`What's past is prologue," says Dr David Falvey. Well, actually, it was Antonio, the usurping Duke, who said it in The Tempest, but it encapsulates what Dr Falvey seems to mean. To put it another way, if I get his continental drift correctly, he thinks that:
Figuring the nature of the times deceased,
The which observed, a man may prophesy,
With a near aim, the main chance of things
As yet not come to life.
David Falvey is a geologist, and currently director of the British Geological Survey. His party-piece is a lecture entitled "Geoscience: a foundation for sustainability" which he delivered a short time ago to great acclaim in England. He now proposes now to re-deliver it to an Irish audience. He will do so next Wednesday, June 20th, at 5 p.m. on the premises of the GSI, the Geological Survey of Ireland, at Beggar's Bush in Dublin.
"Sustainability" in this context relates to the sustainable development of planet Earth, which in turn has been defined as "development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". High on the agenda is the suspicion that humanity, by its excessive or inappropriate exploitation of the earth's resources, is inducing changes in the global climate that may have an adverse effect on future generations.
Dr Falvey's thesis is that geology and its related sciences are crucial to our study of these matters. The way in which the structural features of the planet have changed over the millennia has determined how the Earth's climate and biosphere have evolved. These in turn have controlled evolution, the emergence of ecosystems, and ultimately the ascent of man. The geological records of climatic variations in the past, involving the advance and retreat of ice caps and changes in sea level, provide us with a baseline for assessing the impact of future climate change.
Even in historic times, Dr Falvey argues, geology has influenced the development of civilisations. He cites the industrial revolution in Britain, which he says was facilitated by soft water for the Lancashire cotton mills and by the local availability of natural raw materials, like clay in the case of the potteries.
Dr Falvey will go on to reveal, I am told, the relevance of geology to the epidemiology of foot-and-mouth disease, but for details of this you must listen to the lecturer in person. "Geoscience: a foundation for sustainability" is open to the public, and all are welcome to the GSI on Wednesday.