Witness to a Changing Earth : A Geologist?s Journey Learning About Natural and Human-caused Global Change

This book is of interest to all of you willing to gain perspective both in time and in depth about the global environmental crises we are facing in the Anthropocene as well as pondering potential solutions. Humans are dominating the Earth’s environment and causing global changes in the most recent geologic time called the Anthropocene. Global changes are caused by both natural events like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, or caused by humans like global warming and pollution of air, water, and soil. The author documents all types of global changes, beyond climate change, pointing out the risks for humanity when all these changes combine in time. Hans Nelson describes global changes while traveling through an earth scientist’s 60-year global journey. Throughout his memoirs, the author provides many humorous examples of adventures taking place during the scientific studies on land and at sea. He makes suggestions for a sustainable planet and shows that humans worldwide in the past,and can in the future, work together on solutions for global change problems.

Students can use this book to learn about the many aspects of global change and methods that marine geologists use to obtain data on geologic hazards, resources, and environmental changes.

Hans Nelson has a B.A. from Carleton College, M.S. from the University of Minnesota and Ph.D. from Oregon State University. He spent 32 years working in the U. S. Geological Survey and 20 years at the CSIC in Spain. His studies and worldwide teaching for 60 years have resulted in 220 publications. Hans has served as Chief Scientist for 30 scientific expeditions, in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. He has been Visiting Professor at the Universities of Barcelona, Brest and Utrecht in Europe and Blaustein Scholar at Stanford University. He is the recipient of multiple awards including the 2016 Kirk Bryan Award for Research Excellence of the Geological Society of America.