Reading articles published in the media and in academic studies, the term “geoengineering” (or geo-engineering) now most commonly refers to the subject of climate engineering, including technologies that could manipulate the environment and offset the impacts of climate change. Notably solar engineering and carbon dioxide removal. Alongside the word “geoscience”, which is generally accepted as the scientific study of Earth, these “GEO” words have been universally adopted by the climate change community and are now more frequently recognised in this field than in our own engineering and geological disciplines. The term ‘geo’ is derived from the Greek for ‘Earth’, and is not limited to soil or rock materials, so it follows that as climate change affects everything on Planet Earth, not just the ground beneath its surface, it is an appropriate term to use for this purpose.

Some reference sources acknowledge the other uses of the term, noting that geoengineering may also refer to geological engineering, engineering geology, geotechnical engineering and geophysical engineering. It is, however, widely acknowledged that geology and engineering are not the first disciplines most people think of when coming across the term.

A creditable argument is that the climate crisis is much more important than geological sciences. Despite the possibility that we are at the beginning of a new geological Anthropocene Epoch caused by human activity, it is acknowledged in most academic and engineering circles that our focus should be on minimising our effect on the global climate. Our role as geologists, engineers and geoenvironmentalists in supporting this objective is becoming clearer as our understanding of the situation grows. We should embrace our part in this, celebrating the use of geoengineering to provide a positive contribution. What we should learn from this is the importance of being careful when using such terms to describe our work, as the fundamentals of our role could be easily misunderstood.

Opinion piece by Neil Parry, Director, Geotechnical Engineering Limited