**Director Mark Myers Remarks at Association of American Geographers
104th Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, April 7, 2008.**

**"Facing Tomorrow\'s Challanges."**

**Title slide 1 \--** Good afternoon. I'm honored and very pleased to
speak to you today. (Image: banks of the Colorado River, location
unknown)

**Slide 2 --** As geographers you are aware that impact of humans on the
planet has expanded to the extent that humankind has emerged as a
globally important force capable of reshaping the earth, capable of
depleting or threatening many of the earth's resources.

We are now in a situation of relatively rapid climate change in which we
know with certainty that we will be crossing thresholds beyond which
ecosystems, and the services they provide, will be irreversibly changed

**Slide 3 --** Climate change will directly and indirectly threaten the
stability of natural resources and human well-being.

*Image: A composite picture of the planet at night. Most of the
electrical light that is produced come from coal fired generation
plants.*

**Slide 4 \--** If we do not focus on sustainable management of our
earth's resources, the lack of the resources that we have enjoyed in the
past undoubtedly will become a more and more of a threat for people in
many nations.

=================

Drawing from the works of hundreds of researchers, the "Global Change"
study (Steffen et al. 2004; Chapter 3) concluded that perhaps 50% of the
world's

ice-free land surface has been transformed by human action; the land
under cropping has doubled during the past century at the expense of
forests, which

declined by 20% over the same period. More than half of all accessible
freshwater resources have come to be used by humankind. Fisheries remove
more than

25% of the primary production of the oceans in the upwelling regions and
35% in the temperate continental shelf regions (Pauly and Christensen
1995).

Steffen,W. et al., eds. 2004. Global Change and the Earth System.
Heidelberg: Springer.

+++++++

***Humans as geologic agents: A deep-time perspective***

Bruce H. Wilkinson; Department of Geological Sciences, University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA

ABSTRACT

Humans move increasingly large amounts of rock and sediment during
various construction activities, and mean rates of cropland soil loss
may exceed rates of formation by

up to an order of magnitude, but appreciating the actual importance of
humans as agents of global erosion necessitates knowledge of prehistoric
denudation rates imposed on land

surfaces solely by natural processes.

*Geology;* March 2005; v. 33; no. 3; p. 161--164; doi: 10.1130/G21108.1

**Slide 5 \--** Modern society is increasingly dependent on
non-renewable mineral and fossil energy resources.

Economic and population growth of less developed countries functions as
a relatively recent but quickly growing push factor on global demand.

Responsible extraction of any of the earth's natural resources -- from
coal to gold to gas hydrates -- requires a rigorous commitment to
sustainable development from economic, environmental, and socio-cultural
perspectives.

Climate change coupled with global population growth present
unprecedented threats -- for example, increased desertification and loss
of biodiversity - to the world's biological resources.

These challenges are not just vaguely global; they are immediate and
local. They appear at every level of natural resource management -- from
international to county and municipal levels.

**Slide 6 \--** The combination of climate change, population growth,
and greater use of irrigated agriculture has resulted in increased
stress on water resources around the world. Water has emerged as a
global issue that requires international multi-disciplinary cooperation
on assessment, research, and management. The problem is exacerbated with
the expansion of population centers in water-scarce regions, such as in
central Mexico, southern India, and southeast Australia.

Water issues are familiar in the western states, but widespread water
shortages that are magnified by urban growth have recently begun to
appear in the southeastern U.S.

At first glance, the boy in this picture might appear to be from Africa,
judging from the look of his necklace. But he could just as well live in
our own state of Georgia. Or he could stand in for other children who
live in the Southwest. The challenges that climate and population growth
present for our natural resource know no boundaries.

**Slide 7 \--** At USGS, we've recently developed a science strategy
that we believe will help our organization address complex environmental
problems.

The strategy is based on a systems approach to evaluate broad causes and
consequences of the use and management of natural resources and earth
processes.

There are six interrelated thematic components - directions -- in our
science strategy that you see listed in this slide.. The seventh
component, data integration, is the passport to transcending a
discipline-based approach to science. It brings the other science
directions together in the most basic and, at the same time, the most
productive ways.

The key to data integration is place. Once you have established where on
earth this characteristic is combined with that characteristic, then you
begin to establish geographic context and you can start to ask how and
why such conditions exist at that particular location, or a range of
locations, and not elsewhere. These observations, when carefully
considered and tested, can then lead to a deeper scientific
understanding that can be applied to parallel situations.

The interaction and correlation of these directions both reflect and
reveal the complexity of the Earth's natural, physical, and life
systems. They describe the breadth of our systems approach that calls
upon the full range of USGS science capabilities.

**Slide 8 \--** The essential point that I want to make today, a
perspective that I support very strongly, is that all of earth's
resources are interrelated.

In this first decade of the 21st Century, we face many threats to earth
resources - threats on a global scale such as climate change, drought,
natural disasters, deforestation, competition for energy and mineral
resources. Additionally, there are important human health impacts that
are tied to the quality of our air and our water.

We believe that this comprehensive, interdisciplinary, systems approach
to a science strategy will pay dividends in making our science more
relevant to environmental issues in public policy.

**Slide 9 \--** At USGS we believe that the starting point to
understanding the complexity of earth systems is the concept of
ecosystems.

Ecosystems constitute the Earth's biosphere and support human existence.
The plants, animals, microbes, and physical products from ecosystems
provide people, as components of those ecosystems, with the energy,
water, biomass, medicine, and mineral resources needed to sustain human
societies.

**Slide 10 --**Understanding ecosystems and predicting ecosystem change
requires robust scientific assessments and modeling of ecosystem
conditions as climate and human-induced land changes occur.

Ecosystems are inherently "interdisciplinary," with geographical,
biological, geological, hydrological, and other components.

Ecosystems are also inherently "multiscalar," spatially and temporally.
They are usually recognized and managed at site-specific (local) scales,
but are also described at broader scales from regional to global.

USGS scientists are mapping ecosystems by integrating their "structural"
components, e.g. landforms, climate, geology, land cover, etc.

**Slide 11 \--** Geographically standardized ecosystem inventories -- as
maps or databases -- enable scientists to pursue:

-   conservation planning (through GAP analysis)

-   resource management

-   predictive forecasting of ecosystem conditions

**Slide 12 \--** An important part of the Ecosystem Science Direction in
the USGS Science Strategy relates to ecosystem services, or the goods
and services of value to humans that come from natural systems.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment defined four categories of ecosystem
services resulting from natural systems:

-   provisioning services such as food, fiber, and water;

-   regulating services such as water purification and storm protection;

-   cultural services such as recreation and natural beauty; and

-   supporting services such as nutrient cycling and soil formation.

In many cases, these services are not fully valued when conservation,
restoration, resource management, or development decisions are made. In
some cases, markets do not exist for these services. In other cases,
services are affected by actions far from the location where the
services are provided or where the beneficiaries are located.

USGS science has a critical role to play in understanding the processes
within natural systems for the production of ecosystem services.

For instance, we need to understand how potential decisions to build a
suburban development in the Chesapeake watershed and the resulting
runoff affect Chesapeake fisheries and various freshwater and
recreational resources.

We also need to be able to link our science to decision making so that
tradeoffs across conservation, restoration, resource management, and
development are informed and fully considered.

USGS is working with EPA, the U.S. Forest Service, AAG, and others to
organize "A Conference on Ecosystem Services: Using Science for Decision
Making in Dynamic Systems," to be held in Naples, FL from Dec. 8-11, to
focus on and bring attention to these issues.

We have also, in cooperation with AAG, organized four panels on
ecosystem services to take place today and tomorrow. The first two
panels will be held this afternoon in this room immediately after my
talk.

This is an important issue to the USGS and to the Nation, and we want
the best science to be routinely and effectively used in making
decisions that consider ecosystem services.

**Slide 13 \--** USGS science has a critical role to play in
understanding the processes within natural systems for the production of
ecosystem services.

For instance, we need to understand how potential decisions to build a
suburban development in the Chesapeake watershed and the resulting
runoff affect Chesapeake fisheries and various freshwater and
recreational resources.

We also need to be able to link our science to decision making so that
tradeoffs across conservation, restoration, resource management, and
development are informed and fully considered.

USGS is working with EPA, the U.S. Forest Service, AAG, and others to
organize "A Conference on Ecosystem Services: Using Science for Decision
Making in Dynamic Systems," to be held in Naples, FL from Dec. 8-11, to
focus on and bring attention to these issues.

We have also, in cooperation with AAG, organized four panels on
ecosystem services to take place today and tomorrow. The first two
panels will be held this afternoon in this room immediately after my
talk.

This is an important issue to the USGS and to the Nation, and we want
the best science to be routinely and effectively used in making
decisions that consider ecosystem services.

**Slide 14 \--** Using science to understand the land is our heritage at
USGS. The first element of our agency's mandate, according to the 1879
Organic Act, is the "classification of the public lands."

The USGS serves the Nation as an independent fact-finding agency that
collects, monitors, analyzes, and provides scientific understanding
about natural resource conditions, issues, and problems.

The USGS is the only integrated natural resources research bureau in the
Federal Government. It supports the science needs of all the other
bureaus of the Department of the Interior.

The USGS leverages its resources and expertise in partnership with more
than 2,000 agencies of State, local and tribal government, the academic
community, other Federal allies, non-governmental organizations, and the
private sector.

**Slide 15 \--** The AAG has a vital partner for us throughout most of
our history and, I may point out, all of theirs.

In 1904, geography was still a fledgling academic discipline in America
and most of its early proponents were trained as geologists. When the
Association of American Geographers (AAG) was founded that year in
Philadelphia, nine of the 48 charter members of the society were
geologists and topographers from the U.S. Geological Survey: Alfred H.
Brooks, Marius R. Campbell, Nelson H. Darton, Henry Gannett, Grove Karl
Gilbert, Robert T. Hill, François E. Matthes, W. J. McGee, Bailey Willis

The USGS and the AAG continue a fruitful partnership to facilitate the
development of geography and its application in society.

Few of our other 2,000 partners have worked with us that long. Here you
see a half-dozen logos of impr to give you the range of partner list.

**Slide 16 \--** The USGS conveys its science perspectives and findings
to other agencies and non-governmental organizations, to other
scientists, and to the public in a variety of ways. To get a sense of
the variety, to see the whole picture, they could be grouped into the
five categories that you see here.

The USGS produces between 4000 and 5000 publications and professional
presentations per year, including abstracts, outside journal articles,
and formal in-house publications.

Modeling is a fundamental component of USGS science. USGS scientists are
developing increasingly sophisticated models as a way of understanding -
and predicting - complex systems and phenomena, from climate change to
seismic hazards to watershed analysis.

The USGS has created and continually maintains many national-scale,
long-term databases. Well known examples include *The National Map and*
the National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD). We'll come back to those
examples in a minute.

Though the USGS doesn't have direct resource management
responsibilities, we conduct research on management techniques such as
the Land Use Portfolio Model, Adaptive Management, and Ecosystem
Services.

**Slide 17 \--** The multi-faceted, multi-purpose National Map includes
eight data layers: hydrography, elevation, imagery, geographic names,
boundaries, transportation, land cover, structures.

It provides public domain data to support:

-   USGS topographic maps at 1:24,000-scale

-   Products and services at multiple scales and resolutions

-   Analysis, modeling and other applications at multiple scales and
    resolutions

The National Map is built on partnerships and shared standards.

The National Map is a vital, essential program to provide a trusted,
nationally consistent geospatial framework. Its development at USGS
continues our heritage of national mapping begun by John Wesley Powell.

As we improve the way The National Map works -- through improved data
standards, accessibility, and consistency; though improved understanding
of customer needs; and, perhaps most importantly, through more robust
partnerships -- these advances will promote a synergy of geospatial
information that will benefit counties, states, and the nation.

**Slide 18 \--** The National Land Cover Database (NLCD 2001) produced
by USGS and the federal interagency Multi‑Resolution Land
Characteristics Consortium (MRLC) is a massive database that describes
the land surface condition of each 30-meter cell of land in the
conterminous United States. To give you a sense of the precision of this
database, nearly six such cells - each 98 feet long and wide - would fit
on a football field. One cell is just about the area bounded by the
basepaths in a baseball diamond.

NLCD 2001 data portrays 16 classes of land cover in the lower 48 states,
the percent of tree canopy, and the degree of surface imperviousness in
urban areas. The database provides us gives a versatile, impartial look
at the state of the land that is particularly useful for land managers.

The range and accuracy of information in the database enables managers
of public and private lands, urban planners, agricultural experts, and
scientists with many different interests (for instance, climate change
or invasive species) to identify critical characteristics of the land
for a wide variety of investigations. The national consistency of this
information makes possible the sweeping, contextual analysis of national
land perspectives, such as the Heinz Center's State of the Nation's
Ecosystems and the Environmental Protection Agency's Draft Report on the
Environment.

I'd like to congratulate the USGS and MRLC development team for recently
completing 50-state coverage of this database.

**Slide 19 \--** Today, our growing and expanding society faces many
pressing issues that science can and must help address.

Many of these issues transcend geographical boundaries. They're global
in nature.

And many of them transcend traditional boundaries of academic
disciplines. Such multi-faceted challenges can rarely be addressed by a
single discipline.

Geography plays an integrative role in all natural science studies by
emphasizing place as an organizing factor of information. The highest
aim of geography is to combine the insights of other disciplines and
facilitate their investigation.

By design, geography emphasizes the connection of nature and society.
And, in that way, it enables us to more effectively focus our efforts
and resources in confronting the most pressing environmental and
resource issues of our Nation.

This AAG venue is truly a grand stage for professional and scientific
exchange, an excellent forum to develop and promote integrated science
that is built on, united by the concept of place.

I congratulate and thank each USGS scientist who is making a
presentation. Let's use this opportunity well to learn from others, to
cultivate partnerships, and to make our science public.