This is a copy of a post on a thread discussing the reasons why few young people seem to be getting interested in mineral collecting, so if you read that post, you don't need to read this, but I wanted to copy it here for reference.

P.

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As one of those who almost certainly fall into the "Baby Boomer / Old Farts" categories described by a couple of our younger Mindat friends, (no offence taken I can assure you!), I can sympathise with the thoughts of those like Matt and Kristopher above.

It is obvious that among the sad facts of modern life which are hindering young people from enjoying scientific hobbies such as ours, are not only perceptions such as it being "Uncool" and also that there are far more distractions for them than there were when I started becoming interested in mineralogy, but also the greater feelings of insecurity amongst their parents (justifiable or otherwise), the cost of purchasing specimens or going on field trips, the diminishing numbers of places where it is possible to collect, and certainly, health & safety paranoia has a lot to answer for.

One of the reasons I spend so much time on-line (including here at Mindat, writing the long-winded answers that I do on some threads - e.g. this one!), and not spending every spare moment of my time indoors at my microscope or working on my mineral collection database, or swotting up my marine navigation, or listening to Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, or Mozart, is precisely because I like to try and encourage those who are just starting out, and to share some experiences (see my updated Mindat Homepage), and to help out when I can.

But although we can offer every encouragement those who have already expressed some interest, such as those visiting Mindat, as to drawing in those who are as yet oblivious to "The Joy of Rocks", I think that the solution is to a great extent out of our hands. It requires a change of attitude by the powers-that-be (i.e. govenment and the educational authorities) to give a higher, more positive profile to science in general, to promote it's world view and the philosophy behind it, and to give an educational push to get young people more interested in science as a career. Not just in research generated and controlled by commercial interests such as the the spin-off technologies of computers, digital photography, communications, pharmaceuticals, etc., but also, of course, to provide secure funding for fundamental exploratory scientific research.

Another aspect that needs to be addressed is the rather widely held naive perception that mining is inevitably an undesirable, unnecessary, environmentally hostile activity, and that mineralogy and geology essentially exist solely to support the mining and quarrying industries, and are therefore also tarred with the "enviromnentally unfriendly" brush by some. When I started working for Rio Tinto, even as one who had worked in geology for almost 20 years at that time, I was unaware of just how much of their research buget went into evironmental matters. Yes, granted, much of that is driven by regulatory requirements, but the fact remains that most of those working in the mining industry are very aware of, and supportive of, the need for stringent environmental control of mining activities.

I have had several heated discussions with people such as the ones who, when they found that I worked for, and have shares in a mining company, immediately accused me of "profiting from the destruction of the enviromnent"! Yet those same people of course, mostly (apart from those few who live in recycled VW camper vans) live in houses or apartments built with bricks &/or tiles made of clay from clay pits, cement from limestone quarries and plaster from gypsum mines; held together with galvanised nails and steel lintels, with copper wiring and plumbing, brass door hinges, aluminium saucepans, stainless steel knives and forks, etc. They listen to their music on hi-fi systems with GaAs LED displays held in place with solder containing tin, and controlled by Si-chip based microprocessors, and powered by electricity generated by gas turbines with alloy blades, or reactors powered by uranium fission.

They traveled to make their protests in buses or trains made largely of steel etc, and driven by diesel fuel, (or perhaps on steel and chrome bicycles, or even in cars! - shock, horror!?), wearing their beads, bangles, ankhs and pendants, and all the other powerful symbols of their point of view. (Made of amethyst, jade, garnet, silver, titanium, etc!) Very likely they had had their lunch of wholesome organic food before the meeting. (Delivered to the shop/cafe in plastic trays, by truck, from the farm where it had been cultivated and harvested with the aid of tractors and modern greenhouses and irrigation systems.)

If they genuinely lived in caves or tents lit by tallow candles, ate only what they grew themselves (cultivated with wooden, bone or stone tools, of course), and had attended their protest on foot or horseback, wearing only home-knitted clothes and hand-carved bone jewelery made of wool and bones from their own sheep, and listened only to live music played on home-made instruments, I might have more sympathy with their hatred of the mining industry! But obviously none of them did, and realistically, with the world population and infrastructutre as it is, very few of us could even if we wanted to.

Particularly for the Earth sciences, such environmental naivety needs to be countered, and the essential nature of mining as fundamental to our well-being stated more publicly and emphatically. There also needs to be some degree of back-pedalling of our current risk-averse culture, to allow more school-age (and mature) students to get out there in the field, up mountains and into quarries, down mines, etc, to allow them to understand that being involved in, and supportive of mining, and sciences such as mineralogy and geology, whether as a career or as a hobby interest, is a worthwhile, even essential "[b]real life[/b]", activity, and not just something for geeks with their heads stuck in books.

Pete N.

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