Reflection and a bold new direction, as the Geological Society of London celebrates 200 years.
Tristan Farrow
Last week, the Geological Society, based at Burlington House in London’s Piccadilly, celebrated its bicentenary and made a startling announcement on its future. In a departure from tradition, the august institution intends to join the fray on the thorniest global problems, from water shortages to nuclear waste storage.
From turbulent times
The society was one of many born in the tumultuous fold between the 18th and 19th centuries, when eccentrics and journeymen sought like-minded fellows with whom they could share safely new ideas on science, religion and politics. Some were rich gentlemen scientists, while others were entrepreneurial adventurers. Often they met on moonlit evenings, to light their way home – a practise which earned some clubs the nickname of ‘Lunar’ societies.
These were real-life Leagues of Extraordinary Gentlemen, in dangerous times. The threat of French revolutionary ideals contaminating British minds landed many a free thinker on government black lists, while the Church collared anyone who deviated from received doctrine.
So it was in 1807, when 13 gentlemen met on 13 November in the Freemasons Tavern in Convent Garden, where the Connaught Rooms stand today.
On that fateful Friday 200 years ago they decreed that “there be forthwith instituted a Geological Society for the purpose of making geologists acquainted with each other, of stimulating their zeal, of inducing them to adopt one nomenclature.”.
Golden age
Little did they know then that their society, a splinter group from the Royal Society, would fuel the industrial revolution by producing some of the world’s first geological maps, locating resources in England and Wales.
Burlington House (left) and the first geological map of England, Wales and parts of Scotland (1815), by William Smith.
“Geology wasn’t just about finding new fossils or minerals. People studied geology to discover deposits of coal, iron, and clays,” says Edmund Nickless, Executive Secretary of the Geological Society. “If you didn’t know where those resources were, the industrial revolution could not have happened. The Society was instrumental in forming the British Geological Survey in 1835.”
Given that some of the founders, such as Sir Humphry Davy, were Royal Society fellows and others were ordained ministers, one additional item they wisely left out of their declaration was reconciliation of scientific observation with Church teaching.
In 1654, Archbishop Ussher, former bishop of Armagh, calculated creation to have been nightfall preceding 23 October 4004 BC. To say this conflicted with geological evidence would be an understatement.
James Hutton, a geologist and a figure from Edinburgh enlightenment circles, observed in 1788 that “we find no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end" in layers of sedimentary rock at Inchbonny, near the Berkshire coast. Hutton didn’t go further, but it was clear that he and his fellow geologists thought that the Earth was much older than the Church’s claim. Today that figure is nearer 4,500 million years.
More heated debates with the Church followed in the 1820s when Society fellows such as Sir Charles Lyell tried to question biblical accounts of the Flood with geological findings.
Into turbulent times
Fast-forward to the present day. The Society has 9,500 members, accredits university courses and bestows Chartered status on professional geologists. Last week it celebrated its bicentenary in London with a three-day series of talks.
But in the age of the Internet, free exchange of ideas and international university networks august institutions such as the Geological Society could quickly find their relevance eroded.
“Over the past 200 years the Society has been somewhat insular”, admits Nickless. In a major departure from its past, the Society announced last week that it is about to weigh in more heavily on global problems. “Even if that means courting controversy,” he adds.
Climate change, resource management and thorny issues such as storage of high-level radioactive waste are all in the Society’s sights. Says Nickless, “We will have to work with social scientists to change attitudes towards lifestyle and to engage with the public. We intend to use our website to make authoritative statements on those issues.”
One worry that weighs heavily on Nickless’ mind is water. “In 2050 the world will go into water deficit. Africa already uses between one sixth and one tenth less water than the US. Burgeoning populations and the fact that there isn’t much water in any case make that a far bigger problem than energy [shortage],” he said.
Images courtesy of the Geographical Society of London (Burlington House) and the British Geological Survey (map).