Geology, Our Key to a Wonderful Future on Earth
Crafoord Academy Lecture by Minik Rosing
About This Lecture
In this Crafoord Academy Lecture, Professor Minik Rosing of the University of Copenhagen explores how Earth’s four-billion-year geological record reveals the intimate co-evolution of life and our planet. Life helped build mountains, controls Earth’s climate, and shaped the environment we inhabit today. Rosing argues that understanding this deep geological history is essential for navigating humanity’s future on Earth — from managing resources and climate to appreciating the geological forces that sustain civilization.
Minik Rosing
University of Copenhagen, Denmark
“Geology, Our Key to a Wonderful Future on Earth”
Rosing presents a sweeping vision of how geological knowledge — from the earliest rock record to modern resource management — underpins our ability to build a sustainable future on Earth.
Key Concepts
- • Deep Time: Earth’s 4.5-billion-year history recorded in the rock record, providing context for understanding modern environmental challenges
- • Life–Earth Co-evolution: The reciprocal relationship between biological processes and geological change, from oxygen production to weathering
- • Resource Geology: Understanding mineral and energy resources through the geological processes that concentrate them
- • Climate & Geology: How tectonic processes, volcanic outgassing, and rock weathering regulate Earth’s long-term carbon cycle and climate