An important article in the new issue of GSA Today asks the critical question, "Could we be facing the collapse of the science that underpins the long-term supply and stewardship of the mineral resources on which our nation depends?"
The answer, from authors Murray Hitzman, John Dilles, Mark Barton (Univ. Arizona), and Maeve Boland, is a pretty compelling, 'yes' with concerns that we are facing an impending national crisis.
[right, raw material consumption has grown even as the number of economic geology as a percentage of geoscience faculty has declined. Credit, GSA Today]
They conclude that there "There is no consensus among federal and state agencies, the
mining industry, and the U.S. academic community regarding the importance of economic geology to future U.S. competitiveness," and call for a national dialogue among all the parties to develop a new strategy.