Geology for Global Development

Industry

Water and Sustainable Development – 6th GfGD Annual Conference Event Report

March 22, 2019
Water and Sustainable Development – 6th GfGD Annual Conference Event Report
Lord Duncan of Springbank opening the 6rh Annual GfGd Conference at Burlington House, London.

Understanding, managing and protecting water resources is critical to the delivery of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (e.g., education, water and sanitation, healthy oceans, zero hunger, good health, gender equality, energy, industry, and biodiversity). Increasing urbanisation, industrialisation, and climate change, however, are increasing pressure on water supplies and reducing water quality ...[Read More]

Private solutions, public science: how to bridge the gap?

March 12, 2019
Private solutions, public science: how to bridge the gap?
Launching System 001 Credits: The Ocean Cleanup / Pierre Augier

The urgency around many sustainability issues leads some billionaire investors to throw caution in the wind, frustrated with the pace of academic research. Robert Emberson sympathises with private projects like the Ocean Cleanup, even when things go wrong. ‘How’, he asks, ‘might we build a constructive bridge between ambitious entrepreneurs and scientific sceptics? ‘ Reading and writing about sust ...[Read More]

Wearing the Earth Down: The Environmental Cost of Fashion

October 2, 2017

Eloise Hunt is an Earth science student at Imperial College London, and coordinator of the GfGD University group there. Today we publish her first guest article for the GfGD blog, exploring the environmental cost of fashion. When we think of pollution, we imagine raw sewage pumped into rivers, open-cast mines or oil spills. We don’t often think of our inconspicuous white shirt or new jeans.  But, ...[Read More]

Diamonds aren’t Forever

January 15, 2014

Boom & Bust in the Namib Desert   Namibia is mostly desert. Like its neighbour South Africa, the country was gifted with diamond-bearing Kimberlites. The Sperrgebiet (or “forbidden territory”), where the diamonds are concentrated, is strictly off-limits to the public. Namibia’s natural resources have played an important role in shaping the development of this inhospitable landscape. ...[Read More]