EDITOR’S CORNER Decisions,
Adaptability, Knowledge, and Remembrance
John L. Berry, CPG-04032
As we start, as a nation, to go back to work again, please follow CDC (and state, local and national government) guidelines to ensure that you stay safe and do not catch COVID-19 or help to spread it. In spite of the 1.8 million confirmed cases, the 100,000 deaths and the 400,000 people who have recovered, less than 1% of the US population have had the disease: estimates are that we need 70-90% of the population to have acquired immunity in order to achieve herd immunity. We are so far from that number that we can obviously expect further waves of the disease before vaccines or treatments become available.
There are a couple of prominent themes in this issue: an important one concerns the role of women in the geosciences and the responsibilities of employers toward their women employees, both of which are addressed by David Abbott. Several Geoscience organizations have dealt with these top- ics recently, including the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, and the Geological Society of London. David addresses an excellent questionnaire sent out by AusIMM as well as an interesting article in the GSL “Geoscientist”. My only contribution to this topic is to point out that our society is suffering greatly from the shedding by many employers of responsibility for what used to be considered normal costs of employment: “traditional” pension plans, security of employ- ment, much of the cost of health care, and so on. As we recover from the disruption due to this virus, the temptation will be to further reduce employment costs by whatever means possible. But attacks on the terms of employment directly attack the stability of the nuclear family as the fundamental unit of society. Participation by women in the work force returns to the family some of this lost stability by ensur- ing two sources of income, but in return it requires many sacrifices of the family: payments to outsiders for child care being only the most obvious and possibly the most onerous. Therefore, anything that an employer does to provide those things that enable women (and men) to have fulfilling full- time careers without fear of harm to their family should be seen as an investment in the stability of the society within which they operate or, as we may come to see it much sooner than seems possible now, as a down-payment on the social license that allows them to operate in a given society.
A second major theme in the issue is personal safety in the field, addressed by Philip Reimer as well as by David. Philip deals with safety in the urban field, a subject that increases in its importance in direct ratio to the stability of society that I mention above.
Finally, Rasoul Sorkhabi addresses the turmoil in the oil industry in a very interesting article that also touches on the importance of this industry to the stability of the societies of both producing and consuming countries: everybody needs to
www.aipg.org
be able to count on stable oil prices but the nature of the beast is that in a free market they are inherently unstable. The AGI column also addresses some of the implications of oil pricing.
I want to publicly congratulate Rasoul on his excellent article about the life and work of the famous Scottish Geologist Archibald Geikie (1835-1924) on p. 34 of the current (June 2020) issue of GSA Today. I personally find it very hard to realize that Geikie, this legendary character from the far distant past, died, still active, only 17 years before I was born and 39 years before I graduated with my degree in Geology. History is becoming very foreshortened!
Finally, in this issue, there are two letters to the editor argu- ing the merits of climate change, and an article on hurricanes by Barney Popkin that touches on the subject. These are the last word on this topic during my term as editor.
Enjoy! PANGEAS & GEOLOGICAL GLOBES
18" AND 30 EARLY PERMIAN!
INTRODUCING 300 MA
18" AND 30" SIZES
• MISSISSIPPIAN 325 MA • EARLY PERMIAN 300 MA • TRIASSIC 235 MA • POLITICAL TRIASSIC 235 MA • JURASSIC 190 MA • CRETACEOUS 140 MA • WESTERN INT. SEAWAY 90 MA • KT BOUNDARY 65 MA
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Jul.Aug.Sep 2020 • TPG 3
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