Geologic olympics coming to YYC
Liam Rockliffe, Features Editor |
The International Geoscience Conference (IGC) is coming back to Canada – and more specifically – to Calgary! The IGC was created in 1876 and Canada (at that point only being formed for nine years) was one of the five original founding countries. Canada has immense pull in the geoscientific community, with some of the most beautiful mountain ranges, 22 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, six Geoheritage Sites, and five Unesco Global Geoparks, it’s no wonder why Canada has been so invested in the geosciences since its inception.
However, ever since the IGC was created, Canada has only hosted twice, once in 1913 and in 1972. The IGC has also never been hosted in Western North America, meaning Calgary has the opportunity to demonstrate the versatility of the West. Calgary also has five UNESCO World Heritage sites within a day’s drive.
Calgary’s bid
After the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) – which oversees the geological conferences – withdrew the invitation to Saint Petersburg, Russia to host the IGC. The IGC then reached out to Canada to host and Canada held a national competition to select the host city.
Katherine Boggs, a professor for the Faculty of Geology at Mount Royal University (MRU) and the international director for the Canadian Federation of Earth Sciences (CFES), led the social media and bid team for the IGC along with Dave Eaton, another professor at the University of Calgary. Boggs was on the committee for the national convention and her role was to connect geoscience communities with convention centres around Canada.
Boggs attempted to have Vancouver and Toronto run to host: “I tried to [have Vancouver host], but the academic community in Vancouver was tired because they hosted two big conferences in 2019 and 2014…Toronto, they withdrew from the competition because their convention centre is already booked past 2028.”
This left Calgary to be the perfect fit.
All that was left for the IGC to be hosted in Calgary was for Canada to win the bid. Three countries put their hats into the ring to host the IGC: Scotland, Australia and Canada. The bid was held at IGC 2024 in the South Korean conference centre of Busan. In the final weeks of August, Canada beat out the competition with a majority vote of 83 out of a possible 165 votes, Scotland came in second with 46 votes and Australia tailed just behind with 36.
IGC back in Canada, expectations
A vision for the opening ceremony, Boggs stated, would be to host it in the Stampede GMC Grandstands. Starting with an Indigenous Relay Race, and then a gigantic white hat ceremony for the delegates of the event, this would be followed and accompanied by 100 per cent Canadian music.
The proposed theme for the event is Geosciences for Humanity, meaning a focus on the future of humanity. This would be represented by a large focus on renewable energy and the power that geoscience holds over the advancement of technologies to battle climate change and protect against national disasters.
With the consistent focus of oil, gas and mineral exploration in Calgary and Alberta, there will be a core shack focusing exclusively on these elements of geoscience. There will also be a space and planetary geology day backed by NASA and the Canadian Space Agency. This will represent North America’s advancements in space exploration, and also speak on Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen’s current mission to circumnavigate the moon.
Boggs and her team hope to meet the goal of creating a welcoming environment not just for geoscientists, but also for students, school children and people around the world. There will be a day exclusively for young geoscientists, including university students and younger demographics. The day will consist of competitions and projects solely to inspire young geoscientists. Destination Canada also donated a million dollars which the team will be using to help students and researchers from the global south attend the event.
Boggs believes that children should be involved in geoscience.
“Childrens interest is super important because the discipline of geosciences is in a really weird, existential threat state. The numbers in geoscience programs across the planet have dropped off by about 40 per cent since 2015,” Boggs says.
Boggs hopes that this convention will reinvigorate young Canadians to pursue geoscience.
How the IGC effects MRU and Calgary
A convention of this scale, from the 12,000 delegates attending is projected to bring 18 million to the city of Calgary, and that’s just the delegates. Scientifically, having an event of this magnitude will put Calgary – and Western Canada – into the foreground of geoscientific focus, which in the long run can bring around more local scientific developments.
With Boggs being from Calgary and from MRU, she believes that the university’s involvement in bringing the IGC to Calgary will further put MRU on the map.. MRU students may also have the opportunity to showcase their undergraduate research projects especially if it relates to geology, such as MRU’s own venus project.
Calgary hosting the “rock olympics” will provide nothing but opportunities for academics and citizens alike, and is definitely something to look forward to in 2028.
