There is a Potawotani word “puhpowee”, whose translation into English is “the force which causes mushrooms to push up from the earth overnight.” Puhpowee is the unseen, animating force that inhabits the natural world, the hot breath of life.

Dulgoldor

I am a geologist that works in the field of characterizing reservoirs for CCS projects. The way I see it, some fossil-fuel industries are here to stay and the best we can do is mitigate their emissions into the atmosphere. Take the UK, they got rid of their coal plants after 100 years and replaced it mainly with natural gas-burning plants, that energy portfolio is not changing to, say, wind or solar anytime soon but now the government (both parties too) are heavily investing in connecting those plants to CO2 storage in the bedrock of the North Sea (which has been demonstrated to be safe).

Industrializing industries in Africa are also starting to construct new fossil fuel plants with CCUS technology. Fossil fuel burning is inherent to developing countries and at least technology can make the industrialization less dirty.

Sorry I’m on mobile and would provide some sources. I can add them if you’re interested.

As a geologist I will retort that if Minecraft environments had eroding surfaces like real life does then that bedrock would also be visible at the surface. Outcrops are just areas that are experiencing erosion rates faster than areas that are overlayed with soil. That said, there are a cool Minecraft programs for geological processes that have been shown to be educational.

Having lived in Arizona for a few years and worked in the renewable energy industry there, I always found it surprising no long term planning on anyone’s part is done when designing a water-intensive project especially in the big cities. The problem is that water will still always flow through Phoenix, whether it’s the Colorado River or even more canal projects from other states, and rural folks will always drill deeper for water. It’s not a problem that there isn’t water it’s just the accessibility of the groundwater and how saline it is. The previous governor, Ducey, even suggested the state invest in desalination tech. The surface manifestations (ie earth fissures) of GW withdrawal are obvious but humans find a way to engineer around it or in some cases of Arizona desert they just don’t build there.

Don’t forget wood and oil

Where I went to university the geography faculty were part of the Earth Science department. It formed a really interdisciplinary department, there was work being done, for example, in “health geography” — applying population & ecological studies, community health research, and epidemiology to understand disparities. Urban geography like was mentioned strives to understand of the role of cities in regional, national, and international developments but also how cities operate through governance and administration, the role of philanthropic institutions and NGOs, gentrification etc.