Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
System Measurements on a Global Scale'; '2. Conduct a Program[me] of Focused
Studies to Improve Our Understanding of the Physical, Chemical, and Biological
Processes that Infl uence Earth System Changes and Trends on Global and Regional
Scales'; and '3. Develop Integrated Conceptual and Predictive Earth System Models'
(pp. 12-13). These objectives follow very directly from the recommendations of
Bretherton (1985) and the Earth System Sciences Committee (1986). Funding was
initially $133.9M in the 1989 fi nancial year, increasing to $190.5M in 1990. By
far, the largest proportion of this funding (87 percent in 1989) was intended for
basic research. By 1995, the total budget had risen to $1827.7M, although the
actual increase is infl ated by inclusion of the NASA space-based observing budget
(of $815.5M), which is not incorporated in the earlier fi gures. Nevertheless, the
value does represent a considerable increase in research funding, which despite some
real-term decreases remains very substantial, with $1,505M in 2006 (all fi gures
from reports on the USGRCP website).
Not wanting to be left out, the UK Natural Environment Research Council
(NERC) announced an ESS initiative of its own from 2001, following the appoint-
ment of John Lawton as Chief Executive in 1999. Lawton (2001, p. 1965) published
a paean to ESS in
Science
noting that:
ESS as the discipline that deals with our planet as a complex, interacting system. ESS
takes the main components of planet Earth - the atmosphere, oceans, freshwater, rocks,
soils, and biosphere - and seeks to understand major patterns and processes in their
dynamics. To do this, we need to study not only the processes that go on within each
component (traditionally the realms of oceanography, atmospheric physics, and
ecology, to name but three), but also interactions between these components. It is the
need to study and understand these between-component interactions that defi nes ESS
as a discipline in its own right.
It should be noted how exclusionary a vision of ESS is presented here. It certainly
does not refl ect the role of physical geography in investigating the major components
of 'freshwater, rocks, soils'. Replies to
Science
also challenged the failure to mention
geology (Carlson, 2001) and the claim that there were no interdisciplinary training
programmes in ESS (Ernst, 2000 cited above represents a course in Stanford that
has been running since the early 1990s, and there are a number of others: Farmer,
2001).
Nevertheless, this exclusionary approach seems to underlie the implementation
of ESS at various levels in NERC. ESS remains a core science theme of NERC in
the 2007-2012 strategy document (NERC, 2007). The ESS of NERC is highly
reductionist, however: 'Planet Earth is a complex, interconnected system. To build
an understanding of the whole system we need to increase our knowledge of its
component parts and the ways that these interact. This is called Earth system
science' (NERC, 2007, p. 16). It is also strongly focused on ocean and atmosphere
processes as well as biogeochemical cycles, and has a relatively restrictive set of 10
major challenges. NERC were unable to specify the extent to which they had directly
funded ESS research (
pers. comm.
, July 2007) other than to suggest the QUEST
(Quantifying and Understanding the Earth SysTem) thematic programme fell clearly
within the topic, and to point to their online database of funded research. The
former has a budget of £23M between 2003 and 2009. It is made up of three
themes: 'Contemporary Carbon Cycle' (£3.0 M), 'Natural regulation of atmospheric
composition on glacial-interglacial and longer time scales' (£2.6 M), and 'Implica-
tions of global environmental changes for the sustainable use of resources' (£1.7 M)
