Communicating geosciences in the digital age

It was in mid-March 1987 that I first took up my desk at Nature's bookish offices in Little Essex St, not quite 20 years after Jason Morgan's epochal and poorly understood AGU talk on the mechanisms of plate tectonics. Within days I was editing articles on the topic, which seemed as ancient and established as the mountains themselves. So, a further 30 years on, it's unnerving to recognise how young, yet successful the paradigm was. Climate science was similarly finding its feet at the time. These global forces that shape the planet, shape people's lives too, and often in an instant. This is what makes accurate and timely reporting of earth sciences compelling. What's also been transformed is communication. Then, it was by post, or via the new "fax" machine that arrived shortly after me. How that has changed! In this talk I will reflect on the the key role digital media, social media in particular, play in contemporary reporting on geosciences and the environment.