While it probably depends on what you mean by “real”, there’s lots of answers to this question. Here’s just a few….
All fields of Medicine – to help the injured and sick, to produce vaccines or determine how a disease is spread.
Meteorology – to understand where and when major weather events will occur, how long they will last, how severe they will be.
Meteorology with Forestry – to predict the path of forest fires
Hydrology – to understand where to get freshwater from when your source disappears
Physical Oceanography – to understand the probability and magnitude of flooding events – where sea level rise will have the biggest impact, where tides will be highest, where the changes in temperature will impact the availability of fish, where the contamination from a spill will go,
Biological Oceanography – to predict the spread of harmful algae (e.g. red tide)
Biology, Botany and related fields – to feed the planet in a changing environment
Vulcanology – to predict the effects of volcano eruptions
Geology – to predict effects (timing, location, aftershocks, tsunamis) of earthquakes
Astrophysics – to understand the impact of solar storms or to recognize an impending meteor strike
Engineering and Software Engineering to meet the technological needs of the all the other fields.
John Stegemanon January 28, 2021 at 6:35 pm
Emergency Medicine and public health professionals, would be important to help with those impacted by a disaster. It is becoming clear that one of the major impacts is on mental health of many, including those not impacted directly, say by an oil spill, or by a hurricane when their homes are not damaged. People who deal with such mental effects are needed.
While it probably depends on what you mean by “real”, there’s lots of answers to this question. Here’s just a few….
All fields of Medicine – to help the injured and sick, to produce vaccines or determine how a disease is spread.
Meteorology – to understand where and when major weather events will occur, how long they will last, how severe they will be.
Meteorology with Forestry – to predict the path of forest fires
Hydrology – to understand where to get freshwater from when your source disappears
Physical Oceanography – to understand the probability and magnitude of flooding events – where sea level rise will have the biggest impact, where tides will be highest, where the changes in temperature will impact the availability of fish, where the contamination from a spill will go,
Biological Oceanography – to predict the spread of harmful algae (e.g. red tide)
Biology, Botany and related fields – to feed the planet in a changing environment
Vulcanology – to predict the effects of volcano eruptions
Geology – to predict effects (timing, location, aftershocks, tsunamis) of earthquakes
Astrophysics – to understand the impact of solar storms or to recognize an impending meteor strike
Engineering and Software Engineering to meet the technological needs of the all the other fields.
Emergency Medicine and public health professionals, would be important to help with those impacted by a disaster. It is becoming clear that one of the major impacts is on mental health of many, including those not impacted directly, say by an oil spill, or by a hurricane when their homes are not damaged. People who deal with such mental effects are needed.