New recruits? – Geoscience in the movies
Jim Shields FIMMM, of BAM Ritchies, UK, and Co-Chair of the IOM3 Ground Engineering muses Hollywood’s role in encouraging geoscientists to the sector.
Over the last 15 years, the numbers of students enrolling for geoscience degrees in the UK has steadily decreased. Since 2005, numbers have fallen by 43%, resulting in the loss of undergraduate courses at the Universities of Derby, Brighton and Kingston West of England. More recently, Exeter University removed a geoscience undergraduate course.
There is a combination of reasons as to why this is happening – one could be the younger generation’s perception of geoscience as a ‘dirt subject’, viewed through a lens that views mining, fossil fuels and the extractive industries as having negative effects on climate change.
Universities Geoscience UK (UGUK), the association of geoscience departments and schools, is working with other related organisations to raise the profile of the discipline, highlighting career opportunities and modernising the often-outmoded public perception of what it means to be a geoscientist.
In a recent podcast, Dr Nick Koor, Chair of UGUK, said, ‘Geoscience is the solution for climate change. Through energy transition, critical minerals and by understanding geoscience we can understand climate change and its effect on the Earth.’
In fact, many geoscience courses are moving away from fossil fuel study and embracing sustainability, environmental, urban and circular economy topics. Furthermore, Portsmouth University, UK, (led by Dr Koor) is hoping to develop a new geoscience degree apprenticeship course, providing a different way to entice students into the industry – an initiative that has the support of IOM3.
But is there another way to attract new students to embrace geoscience and help to solve the issues surrounding climate change? Perhaps the answer lies at the movies.
The film industry has a record of producing inspirational films, based on true stories, encouraging the viewer into action. Since 1930, UK and US TV shows and films have included characters who are geoscientists. More often they are minor characters and, in many cases, don’t last long due to some ‘incident’, but a few more recent blockbusters have had a geoscientist as its protagonist. For example, San Andreas (2015) has Paul Giamatti playing Dr Lawrence Hayes, a Caltech Seismologist who develops an earthquake prediction model and manages to get a warning out to the inhabitants of San Francisco of the advancing quake.
In 2012 (2009), we see Chiwetel Ejiofor as Dr Adrian Helmsley, who not only plays a government geologist but also has a high moral compass.
Armageddon (1998) sees Steve Buscemi as a geologist and part of the drilling team who saves the world by destroying the oncoming meteorite.
Anne Heche plays Dr Amy Barnes in Volcano (1997), who identifies the source of a volcanic eruption in MacArthur Park and thwarts the flow of magma to save a district from more destruction.
Perhaps the best geoscientist movie is Dante’s Peak (1997), where Pierce Brosnan (still at the height of his James Bond fame) plays Dr Harry Dalton, a US Geological Survey volcanologist. He is sent to the small town of Dante’s Peak to investigate the reports of increasing activity by the possibly awakening volcano. Interestingly, the story follows the town council’s dilemma of warning the inhabitants of possible activity against the loss of business and tourism. However, who couldn’t be impressed by our geoscience hero outdriving a following pyroclastic cloud to save the town’s Mayor and her two children?!
Joking aside, the dwindling numbers of uptake for geoscience undergraduate courses is cause for concern, but wouldn’t it good to see geoscientists on the big screen and inspiring the younger generation? Or am I just being a romantic and proud geoscientist?
