriers, a vision for mineral exploration and mining in Europe was created:

• Mining in Europe should contribute to local and regional sustainable development, enabling a low carbon economy through environmentally and socially acceptable extraction of critical raw materials(CRM). This will involve:
• The European Commission developing and enforcing rigorous and binding legislation with respect to all mineral exploration activities;
• Increased investment contribution for exploration of CRM within Europe;
• Exploration companies being required to adopt environmental and socially acceptable good practice;
• Increased awareness of the importance of mining to support a low carbon economy and improved public trust in the process;
• Creation of socio-economic shared value through adoption of multi-stakeholder collaborative planning and visioning; and
• Exploration companies achieving and maintaining a Social Licence to Operate;

The work presented will determine a way to ensure socio-environmentally sustainable supply of raw materials and the key steps required to achieve this vision. 

How to cite: MacCallum, C., Russill, J., Kirsch, M., Ajjabou, L., Salam, I., and Bennet, L.: Theory of change for the mineral Exploration - INFACT project, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-18416, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-18416, 2020.

The Spanish group of the IAPG has one of its strategic areas focused on development cooperation, in order to solve environmental, ethical and social problems related to the management of geological resources. One of the branches of this cooperation focuses on natural materials prospection which can be used as cheap additives in the construction process. As a result of this line, a cooperation project was carried out framed in the program of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) with Latin America, specifically with the University of Moa, province of Holguín (Cuba). This research aims to characterize the deposits of natural pozzolans in the northeastern region of Cuba, and determine their possible applications in the manufacture of cements and mortars for the construction of social housing in that region. The tasks contemplated in the development of this project are divided into two fundamental parts; the first one, which describes the field campaigns in situ in which geological survey and sampling work was carried out, with the assimilation of natural samples from the selected deposits, as well as samples of slag extracted from a steel plant. The second part refers to the laboratory campaign, in which a great variety of tests have been carried out to determine the suitability of the samples, among which are mentioned: X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, chemical analysis, pozzolanicity, granulometric test, specific surface, real density, freezing, mechanical resistance and determination of the speed of propagation of the ultrasound. After analyzing the results obtained, it is concluded that the samples studied have the properties and characteristics necessary for the manufacture of cements and mortars with pozzolanic characteristics, justifying, in this way, the manufacture of products with a moderate production cost and with the quality for the construction of social housing and infrastructure, so necessary in the study area.

How to cite: Martín Sánchez, D. A., Costafreda Mustelier, J. L., Presa Madrigal, L., García Laso, A., and Rodríguez Rama, J. A.: Prospection of geo-resources for the building of social houses in Cuba, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-7309, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-7309, 2020.

Raising awareness about opportunities for transdisciplinary work and ethical grounding to meet the global challenges to the professions is paramount. Issues of justice and living within the planetary boundaries become also more prominent in the life, social sciences and humanities questioning disciplinary silos. Institutionalising alternatives that create and sustain broader knowledge ecologies for sustainable living is yet to be systematically enabled through new learning and educational pathways. We argue, that there are considerable mutual learning opportunities between artisanal, small-scale mining and small-scale fisheries.

The global employment in the artisanal gold mining sector is estimated at some 10 to 15 million people, of whom 4.5 million are women and 0.6 million children. Some 40 million people are estimated along value chains in the artisanal fishing of whom 50% are estimated to be women. In both sectors informality is high, production very incompletely recorded and relations with governments and local administrations tend to be difficult as perceptions about the negative sides of the artisanal operations are pervasive in a policy context modelled on industrial exploitation and value chains. Where attempts have been made to quantify production and role in employment, food security or even in contribution to GDP and international trade, the numbers almost always justify policy change in favour of the small-scale sectors. In the face of disruptive technologies liable to make many industrial jobs redundant, opportunities for a new brand of artisanal operators in higher value added segments would be possible with suitable investment in people and institutions. This could go well beyond the poverty discourse into which artisanal miners and fishers are often confined, a notion vigorously rejected by many fishers e.g. in West Africa.

The 2018 “Mosi-oa-Tunya Declaration on Artisanal and Small-scale Mining, Quarrying and Development” and the “Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the context of food security and poverty eradication” with its grounding in human rights and adopted in 2014 by the FAO Committee of Fisheries are starting points for demarginalising artisanal operators. The small-scale fisheries academy (SSF academy) in Senegal offer an example of how this could be enabled. Some 600,000 people are estimated to work along artisanal value chains in the country.

The SSF academy explores the possibilities to use bottom-up training of trainer approaches to empower individuals (men and women) and communities to improve their livelihoods. Inclusive, participatory methods of active learning based on “Gender Actions Learninig System” (GALS) are being tested to enable experiencing positive local change in relation to global policy goals like the SSF Guidelines in the context of Agenda 2030. The SSF academy offers a safe space where diverse actors can meet, confront their different knowledges and experiences and develop social and technological innovations. Wider sharing builds capabilities and practice of advocacy and collective action thus also paving the way for forms of more participatory governance. Demonstrating feasibility may entice policy reform that would benefit from long-term societal views to counter wide-spread short-termism, for fishers and miners.

How to cite: Nauen, C. E.: Small is beautiful – or is it? The challenges of integrating human rights principles into sector policies favourable to artisanal fisheries and mining, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-3936, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-3936, 2020.

Macroalgae, also called seaweed, play a key ecological role in coastal ecosystems and can be used for a variety of applications, including food, health products, cosmetics, agriculture and environmental management. Well-developed in Asia, the seaweed aquaculture is also a growing economic sector in Europe that can contribute to a sustainable circular bioeconomy. However, this sector lacks specific legislation to regulate its development. To ensure the environmental and economic sustainability of this sector, a group of experts has designed the European guidelines for sustainable development of seaweed aquaculture, PEGASUS, in a participatory and co-designed manner. The scientific, technical, environmental, legal and socio-economic dimensions have been taken into account to anticipate any potential risks associated with aquaculture development. Combining the expertise of SMEs and researchers, these guidelines have been published and presented to the European Parliament to help all stakeholders in the sector to understand the different aspects of seaweed aquaculture. All actors in the sector, such as farmers, suppliers, users, researchers and decision-makers, should establish a collaborative network along the value chain to guide strategic development plans and ensure environmental sustainability.

Ethical recommendations extracted and inspired from this work for better governance and preservation of the marine environment will be presented

How to cite: Barbier, M. and Charrier, B.: Ethical recommendations for Sustainable development of algae aquaculture., EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-2460, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-2460, 2020.

Geotourism combines abiotic, biotic and cultural aspects. In Tigray in northern Ethiopia, the Orthodox Christian religion is a dominant component of culture, that highlights the importance of geology and the wider natural environment, and creates great visibility for it.

• Hundreds of rock churches have been established in various lithologies, often in very scenic landscapes and are a major tourist attraction in Ethiopia;
• Around every church in Tembien, a sacred forest is present, remnants of the primary forest, 1 ha up to 1 km² in size. In such a way, the believers try to protect God’s creation; it is also a way to protect the church site from erosion and provide a pleasant microclimate;
• Numerous, often strong springs are considered as “holy water”, that has the power to cure various diseases; people travel long distances on foot, either to spend a required period of time near the spring, or to obtain water, often mixed with soil that will be carried home;
• Major churches and “holy waters” are located in remote places; pilgrims follow semi-fixed pilgrim ways, along which basic facilities are established and where riparian people are not surprised by the presence of trekkers;
• As it has been created by God, there is a general sense for environmental protection, which is evidenced by the numerous birds present, the status of forests, construction of nest boxes for doves (representing the Holy Spirit), or the status of wild animals such as leopards;
• Underground tunnels, natural caves (Zeyi cave is 364 m long) or caverns in rocks play a crucial role in ancient traditions of the Tigrayan highlanders; their religious use is considered as a christianisation of an earlier sacred spot;
• There are numerous impressive popular geological myths inspired by religion – for example a fault line that evidences a path of a sacred snake, a petrified marriage party, a 150 Mg rock that was rolled by one Mr. Ilias for sake of church building - the storytelling exemplifies the Tembien Highlands’ geoheritage value;
• The function of these sacred places as a main destination for domestic tourism contributes to popularising geology in the society.

As geosites are so highly valued in local religious beliefs, introducing a secondary function as geosites requires specific challenges to be taken into account, besides the common drawbacks of tourism in developing countries:

• Problems of access to churches, forests, caves;
• Gender neutral geotourism vs patriarchal religious attitudes;
• Conservation vs “modernisation” of rock churches and sacred sites;
• 4.5 billion years History of Earth vs 6000 years since Genesis;
• Information boards at geosites: religious narratives vs scientific understanding;
• Showing appropriate respect to the sacred environment;
• Preparation of appropriate and site-specific souvenirs; and
• Community ownership and benefits of geotourism.

In Tembien, the local society has preserved sacred geosites which are important for their self-definition as societies protected by divine powers. Mutual respect, openness and a participatory approach are key when sharing the preserved sites to geotourists.

How to cite: Nyssen, J., Yonas, M., Ghebreyohannes, T., Smidt, W., Lenaerts, L., Gebreslassie, S., Annys, S., Meaza, H., Williams, F., Dessein, J., Hagos, M., and Haile, M.: Geotourism interactions with Christian Orthodox religion in Tembien (Tigray, Ethiopia), EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-5704, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-5704, 2020.

Geoethics education:  From theory to practice – a case study

Pimnutcha Promduangsri (1, 2) and David Crookall (1)

(1) Université Côte d’Azur, Nice, France;  (2) Méditerranée 2000, Cannes, France.

The planet Earth, and thus humanity, currently face such monumental geo-problems that geoethical behaviour by all citizens is a real imperative.  The problems are well known: global warming and climate change, pollution, sea-level rise, deforestation, ocean acidification, biodiversity loss and so on.  This situation requires that all citizens learn to behave in a geoethical fashion and in harmony with Earth’s nature.  This in turn necessitates deployment on a massive scale of geoethical education, or what we call geo-edu-ethics – ‘edu’ is sandwiched between ‘geo’ and ‘ethics’.  This is meant to suggest that in order to bring together ‘geo’ and ‘ethics’, we need ‘edu’.  On another level, we also argue that it is manifestly and axiomatically unethical not to provide necessary geoethical knowledge in schools, universities and other training, in addition (and related) to the education already being dispensed.  Most ministries of education are thus failing their citizens in this regard.

The principle and necessity of geo-edu-ethics have been successfully translated into hands-on practice by Méditerranée 2000 (M2k), which celebrated its 30^th anniversary last year.  This is a French association based in Cannes that accomplishes on-going, geo-edu-ethical, or geoethical educational, projects for a wide range of audiences.

Projects range from elementary school up to adult education, and include public awareness campaigns, school visits and trips, ethical tourism, local authority advice and industrial guidance on geoethical matters.  Such projects focus on the promotion of geoethical behaviour and decisions that influence the way humans interact with the Earth systems, especially in regard to waste, coastal areas, water, policy making, pollution, and so on.  The association has been successful in changing geoethical behaviours and attitudes among local people, for example, in regard to recycling, raw materials, flooding, pollution, reducing one’s carbon footprint and energy use.

The presentation will (a) highlight the absolute necessity of providing geoethical education at all levels of society and in all subject areas of education, (b) outline the geoethical imperative for ordinary citizens (youth, parents, industry, etc.), (c) show how a dedicated and enthusiastic group of people can help citizens to move towards more ethical behavior as they interact with a range of Earth systems, and thus to participate in that geoethical imperative in everyday life.

How to cite: Promduangsri, P. and Crookall, D.: Geoethics education: From theory to practice – a case study, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-4075, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-4075, 2020.

Eighty-four percent of the world’s population self-identifies as religious, and many of these people live in low-income contexts exposed to seismic hazard risk and to potentially disastrous outcomes. Using a case-study from Haiti, this presentation explores the theoretical benefits of a geoscientific – religion collaboration contribution to education modules for saving lives and livelihoods in seismic risk zones. Our previous research, carried out in areas most affected by the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, which caused catastrophic fatality and life-changing injury rates across the demographic spectrum, revealed that many people had little inkling of what an earthquake was or of how they should respond to one. However, this ignorance was not due to lack of desire for, or lack of interest in the significance of seismic hazard risk awareness or of disaster mitigation. On the contrary, we found a very serious desire for education that would lead to greater awareness and disaster mitigation. The real problem was based in a lack of access to educational systems and in the lack of serious geoscience within the educational curriculum. Drawing on my research carried out after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and our recent publication, Abbott, Roger P and Robert S. White, Narratives of Faith from the Haiti Earthquake: Religion, Natural Hazards and Disaster Response. (New York: Routledge, 2019),this presentation, advocates for an experimental project methodology that would combine both geoscience and religious education working in collaboration to demonstrate the potential benefits for saving lives and livelihoods for vulnerable communities exposed to seismic risk. In Haiti, the majority of educational establishments are faith-based. Therefore, these establishments are significant stakeholders for geoscientists to be in collaboration with. The geo-scientifically educated students can then input their education into parental/familial life, thereby extending the seismic hazard awareness and disaster mitigation procedures even more widely in society. In geographical contexts, where religious beliefs are endemic to daily life, a religious collaboration with geoscience could help establish a religious as well as confident scientific logic and resilience from embracing the geoscience relevant to students’ locales, as being both scientifically and theologically justified.  The five-year longitudinal project we advocate would involve constructing a contextualised science-faith teacher-training module, its implementation in selected schools in Haiti, and the utilisation of Raspberry Shake seismometers in those schools for monitoring and collection of seismic activity data. A control group would also be selected, which would neither be subjected to the educational material, nor would they have the Raspberry Shakes. Analysis of the data from both groups and of any changes in disaster awareness and mitigation in one group in comparison with the other would reveal the feasibility and beneficial nature of such an indigenised educational programme for a national curriculum in Low Income Countries.

How to cite: Abbott, R.: Geoscience in collaboration with religion to save lives and livelihoods in seismic risk regions: a case study from Haiti, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-2723, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-2723, 2020.

How much care should one have for planet Earth? Most religious groups see the Earth as a place or object that should be taken care of even though some have deified the Earth. Although some religious people think that caring for the Earth amounts to worship, we can show those of that mindset the common good that could accrue from working together. We look at a private Christian University in Ogun State, Nigeria and how it’s activities are working for the common good of the society.

Increase in population leading to greater demand for resources, an increase in industrial waste generation and economic poverty levels, are challenges that geoscientists,  engineers and stakeholders could collaborate on to find solutions for the common good of the society. Several faculty members at this religious institution, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria, are actively involved in environmental and sustainable research projects that would be important to the good of the general public, especially in the local and rural areas near the location of the University. Particularly, water availability and quality along with generation of waste and waste disposal being the top areas where Earth religious scientists/engineers working with the community could achieve a common good for the society.

Several research works examine procurement of potable water, generation of waste, and how our actions, activities or inactivity could lead to environmental degradation, and adversely affect us now or in the near future. We discuss some of the ongoing research works and align them with religious text as a way of getting the skeptics to work together for the common good. “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden to Eden to tend and keep it” (Genesis 2:15) and Jesus told his disciples to “Gather all the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost” (John 6:12). The presence or lack of resources and human activities have significant health effect on the community. As part of an ongoing study, we are collaborating with the locals, tapping on their religious belief systems, using science and engineering to benefit the good of the society. The outcomes will be presented during the meetings.

How to cite: Isiorho, S., Omole, D., Akinwumi, I., Emenike, P., Ede, A., and Aizebeokhai, P.: The Nexus Between Religion, Environment and Community: The Case of a Nigerian Community, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-20656, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-20656, 2020.

“GOAL - Geoethics Outcomes and Awareness Learning” (https://goal-erasmus.eu/) is an international partnership project aimed to develop the potential of geoethics with the aim of improving its concepts and practices through an innovative and creative approach. The members of the different partner countries (Portugal, Austria, Italy, Israel, Spain, Lithuania) are working bringing together their expertise in overlapping disciplinary areas and intellectual synergies to develop an articulated approach and contribute to an advancement of the geoethical thinking. In particular the project integrates researchers and practitioners with skills in geoscience education, geological heritage, georisks, environmental sciences, theoretical aspects of geoethics and information and communication technologies in education.

The project "GOAL" aims to develop a geoethics syllabus and to offer suggestions on educational resources to be used in Higher Education, in order to promote awareness-raising on ethical and social implications of geoscience knowledge, education, research, practice and communication, thus enhancing the quality and relevance of students’ knowledge, skills and competencies. The creation of this international network and subsequently the syllabus and other educational resources will develop operational capacities for strengthening the conceptual substratum of geoethics.

The Italian team has contributed to frame geoethics from a theoretical point of view, by introducing definitions, values and contents. It has also clarified some concepts of utmost importance in geoethics, like that of responsibility, intellectual freedom, research integrity, , prevention, sustainability, resilience, etc. Moreover, some specific issues have been addressed, such as the difference between ethical issues and ethical dilemmas, as well as the necessity to reach a reasonable alignment of values when dealing with geological activities that may have an impact on environment and population. Finally, through the use of videos, some important connections that link geoethics to several geosciences issues have been explained, such as georisks and georesources management.

The target group of GOAL project is formed mainly by Higher Education students, professors and researchers. Practitioners in the field like, for example, “geoheritage site” guides and secondary teachers, are also groups of interest for the project activities.

How to cite: Di Capua, G. and Peppoloni, S.: GOAL: an international project to develop geoethics and its educational potential, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-2353, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-2353, 2020.

The recognition of the Human Right to Water and Sanitation by the United Nations General Assembly in 2010 marks a major symbolic and legal milestone. The United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) incorporate the different interests of society. In combination with limited resources conflicts of interests are inevitable. Competing interests of different stakeholders concerning water and land-use management are particularly big drivers of conflicts in this field. Also the personal daily behaviours of its individuals influences the water and energy consumption of whole society.

An essential baseline to achieve societal goals related with water might be the implementation of coherent environmental policies. Transnational implications of e.g. large water-infrastructure projects bring additional complexity to decision making processes. The Implications of climate change on water management add another layer of uncertainty.

Professionals with a higher education in geosciences are at the heart of humankind’s attempts to deal with all of this issues. They are not only supposed to hold technical expertise, but also understand their responsibilities. A modern education of the students in geosciences therefor has to account for this challenges. Geoethics is capable of providing the theoretical background on this challenges.

The GOAL project (Geoethics Outcomes and Awareness Learning) aims in general at improving the concepts and practices of Geoethics and specifically to provide educational material (a syllabus and complementary educational resources) to be used in higher education. From the wide range of geoethical issues related to water management, two cases were chosen to introduce students to the concepts of Geoethics. The water supply system of Austria´s capital Vienna serves as a starting point to deal with questions like utilization pressure on water and land. An historic dam that is now used for production of "green" electric energy via hydropower, sets the frame for the discussion about the impacts of hydropower on the riverine ecosystem.

Acknowledgment

This study has been elaborated in the scope of Erasmus Plus GOAL Project with the reference: 2017-1-PTO1-KA203-035790.

How to cite: Handl, S., Schneider-Voß, S., Fiebig, M., and Langergraber, G.: Geoethics in water management – Resources for higher education (GOAL Project framework), EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-6030, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-6030, 2020.

Social networks based popular movements are a new phenomenon promoting societal changes, usually with legitimate claims, although moved more by beliefs and emotions than reason. Geoscientists, as citizens, will have to know how to explain what makes justified beliefs justified when the decisions will affect the environment or the social system (1), including the understanding of the mechanisms that move societies.

Mendoza, Argentina, at the piedmont of the Andes, is a semi-arid region (less than 250 mm of rain per year). Agriculture represents one important activity (consuming around 80% of the water). A little more than 10% is for human consumption, around 4% for recreational/environmental use, 1% for Industry and 1% in the oil and mining industry (2). All this water came from the melting of the Andes ice and snow, resources depleted due to climate changes.

Mendoza has a very advanced and environmentally friendly Mining Code but seen as too restrictive from others. It limits projects in glacier areas and the use of chemicals to extract minerals like gold and others. At the end of 2019, the new Government decided to modify the Mining Code keeping near glacier limitations but allowing the controlled use of chemicals for the mining.

The perfect social wave appeared when the new law was being approved by the local Congress. Protestors closed roads, claiming the water would be contaminated, that agriculture would suffer from pollution, and other panicking scenarios, all supported by the extended feeling that the corruption is a central problem that will not help in establishing the proper controls, and fed by the lobby of the agricultural industry.

As the scarcity of water is an endemic problem in the region, the fear, as a psychological virus, did spread through the social networks, moving concerned citizens to win the battle and forcing the Governor to cancel the new law.

Scientists, data, the offer of external audits, tried to convince, by the reason, that responsible mining is possible and, if the water is a problem, the initial point to improve is its use in agriculture (were a loss of almost 50% occur by inefficient irrigation practices), but emotion and fear won the battle.

These dilemmas are not easy to deal with and, giving the complexity of the world around us, a systemic Geoethical approach should be the right one to confront the ethical dilemmas in the Geoscientists’ spheres of action. The IAPG White Paper on Responsible Mining is a fundamental tool to be used by geoscientists/citizens to cope with the dilemmas that appears when the emotions overshadow the reason and, probably, we have to follow the suggestions made by Begon (4).

• (1) Marone E. and Marone L. 2019. Ethical dilemmas of the citizen Geoscientist doing science, technology, and profession. EGU2019
• (2) Departamento General de Irrigación. Mendoza. 2019.
• (3) Arvanitidis N., Boon J., Nurmi P. and Di Capua G. 2017. White Paper on Responsible Mining. IAPG - http://www.geoethics.org/wp-responsible-mining.
• (4) Begon, M. 2017. Winning Public Arguments As Ecologists: Time for a New Doctrine? Trends in Ecology & Evolution 32 (6): 394–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2017.03.009.

How to cite: Marone, E.: The reason versus the emotion and the perfect Wave. Report of a witness., EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-13200, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-13200, 2020.

Lago Exsnia-Viscosa is located in the eastern part of Rome, on the left bank of Tiber river, close to the historical centre of the city and in a highly urbanized area. The lake takes its name from the factory of artificial silk, the SNIA Viscosa, active there from 1923 to 1954. The industrial plant, located close to the Marranella ditch, used its water for the production processes, also after its channelled and covered. The Marranella ditch was named also Acqua Bullicante (in English “Bubbling water”). It is supposed that the ditch was hosted along a fault where bubbling waters and diffuse degassing from soil were recognized. These manifestations were dominated in CO₂ but due to the intensive post-war (Second World War) building expansion, no trace remain. These phenomena are typically recognizable in volcanic areas characterized by active hydrothermalis, such as the neighbour volcanic district of Alban Hills. The proximity of this volcanic district to Rome and the fact that it cannot be considered extinct have moved our motivation to study the Lake Exsnia-Viscosa to investigate on possible degassing phenomena in the city centre. The lake appeared in the ‘90s, after illegal excavations (deep up to 10-13 meters) to build unlawfully a shopping center. This caused a leakage of groundwater and the emergence of a small lake (about 7,000 m² large, around 7 meters deep). Due to the citizen protests, the works were immediately blocked and the whole area was expropriated and closed. The site, has remained closed, from ‘90s to today, favouring re-naturalization processes, new ecological systems and forbidding anthropogenic transformations. Currently, it represents a precious green area for the city, but is still in danger of being threatened by speculation. For this reason, the citizen is fighting for its recognition as natural heritage supported by cultural and professional associations. In this framework, our study, moved at the beginning to investigate on degassing phenomena, proved to be an important step in the process of recognition of the site as natural heritage. The lake has been used by us as an open-air laboratory collecting water along a vertical profile from the lake surface to the maximum depth, for a geochemical and microbial characterization of the groundwaters. Currently, the results are supporting the community and the local administration in order to make this green site a protected area to donate to their citizens.

How to cite: Procesi, M., Cinti, D., Cabassi, J., Capecchiacci, F., Pizzino, L., Caracausi, A., Fazi, S., and Casentini, B.: Fluid geochemistry as useful tool for the recognition of the Lago Exsnia-Viscosa (Rome-Italy) as natural heritage, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-3647, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-3647, 2020.

Geoscience and religion – potential partners for societal change
European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2020

Austria Center Vienna, Vienna
3-8 May 2020

Abstract

In virtually all the communities where World Vision works, faith is an important part of people’s lives.  Faith can impact on people’s world view, attitudes and outlook in positive and negative ways.  It can create a negative culture of fatalism or blaming bad events on the perceived sins of others, or it can create a positive culture of compassion and service to others, especially the more vulnerable.
To encourage this more positive impact of faith, World Vision uses an approach called ‘Empowered World View’ in our livelihoods and resilience work.  This is an approach based on the use of Scripture and involving faith leaders, so that it uses language and stories that are familiar in the local contexts and works with faith leaders as people of influence and respect.  This paper outlines the unique, potential contributions of faith to global issues including climate change and environmental sustainability.
Empowered World View is a faith-based enabling development approach for mobilizing and empowering individual and communities’ potentials to transform their mindset, beliefs, and behaviour which affirm their identity, dignity, and agency to participate effectively in sustainable transformative change.  The approach looks at what the Bible, and other religious scriptures, says about the natural environment and the necessity to use natural resources wisely and with care.  This then links to the promotion of climate smart agricultural techniques and conservation agriculture, natural resource management, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.
Because the approach starts from the common ground of faith and uses the language and expression of faith to build community cohesion and provide a solid basis for understanding the importance of addressing issues of natural resource management, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, it creates the necessary support and collective capacity to enable communities to tackle them.
To further improve the ability of the poorest and most vulnerable communities to adapt to the challenges of climate change and environmental degradation, collaboration with geo-scientists can increase understanding of risks and hazards and the potential solutions to build community resilience.  If this can be done by bringing together geo-scientists and faith leaders, to develop a common understanding of faith and culture as well as science, this can bring about sustainable change in the world’s poorest communities, in ways that bring people together and build on different expertise and experiences.
World Vision is an international, child-focused, community based, Christian organisation, which works with people of all faiths or none. It has offices in nearly 100 countries around the world.  Our aim is to increase the well-being of some of the world’s most vulnerable children and their communities.  World Vision operates mainly in countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, working with communities on long term development programmes, humanitarian responses and policy and advocacy work to improve and strengthen systems and essential service provision.

How to cite: Garrett, J.: Empowered World View - bringing faith and science together to reduce risks, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-21315, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-21315, 2020.

In the framework of ERASMUS+ program Key Action “Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices” with an Action Type “Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training”, our project TRack Your ATmosphere (TRYAT) was approved in august 2017 and is co-funded by the European Union. The projects total duration is 35 months and the participants are teachers, researchers and students from three vocational schools and Research/University Institutes in France, Germany and Italy.

The project is going to end next August 2020. Here we present the final report on the achieved objectives.

The main research goal of TRYAT is a combination of processing and analysis of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) data and monitoring of environmental parameters for vocational education and training (VET). Permanent high-precision GNSS stations currently operate for geodetic purposes, e.g. geodynamics, earthquake and volcano monitoring, etc. We want to capitalize and highly disseminate the fact that they also offer a reliable tool for remote sensing the atmospheric water vapour. Three professional GNSS stations and low-cost weather stations have been installed on the roof of the buildings of Lycée Saint Cricq (Pau, France), Lise-Meitner-Schule (Berlin, Germany) and Istituto Leonardo da Vinci (Naples, Italy).

We show the achievements so far for each expected intellectual Output (O).

O1- Learning Plattform.

The Learning Web Platform is an interactive and versatile tool. It helps learners, teachers, researchers and other involved personnel to crosslink, enhance intercultural teambuilding and work on the related technological and environmental issues. The platform gives even access to online real-time and archived data, maps, evaluation and graphical visualization.

O2- Starter Kit.

We have been realizing a starter kit of a system to acquire and manage data from both GNSS and weather stations. The kit enables us testing not only the technology, but even the concept itself.

O3- OER Learning Material ‘Physical and Technical Foundations’.

It is an interactive physics course where students learn the foundations of three relevant main topics of the project: satellite technology, propagation of waves and physics of the atmosphere. The corresponding competences are elaborated for the use in different VET curricula.

O4- OER Learning Material 'Informatics and Electrical Engineering'.

We have developed an interactive learning unit (“learning environment”) with focus on informatics and electronics. The students are given just a problem, namely the collecting of environmental data. This problem is proposed to them in the form of an order from industry “Monitoring of renewable energy plant – measuring wind and sun strength as well as the electrical power”.

O5- Educational videos.

A series of 5-minute long videos have been realizing in all the official languages of the participating countries. The videos deal with the scientific subjects pertaining the project and report on the results themselves, and the way the student worked as teams to achieve them. Different subtopics will be presented in short videos, as a desirable way of dissemination.

How to cite: Reusch, B., Hoffmann, C., Sander, U., Wiebalck, S., Verdier, L., Metref, W., Joly, D., Dransart, A., Incollingo, A., Longo, P., Alshawaf, F., Dick, G., Riccardi, U., Brandi, G., Dolce, M., Duilio, D., Martino, C., and Tammaro, U.: TRack Your ATmosphere: Open Learning Materials for Vocational Education and Training. Final Report., EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-20901, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-20901, 2020.

Sierra Leone is one of the world’s poorest countries and has been so for over 40 years. It is currently ranked by the IMF as the tenth poorest country with a per capita GDP of $505. In recent years it has been ravaged by civil war (1991-2002) and paralysed by the Ebola virus. Yet it is a country rich in mineral resources – in particular diamonds, thus an economy highly dependent upon geoscientific knowledge. Sierra Leone therefore serves as an illustration of other African countries also rich in mineral resources. At The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion in Cambridge we are engaged in research into the relationship between Science, Faith and Human flourishing. However, in Sierra Leone the application of geoscientific knowledge is not leading to human flourishing. In fact the reverse is true. Maconachie, writing in 2012, states that ‘today, some of the worst poverty in Sierra Leone is concentrated in diamond mining towns’. In this particular context therefore the application of geoscience prevents human flourishing, a topic discussed elsewhere as the ‘resource curse’. It is suggested that an appropriate solution can be found in the concept of a ‘preferential option for the poor’ rooted in a Christian understanding of God’s priority for the poor.

Diamonds have been mined in Sierra Leone since the 1930’s and in 2016 it was Africa’s seventh largest diamond producer and diamond exports made the largest contribution to the GDP. Much of the mining is alluvial and the deposits, distributed over several thousand km², are impossible to police. This has led to widespread illegal artisanal mining, extreme social exploitation through patronage, diamond smuggling, the funding and prolonging of a civil war. Further, legally exported diamonds yield a very low return to the local economy and there is a lack of economic transparency.

The fact that mining was not included in the UN 1992 Agenda 21, the Agenda for Sustainable Development means that the minerals industry globally is controlled almost entirely by the ‘free play of a market that is interested primarily in profits’. Recent models of sustainable development challenge this view and now see people as a part of the total ecosystem, so success is measured in terms of its long term contribution to human flourishing and will be expressed in respectful and authentic relationships at a local level between a mine and its community.

At a governmental level Sierra Leone is seeking to adopt the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative requiring greater corporate and social responsibility on the part of mining companies. This initiative, which has received a renewed emphasis under President Bio, is designed to ensure that the ‘natural resource wealth becomes an engine for sustainable economic growth and poverty eradication in Sierra Leone’. However, it is unclear whether a governmental initiative can generate suitable authentic relationships at a local level. It is suggested here that locally based faith communities, where natural networks already exist, can play a better role in generating long-term authentic relationships between mine and community to foster human flourishing.

How to cite: Rollinson, H.: Ethical Challenges for Mineral Resource Extraction in Sierra Leone, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-2636, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-2636, 2020.

The European Geosciences Union (EGU) is the leading organisation for Earth, planetary and space science research in Europe. The annual EGU General Assembly is the largest and most prominent European geosciences event, attracting over 16,000 scientists from all over the world in the year 2019. 
This presentation aims to present the results from gender and career stage distribution at the last (2015 to 2019) EGU General Assemblies (GA).  Data and statistics will be presented not only on the attendance, but also to the role in the general assembly, i.e. author, convener, presenter.
As expected, given the academic history of the geosciences as a male - dominated field, a gender gap is observed, with an overall gender breakdown of EGU GA’s attendance of about one third of women and two thirds of men; on the other hand, the fraction of female attendees is very slightly but constantly increasing in the years (and not only among early-career scientists). The percentage of female attendees in fact passed from 32.6% in 2015 to 33.8% in 2018 (the percentage in 2019 was even greater, but in that year the number of those who provided gender information dropped from 17% to 30%, so we consider the last year the less informative for the gender analysis).
In addition, when looking at organisational roles, much steeper is the increase in the fraction of female conveners: in fact the percentage of female conveners was 30.1% in 2018, that is much closer to that of the overall female attendees, whereas it was about 25.9% only 3 years earlier.
Looking at career stages, the percentage of early-career scientists among the overall attendees is substantially increased in the last years (from 43% in 2015 to 52% in 2019), and also in this case, the fraction of early-career conveners steeply raised too (from 30% in 2015 to 43% in 2019).
The analysis on the number of conveners, even if there is still a skew towards male and mid-career or senior scientists, shows that there has been a noticeable improvement in the balance of gender and career-stage over the last years in terms of key-roles in the organisation of the main EGU event.
Despite such improvement in term of convenorship, more can certainly be done inside the Union, and an attempt to provide constructive indications to further steps to the target of giving equal opportunities to researchers across gender and career-stage will also be given.

How to cite: Toth, E., Jesus-Rydin, C., and Montanari, A.: Gender and career-stage distribution at EGU General Assemblies, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-21785, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-21785, 2020.

How to cite: Karatekin, Ö.: Equality of opportunities in geosciences: The EGU Awards Committee experience, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-20850, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-20850, 2020.

According to the Global gender equality Rankings by World Economic Forum, the Gender Index rank of Japan has been below 100 during the last 8 years. Every 4 years, Japan ranking has been slipping by 10 points, and has finally reached 121st in 2019. In 2011, the Japanese government released the “Promotion of Positive action” program targeting 30% of women’s participation in the workplace including Academia by 2020. However, this goal has not been met as yet. Based on the 15th survey by the Japan Association National Universities which includes most Geoscience departments of Japan, only 4% of national universities have achieved >30% female to total academic staff ratio. The average ratio increased slightly from 13.0% (2011) to 16.7% (2018). The change is quite slow and is hard to accelerate. In the STEM field, female staff ratios are 12.3% (Agriculture), 8.7% (Science) and 6.2% (Engineering). The percentage of undergraduate female students in Science has gradually decreased during these 10 years from ca. 28% to 25% in total, while the number of women in Ph.D. studies increased as a result of several empowerment programs. A recently organized All Nippon Diversity Network (OPENed: O-Progressive initiatives of Empowering Network for Diversity) provides a country-wide platform for networking institutional activities on diversity issues and sharing information on efficient activities and practices for empowerment. In this presentation, we are sharing information on ongoing action in Japan concerning gender issues, and try to identify and discuss unconscious problems/causes for improvement.

How to cite: Hori, S., R.: Progress and problems of gender equality in Japanese academia, and empowerment activities in science and geoscience, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-20881, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-20881, 2020.

Up to one in four UK adults now experience a mental health issue each year. Meanwhile, the numbers of UK university students reporting a mental health condition rose by a factor of five between 2006 and 2016, reaching two percent, with some higher education institutions reporting that one in four students have accessed or are waiting to access mental health services. There are a number of aspects of work and study in the geological sciences that can contribute to or exacerbate poor mental health, with fieldwork identified as a particular source of stress and worry for students and professionals alike. Without clearly signposted pathways to support mental health in the geosciences, students and professionals may choose to leave the field.

In 2019, the Geological Society of London launched a mental health and wellbeing programme for its own staff, and is now sharing the model, and lessons learned during implementation, with geologists and employers of geologists. Following a mental health awareness course made available to all staff, staff were encouraged to apply to become a certified mental health first aider and/or to serve on the newly created Mental Health and Wellbeing Group. Over a quarter of staff members applied for one or both positions, with 20 percent selected for the group, and four of those members selected to become mental health first aiders. In addition, a member of the senior leadership team trained as a mental health champion. We have also launched a survey of employee attitudes toward and understanding of mental health, and started to deliver a series of stress-reducing activities. Early results include staff members reporting feeling more valued as people and an increased uptake of services offered through the employee assistance programme, which offers confidential support around mental and physical health. We will also assess changes in employee morale and sickness absence following the introduction of the programme. Finally, we offer strategies for proposing and implementing mental health and wellbeing programmes at other geoscience employers.

How to cite: Newton, A., Sarney, A., and O'Donnell, M.: Mind matters: A model for mental health awareness and support from the Geological Society of London, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-19002, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-19002, 2020.

We analyzed the participation of women scientists in 10 ESA (European Space Agency) Solar System missions over a period of 38 years [1]. Being part of a spacecraft mission science team can be considered a proxy to measure the "success" in the field. Although the number of female scientists in the field has been constantly increasing in Europe, we did not observe a similar increase in their participation in ESA Solar System missions. Participation of women in PI (Principal Investigators) teams varied between 4 and 25%, with several missions with no women as PI. The percentage of female scientists as Co-I (Co-Investigators) is always less than 16%. This number is lower than the percentage of women in the International Astronomical Union from all ESA Member States (24%).

We compared our results with NASA statistics. Participation of women in NASA spacecraft science teams varies from none to just over 30% [2]. The percentage has been increasing. However, this increase is more similar to a step function than a linear increase, with the pre-2000 average at 5.7% and post-2000 at 15.8%. This is well below the percentage of women in the field in the US, which has grown from 20% to 30% over the same time range. The ESA data are consistent with the NASA data, including the jump around the year 2000.

One of the main difficulties we encountered was to find the list of team members. An additional difficulty was to determine the percentage of female scientists in planetary science in Europe. We would like to encourage the planetary community as a whole, as well as international organizations, universities and societies to continuously gather statistics over many years. Detailed statistics are only the first step to closely monitor the development of achievement gaps and initiate measures to tackle potential causes of inequity, leading to gender inequalities in STEM careers.

[1] Piccialli et al., submitted to ADGEO

[2] Rathbun, Julie A.: Participation of women in spacecraft science teams, Nature Astronomy, Volume 1, id. 0148 (2017).

How to cite: Piccialli, A., Rathbun, J. A., Levasseur-Regourd, A.-C., Määttänen, A., Milillo, A., Rengel, M., Rotundi, A., Taylor, M., Witasse, O., Altieri, F., Drossart, P., and Vandaele, A. C.: Participation of women scientists in ESA Solar System missions: an historical trend, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-19310, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-19310, 2020.

Geosciences together with larger STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) communities are highly burdened with striking imbalance between female and male researchers especially at high level positions. Indeed, for example in Earth and Planetary Sciences women represent only around 37% of the scientific community. Moreover, different expressions of gender biases tend to preserve these male dominated environments and thwart achieving gender balanced work places. In this contribution, I present three local actions that aim to improve gender diversity in science and promote gender equality. 1) Together with the 500 Women Scientists organisation and supported by the host university, I have been organising a series of Breaking Gender Barriers discussion evenings. These events include short presentations by female experts, and panel and roundtable discussions. We target female researchers in their early careers to increase their competitiveness, motivate them, show them female role models and provide them with networking opportunities. 2) I co-created a mentoring group at my host institution that helps in career building, provides a safe environment for sharing and offers networking opportunities. 3) Lack of female role models in science (evinced already at very early age in the education chain) impedes heavily the communities to evolve into gender parity systems. That is why I present female scientific role models depicted on high quality posters to large public. Combination of these actions are critical in motivating young girls to pursue a scientific career, support sustainable career development and contribute as a solution to losing female researchers at diverse career stages known as the leaky pipeline problem.   

How to cite: Ulvrova, M.: Breaking Gender Barriers: Local actions towards gender equality , EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-21435, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-21435, 2020.