The geosciences need practitioners who possess an ethical conscience and the desire to act responsibly. Ethically responsible geoscientists will achieve success and satisfaction by carrying out excellent research and professional activities, and by maintaining honest and open collaborations with colleagues. Such individuals will be able to contribute to building a resilient society, be better prepared to face global economic and environmental challenges and be willing to take concrete actions for the conservation of the geo-environment. Geoethics provides ethical, social, and cultural values for the scientific community and for society as a whole. Geoethics represents a new vision of a world in which it is possible to maintain a more balanced relationship between humans and nature, considering modern economic and social development expectations. This chapter illustrates some aspects of geoethics, provides an overview of its basic values and themes, and highlights prominent global issues that involve geoethics, including climate change, geo-risks, land management, exploitation of geo-resources, and sustainability. The International Association for Promoting Geoethics (IAPG) provides a multidisciplinary platform for discussion, a place where multidisciplinary collaboration can strengthen the development of geoethics from a scientific and philosophical perspective, in order to better introduce geoethical values into society.
In line with the concept proposed by Aristotle (384-322 BC), ethics reflects on the conduct of humans and the criteria with which to evaluate behaviors and choices in order to identify "true good" including the means to achieve this goal. It also addresses the moral duties of humans towards themselves and others, and what is the right thing to do when facing a decision. Regarding the practice of a profession, ethics is the identification of duties and rights that regulate the professional activity (deontology) by members of a social group, who are characterized by the possession of specific technicalscientific knowledge, methods and tools for its application.There are values that the human community accepts as universally representative of individual and social good, because of the universal character of the human species itself, such as honesty, justice, responsibility, respect for life, and the environment. However, depending on the cultural context, and considering time and place, the ways in which values are applied can change.In the end, ethics concerns all humans, without distinction, and especially those who have major scientific, political, and social roles, and who certainly have to face issues of great ethical value. Function and Practice of EthicsEthics is intended to clarify, for a given circumstance, what to do and how to do it, taking into account the consequences of that act. Its function is to guide humans when they need to make a choice by providing a framework of reference values, shared by the social group to which they belong, that can lead to good or to what is most useful to the individual or society.Moral philosophy (i.e., the reflection on how to act rightly to achieve good) attributes the ability to distinguish good from evil, and therefore to make right decisions, to some human faculties, such as reason, conscience, and knowledge, provided these faculties are adequately cultivated. Therefore, university training that includes not only technical-scientific elements, but also ethical aspects of professional practice, becomes crucial for dealing responsibly with issues specific to each disciplinary field.Individual freedom is the fundamental pre-requisite for ethically practicing one's own profession. It allows the intentional action (will) for the pursuit of good and/or profit. So, its absence prejudices the possibility of taking ethical decisions. The analytical tool for assessing and weighing situations and possible decisions in a detailed way is critical thinking, i.e., the aptitude to question a problem in the complexity of its variables, assessing interactions, uncertainties, probabilities of occurrence, but also methods, models, and tools to solve the problem itself.An ethical problem presupposes the existence of a choice between two alternatives, one of which is the best option, taking into account the reference system of social, scientific, economic, and cultural values in which one is acting, assuring an accurate knowledge of the problem to be faced and an
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