Why study the earth?

In my forty years in front of a classroom, probably the most common question I get at the beginning of a new term is something along the lines of “Why do I even care about geology and the earth?” It’s the same question I asked myself before my first day of G-101, and some version of that fundamental poser apparently persists to this day.

Several equally valid (and mutually supportive) answers come to mind:

First, because the earth is here. Beyond that, no matter where you go, there it is. Sure, you can close your eyes and pretend that it’s gone, but, really, who wants to blunder about bumping into walls just to prove a point that probably isn’t worth proving anyway?

But there are other reasons that may carry a bit more weight. Other than solar energy, EVERYTHING we get comes from the earth. This includes the obvious stuff like the metals we need to support our industry and the fuels that make it go. And dirt to grow the food we eat. The air we breathe and the water we drink. The sound of moving water to keep us sane — the list goes on and on. I challenge you to think of JUST ONE THING that you need that isn’t supplied by the earth. Got one? Send it to me in the comment section and if it’s valid I’ll award you a Two-Point Free Question coupon.

Beyond those, here’s a fun one: the earth is a closed system — lock yourself into a hermetically sealed empty room for a month and you’ll get the general idea. What this means for us is that there’s very little opportunity to send our waste products somewhere else, and there is an equally near-zero chance to augment our food/water/air/resources from an extraterrestrial source. Sure, mining asteroids sounds great, but… even if we could develop the technology (and then accept the incredible costs involved) that would only take care of a limited number of our needs. Like it or not, we’re stuck with what we have here (and no, ET is probably not going to show up to save us — he’s forced to abide by the same pesky Laws of Reality that we are).

And lastly, this is the only planet we have. Couple that with the earth being the ultimate closed system, and our need to respect the existing surface biosphere becomes all too clear.

Ahhh… respect. What a powerful concept. I always chuckled at the high school when my fellow teachers would have pages and posters listing the rules for their classrooms; all carefully designed for their particular class dynamics and personal proclivities. Me? I only ever had one rule: “All Things With Respect.” I respected the students and they respected me (and each other), and really, that pretty much covers it all. It certainly worked well in Room S-4 of the Science Building.

So, I encourage all of us to respect the earth, and that begins with educating ourselves about how it works (which pretty much answers the question at the top).