“将古论今”——环境科学研究中的历史地质学方法

PAST IS THE KEY TO THE PRESENT:METHOD OF HISTORICAL GEOLOGY IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

传统地质学的“将今论古”方法使地质学取得了巨大的成就，而且还将是今后地质学发展的指导思想。但面对资源、环境、减灾等人类在二十一世纪的主要问题，也是地球科学所面对的问题时，地质学家首先应该改变或者更新自己的思维方式。如果以地球演化的同一性原理来认识地球，则“将古论今”的方法对解决地球科学面临的挑战和机遇具有重要的意义。以历史地质学的方法和视角，研究地质过程的发生、发展和演化过程，以及这种过程在今天和明天的演化趋势，及其对人类生存环境的影响，将是今后一个时期地质科学的主要任务。

The principle that“the present is the key to the past”,which has lead the geology acquired tremendous achievements, is and will continue to be the most important thought in the development of earth science. The problems on resources, environment and calamity that human society will face to in the 21 century are fundamentally the problems of geology. To be prepared for the new challenges, the geologists must change their way of thinking in geological research. If we recognize that evolution of the Earth in the history was in a way similar to that of today, the new principle that“the past is the key to the present and future”will become more and more important in the earth science. From the perspective of historical geology, study of the processes of geological events happened in the earth history, their evolutionary trends and environment impacts in the past and future, will be a major task of geology in the 21 century.