摘要：The motto of the 2011 Ottawa Annual General meeting of the Geological and Mineralogical associations of Canada, “Navigating Past & Future Change”, was intended to highlight our commit- ment, as a scientific community, to the exploration of both the science and societal significance of the Earth Sci- ences. What I intend to do in this Pres- idential Address is to turn the motto around and restate it as a question: What is the scientific and societal sig- nificance of the Earth Sciences? This is not an idle question. Many of those attending the Ottawa GAC–MAC meeting are dependent upon a govern- ment paycheque, either because we work in universities or for government labs and surveys. In addition, much of our research is funded by government grants, most notably through the NSERC Discovery grants program. In other words, our jobs and our research are dependent upon public recognition of our contribution to society.
