The GeoUnion Alfred Wegener Foundation presented new Earth science findings in health research at an interdisciplinary conference at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. As part of the “Science Year 2011 – Research for Our Health,” it seeked to create awareness for the various ways that our environment impacts on our health.

The Earth sciences (geosciences) focus on people’s natural resources in both the terrestrial and marine areas of our planet: energy and resources, atmosphere and climate, water, soil, and the biosphere. Works on biodiversity, threats to ecosystems, damages to the environment and people’s health play a major role in basic research and applied science. In this context, the geosciences examine, among other things, the existence of pollutants and their distribution. They develop strategies to avert or protect against these dangers and thus provide important insights for health research. The conference will present several particularly interesting examples of health research in a variety of geoscientific disciplines.