The American Geophysical Union is the largest organisation of its kind with 60,000 members. Recently they brought one of their meetings to Europe to Stockholm to discuss the ways in which the Geosciences impacts society. The aim of this meeting was to bring together students, scientists, and administrators from academia, philanthropic organizations, policymakers and religious institutions to assess the major societal challenges and the role geoscience can play to inform solutions.
This was a novel meeting inasmuch as it explicitly included faith-based organisations, most unusual for a scientific meeting and yet perhaps an implicit acknowledgement that science does not have all the answers to societal problems. The Faraday team made poster presentations on the themes of ‘Ethical mineral resource extraction’ and ‘Science and faith in partnership for disaster risk reduction and mitigation Haiti’, were part of a panel presentation (see article by Roger Abbott) and were involved in group discussions and networking.