The geosciences will play a major role in addressing some of the fundamental societal and economic challenges of the 21st Century. Delivering on this responsibility requires specialists from industry, academia and government to work together to effectively engage with various public stakeholder audiences. Recent examples of communication around high-profile contested geoscience industries have highlighted the need to engage with diverse public audiences early and openly, but this is often easier said than done. To ensure effective communication, and so to enable progress, geoscientists need to learn how to recast their knowledge into a citizen context.
This session will explore the challenges of communicating the controversial, high-profile and often increasingly politicised geoscience topics that are being discussed across Europe and the rest of the world, critique current practice and propose new strategies for public engagement in contested geoscience. We invite participants from across all sectors, including industry, government and social science, to submit abstracts on the communication of new and controversial geological topics; including geothermal heat or power, carbon capture and storage, geological energy storage, oil and gas extraction, radioactive waste disposal and mineral resource extraction. We are particularly interested in case studies and narratives that examine issues of risk perception, trust, the role of experts, participatory engagement, the concept of the social license to operate, public-led science and the co-creation of communications.

Those interested in submitting to this session might also be interested in the short course SC2.8: Science communication on hard mode: risk, uncertainty, disasters and controversies: https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2019/session/30897