Contemporary Geoethics Within the Geosciences

Peppoloni, Silvia; Bilham, Nic; Capua, Giuseppe Di

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-12010-8_2

Cited by 72 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 95 publications

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“…This section is subdivided into five parts: a brief description of geoethics (for a comprehensive description, see [8]); an outline of the sociohistorical context of geosciences; a sketch of the affective connotations of the central geoethics paradigm; a description of the ambiguous use of the term geoethics in the scientific literature; and a reference to the use of geoethics in the public sphere.…”

Section: Contexts For a Paradigm "Geoethics"mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Scholarly definitions of sustainability are many [2,3], and the implications of the concept of sustainability for human ethical practice are evident [4][5][6][7]. The notion of Geoethics labels a specific school of thought within geosciences that considers sustainability as a value [8] (p. 48). As a school of thought, Geoethics may be situated at the intersection of different ethical frameworks (environmental, sustainability, engineering, or professional ethics) [9] (pp.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this essay, we describe why the brand geoethics is meaningful; for example, because of the intrinsic relation between sustainability and geosciences [8,10,11]. Studies in geoethics are about "research and reflection on the values that underpin appropriate behaviors and practices, wherever human activities interact with the Earth system" [12] (pp.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Geoethics, a Branding for Sustainable Practices

Böhle

Marone

2021

Sustainability

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In struggles for cultural leadership, advocating a paradigm helps to disseminate, for example, a style of life, thinking, or common practices. Promoting a practice, that is, branding it, includes the use of a simple name or symbol (semiotic sign). Within geosciences, the label “geoethics” refers to a school of thought that uses established philosophical concepts to promote responsible professional practices. The outcomes that are available aggregate to a more general paradigm that calls for geocentric human practices. The label geoethics also sounds like a brand for those practices. As analysis shows, the notion of geoethics is not univocal. At first sight, that feature hinders using it as a brand for geocentric practices. However, the successful branding of the concept of sustainability, as a scientific and public paradigm, indicates the opposite. Although the notion of sustainability aggregates various concepts and is not univocal, it illustrates what cultural leadership can be achieved when a concept, paradigm, and brand use the same semiotic sign (name). Therefore, it is suggested that the school of thought, Geoethics, with its dedicated reference to the specific societal use of geosciences, should also be used as a brand: geoethics, the general application of geoethical thinking to promote geocentric human practices.

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Section: Contexts For a Paradigm "Geoethics"mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Geoethics, a Branding for Sustainable Practices

Böhle

Marone

2021

Sustainability

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“…Geoethics for geoscientists was designed as a specific intra-disciplinary tool for choosing between care and neglect, which was made by those and for those who have the profession to study the interaction of human practices and Earth [13]. A more generic tool should assimilate the ethical foundations that geoethics provide for geo-professionals and simply extend them.…”

Section: Thinking Geoethically -Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geoethics for Nudging Human Practices in Times of Pandemics

Marone¹,

Böhle²

2020

Preprint

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Geoscientists developed geoethics, an intra-disciplinary field of applied philosophical studies, during the last decade. Reaching beyond the sphere of professional geosciences, it led to professional, cultural, and philosophical approaches to handle the social-ecological structures of our planet ‘wherever human activities interact with the Earth system’. Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 and considering geoscientists’ experiences dealing with disasters (related to hazards like tsunamis, floods, climate changes.), this essay (1) explores the geoethical approach, (2) re-casts geoethics within western philosophical systems, such as the Kantian imperatives, Kohlberg scale of moral adequacy, Jonas’ imperative of responsibility, and (3) advances a ‘geoethical thesis’. The latter takes the form of a hypothesis of a much broader scope of geoethics than initially envisioned. That hypothesis appears by suspecting a relationship between the relative successes in the COVID-19 battle with the positioning of agents (individual, collective, institutional) into ethical frameworks. The turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, calls for the transfer of experiences between different disciplinary domains to further sustainable governance, hence generalising the geoethical approach. It is emphasized that only when behaving as responsible and knowledgeable citizens, then people of any trade (including [geo-]scientists) can transgress the boundaries of ordinary governance practices with legitimacy.

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“…This amalgam of fundamental, applied and engineering sciences, as well as the commercial use of geoscience knowledge, makes geosciences an instrument to further anthropogenic global change. The working environments of applied and commercial geosciences explicitly frame the activities of 'geo-professionals' who are subject to ethical requirements and professional responsibilities that cascade through the links with applied and engineering disciplines, and that also engage, ultimately, with the geoscientists doing fundamental research [104].…”

Section: Planetary Human Agency and Geosciencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ‘Anthropocene Proposal’: A Possible Quandary and A Work-Around

Böhle

Bilham

2019

Quaternary

Self Cite

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The debates about naming the unfolding times of anthropogenic global change the ‘Anthropocene’ are ultimately debates about the ‘human condition’. The proposal to amend the geological time scale by adding an ‘Anthropocene’ epoch (that is, the ‘Anthropocene proposal’ in its strict sense) is both an intra-geoscience debate about scientific sense-making and a debate about the societal context of the geosciences. This essay juxtaposes these debates, starting from three postulates: first, that the scientific methods of geological chronostratigraphy are applied rigorously; second, that anthropogenic global change is happening; and third, that the ‘Anthropocene proposal’ may be rejected if it does not meet the conditions required for its approval based on the rigorous application of the scientific methods of geological chronostratigraphy. These postulates are analysed through the lenses of the Cape Town Statement on Geoethics and the normative statements of the ‘geoethical promise’. It is found that an ethical quandary would arise if the ‘Anthropocene proposal’ were to be rejected. Consequently, and given the societal contexts of the geosciences, it is explored whether distinguishing between the geological past (as demarcated according to current chronostratigraphic methodology) and contemporary geological–historical times (characterised somewhat differently) could offer a work-around to tackle the quandary.

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Contemporary Geoethics Within the Geosciences

Cited by 72 publications

References 95 publications

Geoethics, a Branding for Sustainable Practices

Geoethics, a Branding for Sustainable Practices

Geoethics for Nudging Human Practices in Times of Pandemics

The ‘Anthropocene Proposal’: A Possible Quandary and A Work-Around

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