Thursday, February 21, 2019


IAPG Annual Report 2018
for the IUGS

The report includes the overall objectives of the IAPG, relates IAPG goals to overall IUGS scientific objectives, explains how the IAPG has been actively involved with IUGS related activities, illustrates the IAPG structure and organization, its interaction with other international organizations and projects, its chief products, and finally lists the IAPG chief accomplishments 2018 and plans 2019.

IAPG is an affiliated organization of the IUGS - International Union of Geological Sciences.

Download the IAPG Annual Report 2018 (pdf):
http://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/5195a5_26e2cd6d54ab4ceda92e1ae135e06d5e.pdf?index=true


IAPG - International Association for Promoting Geoethics:
http://www.geoethics.org

Tuesday, February 19, 2019


Why do we need more geoethics in research?

Francesc Bellaubi
(PhD Natural Sciences, IAPG member)


Picture credit: Photo by Antonina Baygusheva

Francesc Bellaubi
Ethics is becoming more and more a hot topic in the discussion about natural resources management and climate change. At the same time, there is an increasing awareness about the complexity, irreversibility and uncertainty in the Earth-Man relation and how feed-back loops impact on the geosphere and, in turn generate geological risks on human activities. In fact, Impact-Risk is a kind of action-reaction loop although the detail of how this exactly works is at the core of Complex Human and Nature Systems (CHANS).

The approach to puzzle out these issues strongly relies on technology and science. Complex models and ineffective cost solutions do not seem to be enough to solve the problems. We live in troubled days under a technocratic and scientism fallacy believing science and technology can or at least may solve many, if not all, of the problems created by the Anthropocene. However, more and more voices point to "the environmental crisis is fundamentally a crisis of values" (Nasr, 1997).

I believe science and technology, and so the research that make them possible, need to be core grounded in ethics in order to feed a value-based approach to current and future challenges. This is not about realizing the magnitude of the problem we are facing in terms of keeping geosphere stability for human evolution (Galleni & Scalfari, 2005). However, breaking the existing technopoly (Postdam, 1993) inertia and understanding the problem from a values point of view is key if we want to survive in and with dignity in this world.

Research in general and specifically in geosciences when related to natural resources management and governance has not been doing so well in helping to do so. Frequently, research methods are very "extractive". We use surveys and sometimes we rely on historical data, however, rarely does research go back to people to cross check and share results in a truly participatory way. Furthermore, raw data are only occasionally available to the citizens and "analysis, result discussions and conclusion" are cryptic in order to preserve the elite mind. We should make a strong effort to make research more transparent and available to people so results can be discussed and challenged, even when this means we need to move away from our "comfort zone" and realize we are not as smart as we thought we are. In addition, researchers have a moral duty; we cannot only inform and reflect about environmental impacts and risks because those affect moral agents.

We are all pushed to think and to blindly "believe" in science and technology as this sustains the current technopoly paradigm of development but when global issues affect us all it could be an interesting approach to see how our daily relations with other beings (Earth included) stand on ethical behavior. Thus, scientific knowledge doesn't dictate behavior but science needs to be "unsecularized" from the dogma and, rather, to approach Ethics. Knowledge is not only set in our physical brain and mind structures but transcends into the spiritual perceptions that shape our daily behavior. Behavior doesn't sit on rational-bounded knowledge but on moral values, beliefs and natural instincts that determine the why of our actions. It is an ethical duty of geosciences to look at Ethics. "It is also to be hoped that it will contribute to highlighting profound dimensions and forgotten languages of the human element that the predominantly scientific-technical civilization tends to repress and hide" (Velasco, 2007).

Geosciences research needs to be reactive. It is not enough to apply scientific methods, draw hypotheses, analyze data and report results (scientific methodologies are not value-neutral). There is no added value doing so if the end does not improve people’s lives and safeguard the Earth. Research cannot be passive when looking at socio-environmental problems that involve integrity, recognition and redistribution issues in natural resources management. Research needs to be brave and stand up, and needs to be politically and ethically engaged, but mainly committed. Should sound scientific reports be dropped on a table without the ethical need to accompany the decision-making process? And what is the role of advising and counseling from a pedagogical and social learning point of view?

Academia is not and cannot be an "untouched" sanctuary but an open learning forum where issues are debatable and debated and where we should challenge others to challenge us. In these days where the big word "Democracy" is in everybody's mind and mouth, I think making academia more democratic and research more ethical is a good starter in the view of the pressing challenges the Earth and Man are facing together.


References

Galleni L. and Scalfari F. (2005). Teilhard de Chardin’s Engagement with the Relationship between Science and Theology in Light of Discussions about Environmental Ethics. Ecotheology, 10(2), pp. 196-214.

Nasr S.H. (1997). Man and nature. Chicago: ABC International Group, Inc.

Postman N. (1993). Technopoly: the Surrender of Culture to Technology. New York: Vintage Books.

Velasco J.M. (2007). Introducción a la fenomenología de la religión (Estructuras y Procesos, Religión). 7th edn. Madrid: Editorial Trotta, S.A.



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Other articles published in the IAPG Blog:

IAPG - International Association for Promoting Geoethics

Tuesday, February 12, 2019


"Principles of Water Ethics"

(by Bruce Jennings, Paul Heltne & Kathryn Kintzele)


The significance of water for life and health is fundamental and can scarcely be overstated, and hence the pertinence of ethics to water utilization and management is clear in a general sense. It is important for everyone involved in water resource management and in public health to have a well-reasoned understanding of the moral values and obligations that correspond to that significance. In the domain of ethics, questions of scientific knowledge come together with aspects of cultural meaning and perception; questions of conservation, sanitation, and health promotion come together with questions of justice, equity, and human rights; questions of sustainability and biodiversity come together with questions of democratic governance, law, and policy.


Download:
http://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/5195a5_0483bb06294a4b3b930cd7bb537d253d.pdf


Documents and online resources on topics of interest for geoethics: 
http://www.geoethics.org/resources


IAPG - International Association for Promoting Geoethics:
http://www.geoethics.org

Friday, February 8, 2019


An article just published in Sustainability

"Ethics to Intersect Civic Participation and
Formal Guidance"

(by Martin Bohle, Cornelia E. Nauen, and Eduardo Marone)


Abstract:
Sound governance arrangement in socio-ecological systems (human niche) combines different means of sense-making. The sustainability of human niche-building depends on the governability of the social-ecological systems (SES) forming the niche. Experiences from small-scale marine fisheries and seabed mining illustrate how ethical frameworks, civic participation and formalised guidance combine in the context of a “blue economy”. Three lines of inquiries contextualise these experiences driving research questions, such as “what is the function of ethics for governability?” First, complex-adaptive SES are featured to emphasise the sense-making feedback loop in SES. Actors are part of this feedback loop and can use different means of sense-making to guide their actions. Second, the “Voluntary Guidelines for Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries” and geoethical thinking are featured to highlight the relevance of actor-centric concepts. Third, Kohlberg’s model of “stages of moral adequacy” and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) are used to show how to strengthen actor-centric virtue-ethics. Combining these lines of inquiry leads to the conclusion that ethical frameworks, civic participation and formalised guidance, when put in a mutual context, support governability and multi-actor/level policy-making. Further research could explore how creativity can strengthen civic participation, a feature only sketched here.

Free Download:
http://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/5195a5_ea0fec9cb7104298bfa884391941f213.pdf


Other articles on geoethics in the IAPG website (free download): 
http://www.geoethics.org/articles-geoethics

Books on geoethics (chapters for free download):
http://www.geoethics.org/books-on-geoethics


IAPG - International Association for Promoting Geoethics:
http://www.geoethics.org