Friday, May 28, 2021


Geoethics at the Gutenberg Project event


IAPG-Italy informs that 
Silvia Peppoloni and Giuseppe Di Capua presented their book in Italian "Geoetica - Manifesto per un'etica della responsabilità verso la Terra" (https://www.donzelli.it/libro/9788855221696) (in English: Geoethics – Manifesto for ethics of responsibility towards the Earth" on 27 May 2021, during the event "Progetto Gutenberg 2021 - XVIII edizione, dal titolo Homo sapiens? Fragile civiltà" (in English: Gutenberg Project: XVIII edition, entitled Homo sapiens? Fragile civilization (https://gutenbergcalabria.it/2021-homo-sapiens-fragile-civilta/, in Italian). 

"Progetto Gutenberg" is a laboratory of critical reading of books, conceived by Prof. Armando Vitale.

The book presentation was the occasion for a dialogue between book’s authors and professors and students of secondary schools in Calabria region, who read and deepened the book contents and geoethics in the last two months.

It is possibile to watch the video recording of the meeting (in Italian) on YouTube (from catanzaroinforma.it): 

A short note (in Italian) about the meeting is available on the Gutenberg Project website:



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

Wednesday, May 26, 2021


Geoethics postdoctoral research fellow advert


Applications are invited for a Research Fellow to play a central role in an interdisciplinary research project on the geoethics of extractive industries.

This post is available from 1st November 2021 for 18 months. It is supported by a British Academy Knowledge Frontiers Project Grant (Mining for Meaning: the Geoethics of Extractive Industries).

The successful candidate will take a leading role in conducting qualitative fieldwork (interviews, workshops and/or focus groups) across three research sites (in Northeast England, South Africa and New Zealand), data management, analysis and the preparation of manuscripts for publication. Fieldwork may need to be conducted remotely, depending on COVID-19 restrictions. You will help organise regular team meetings and coordinate a final project event.

You should have a PhD in a relevant subject and experience in generating, managing, and analysing qualitative data. Good communication and project management skills are essential. A background in the history and/or philosophy of science and/or an interest in and knowledge of geosciences are desirable.

Part-time appointments at 0.7 FTE or above will be considered.

Applications are particularly encouraged from candidates who are from marginalized groups generally under-represented within academia.

The University of Huddersfield has signed up to the Race Equality Charter and School of Applied Sciences is proud to hold an Athena SWAN Silver award and committed to the promotion of equality and diversity.

Should you wish to have an informal discussion about this role, please contact Dr Anna Davidson at a.davidson@hud.ac.uk or Dr Bethany Fox at b.fox@hud.ac.uk.

For further details about this post and to make an application please visit: http://hud.ac/jn2

Closing date: 21 June 2021

Interview date: Week commencing 19 July 2021


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

Monday, May 24, 2021


Mike Buchanan is the new member of the IAPG Board of Experts


Mike Buchanan has been appointed as IAPG expert on "Geoethics in Speleology".

Mike has thirty years' experience as speleologist, karstologist. He has focused his interest on the management and conservation of karst groundwater systems and their subterranean component. He has professional experience in the exploration of caves and confined spaces; groundwater tracing and vulnerability mapping of karst freshwater aquifers, in relation to catchments; pollution point source identification by chemical analysis. 

He was co-author of The Management of Karst Landscapes and Caves for UNESCO Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site 2002. 

Welcome to Mike in the IAPG Board of Experts!


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IAPG Board of Experts (Corresponding Citizen Scientists)
https://www.geoethics.org/experts

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

Wednesday, May 19, 2021



IAPG supports the Lisbon Declaration on Humanities, Open Research and Innovation


We are glad to inform that the IAPG Executive Council expressed its full support to the Lisbon Declaration on Humanities, Open Research and Innovation. This important document is a result of the European Humanities Conference 2021, Lisbon, 7th May 2021.

The Lisbon Declaration can be downloaded here:

or here:

These are the key-points of the Lisbon Declaration:

1.Invite humanities scholars to mobilize their institutions and relevant stakeholders to guarantee that every single youngster throughout Europe has open access to humanities research, education and innovation by 2025, contributing effectively to increase humanities literacy throughout all European regions.
Encourage humanities scholars to engage actively in research, education and innovation activities under “open science principles” and in close collaboration with activities throughout different disciplines, as well as policy-level discussion, contributing to new modes of knowledge production and diffusion, together with innovative concepts and understandings of evidence.

2.Request education leaders and higher education institutions to ensure that, from primary through all levels of education, including doctorate levels, integrate, transversally, course units on humanities and sciences interaction, strengthening the value of universal knowledge for addressing societal challenges.

3.Request research and higher education institutions and employers to actively promote mobility of students and researchers in the humanities, across geographic borders and disciplinary fields.

4.Further request higher education and research institutions to reach out to a wide range of stakeholders, through education, research and innovation initiatives aimed at sustainable innovation, co-designed with local communities, building from the humanities and their interaction with sciences and techniques.

5.Undertake to strengthen support for the humanities autonomy through existing funding mechanisms as well as innovative forms of financing.

6.Invite UNESCO, together with the institutions of the European Union, to seek appropriate modalities to bring together governments at Ministerial level, both in Europe and beyond, to further promote humanities research, education and innovation and to help designing corresponding policy actions.


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Documents and online resources on topics of interest for geoethics on the IAPG websitehttps://www.geoethics.org/resources

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

Monday, May 17, 2021


New article published in the special issue on geoethics with the journal Sustainability


We are glad to inform that the a new paper has been published in the special issue "New Advances on Geoethics and Sustainable Development" of the journal Sustainability. The guest editors of this special issue are Silvia Peppoloni and Giuseppe Di Capua.

The paper published is entitled "Exemplary Ethical Communities. A New Concept for a Livable Anthropocene" and authored by Daniele Conversi.

The article can be downloaded here:
https://f420cbad-ec08-4c39-902f-b0e5afecb44a.filesusr.com/ugd/5195a5_a7dddab878a04971a874d8f7664d5a24.pdf?index=true

Abstract:
"This article argues that we need to look at living examples provided by non-state communities in various regions of the world that are, perhaps unwittingly, contributing to the maintenance of the Earth’s optimal thermal balance. These fully sustainable communities have been living outside the mainstream for centuries, even millennia, providing examples in the global struggle against the degradation of social–ecological systems. They have all, to varying degrees, embraced simple forms of living that make them ‘exemplary ethical communities’ (EECs)—human communities with a track record of sustainability related to forms of traditional knowledge and the capacity to survive outside the capitalist market and nation-state system. The article proceeds in three steps: First, it condenses a large body of research on the limits of the existing nation-state system and its accompanying ideology, nationalism, identifying this institutional–ideological complex as the major obstacle to tackling climate change. Second, alternative social formations that could offer viable micro-level and micro-scale alternatives are suggested. These are unlikely to identify with existing nation-states as they often form distinct types of social communities. Taking examples from hunter-gatherer societies and simple-living religious groups, it is shown how the protection and maintenance of these EECs could become the keystone in the struggle for survival of humankind and other forms of life. Finally, further investigation is called for, into how researchers can come forward with more examples of actually existing communities that might provide pathways to sustainability and resistance to the looming global environmental catastrophe."

The paper can be cited as follows:

Conversi D. (2021). Exemplary Ethical Communities. A New Concept for a Livable AnthropoceneSustainability, 13(10), 5582, https://doi.org/10.3390/su13105582. 


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Other publications on geoethics in the IAPG website:
IAPG - International Association for Promoting Geoethics: 
https://www.geoethics.org

Thursday, May 6, 2021


Geoethics as a Point of Intersection of Humans' Cultural Experiences

by Silvia Peppoloni and Giuseppe Di Capua*

This article was published in the website of the Network of European Humanities.21 - Notes on the Role and Relevance of the Humanities in the Contemporary World, Experts' Report on European Humanities:

* Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Rome (Italy); IAPG - International Association for Promoting Geoethics. Email: silvia.peppoloni@ingv.it


Silvia Peppoloni
The great challenges of the contemporary world are the result of increasingly interconnected and complex human relationships, which can only be analyzed and addressed through close cooperation between science, technology, humanities and social sciences.

These challenges require solutions to mediate between interests, cultures, sensitivities, and expectations, which are often in contrast, identifying a reasonable and responsible alignment of values, capable of gathering a broad consensus.

Giuseppe Di Capua
Addressing complexity without focusing on common objectives and without a clear planning of actions to be undertaken could lead to delays in decision-making processes, and disagreements between the various stakeholders, affecting the effectiveness of the necessary interventions.

Global anthropogenic changes; increasing natural and anthropogenic risks; overexploitation of natural resources; alteration of bio-geochemical processes; pollution of the soil, oceans, surface water and groundwater, and the atmosphere; unsustainable technological and industrial processes; devastating fires at high latitudes and in tropical areas; significant reduction in biodiversity; as well as various types of zoonoses (including the one that caused the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic) are the effects of unsafe and unhealthy human development models.

Changing those models becomes essential, in order to guarantee, especially to the next generations, the conditions for creating their own future on the planet.

The scenarios on which to create the future of the human species are not conceivable without drawing on the heritage of culture, built and accumulated over time by humanity, which is a mirror of its identity and its potential, of its weakness and its strength, a subtle interface between its development and its annihilation, an immense creative act of absolute uniqueness.

Changing models implies changing the human beings who shape those models based on their vision of life, needs, aspirations, and their idea of the future. A change presupposes knowledge of what one has been, of what one is, of what one wants to/must be. Modifications in the organizational models of society, production mechanisms, methods of generation and movement of the produced matter and energy flows, of the supply chains, of technological, scientific, and cultural development, on which all human civilizations are well-founded, require knowledge of the human being and of the conscious and unconscious mechanisms that determine his/her decisions and actions. In this perspective, humanities and social sciences are indispensable tools of knowledge for critical analysis and historical and social framing of the real and potential, past and present human condition.

If it is true that nature does not need human beings for its existence, it is equally true that human beings with their culture cannot exist without nature. From nature we draw nourishment and resources, through nature we give meaning to our life and understand its most authentic aesthetic and metaphysical dimension. It is through the scientific method that we investigate natural forms, processes and dynamics, getting closer to understanding the mystery of the Universe. But it is thanks to humanities and social sciences that we grasp our most intimate dimension and the relationships between ourselves and the other-than-ourselves, and intuit the deep sense of our connection with our own nature and with the nature of the Universe. The future of humanity greatly depends on the dialogue and search for a synthesis between geo- and bio-sciences, engineering, humanities and social sciences, aimed at recomposing the ancient unity of knowledge and consciousness.

From this perspective, the ethical question becomes central in the contemporary world and perhaps it is the real problem, which should be addressed carefully and without radicalism, being aware of the double value of human diversity: on the one hand it can be an advantage for facing complex challenges that require the creative potential of as many subjects as possible, on the other hand it can bring about a fragmentation of human feeling and constitute a weakness when it is necessary to identify shared value frameworks to face common issues.

Without this awareness, science and technology alone could offer only a partial vision of the future: on the one hand, they could constitute the common ground on which to build global technical solutions, on the other hand they would not be capable of creating tools for enhancing the inner and emotional wealth of the human being, to grasp the social dimension of events and to reduce the inequalities that plague human communities.

Therefore, science and technology open up opportunities, but also enormous problems, which must be analyzed within an ethical framework that maximizes results for the benefit of an authentic, integral and responsible human development, while recovering that connection with nature which the human being has always sought.

If the globalization of markets and technological processes poses the problem of developing global ethics, planetary environmental problems — that are at the same time the cause and effect of a deteriorated relationship between humanity and the Earth system — require decisions that are built within a global ethics for the Earth, or geoethics.

It is evident that every concrete action aimed at conserving and protecting biodiversity and geodiversity requires the sharing of a solid scientific basis and the support of a set of reference values that is capable of offering itself in a convincing way, even in very different social, economic, and cultural contexts. In fact, problems with a global impact cannot be solved with limited local actions, which, although legitimized by the historical and cultural diversity of the various populations that make up the complex mosaic of humanity, cannot by themselves be proposed as common and decisive operational models.

Geoethics tries to overcome this fragmentation, proposing the Earth sciences as the foundation of responsible human action towards the Earth.

Geoethics consists of research and reflection on the values which underpin appropriate behaviours and practices, wherever human activities interact with the Earth system. It is conceived as a rational, operational and multidisciplinary language that can bind and concretely support a cohesive international community, engaged in the shared resolution of global environmental problems and complex challenges, which in fact have no national, cultural or religious borders.

Geoethics is therefore a field of interaction and comparison between different disciplines, aimed at investigating and improving human action so that it is translated into a real, integral progress, which allows the redefinition of the position of the human being in the Earth system, by promoting an ecological humanism that gives centrality to the principles of freedom, dignity, and responsibility.

The IAPG — the International Association for Promoting Geoethics (https://www.geoethics.org) — is the leader of this vision globally: the growing impact of its cultural and scientific activities and initiatives, carried out through a vast network of international relations, is demonstrating the success of its projects and proposals.


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Other articles published in the IAPG Blog:

IAPG - International Association for Promoting Geoethics

Tuesday, May 4, 2021


Watch the videos 
of the short course on geoethics


We have uploaded all the videos of the lectures of the Short Course SC4.4 "Foundations and Perspectives of Geoethics for Earth, Marine and Atmospheric Sciences - In memoriam of Jan Boon" (Conveners: Eduardo Marone, Giuseppe Di Capua, Silvia Peppoloni), organized by the School on Geoethics (Schola) of the IAPG - International Association for Promoting Geoethics (https://www.geoethics.org/geoethics-school) and IOI-TC-LAC - International Ocean Institute Training Centre for Latin America and the Caribbean (https://www.ioitclac.org/egu-scs/egu-2021-sc/), held at vEGU21 on 29 April 2021.

From top left, clockwise: Giuseppe Di Capua, Silvia Peppoloni, David Mogk, Martin Bohle, Eduardo Marone, Nic Bilham, Vince Cronin, Daniel DeMiguel, Vitor Correia


Learning objectives of the course:
After completing this course, participants
1. Will know the basic principles of ethics and how these lead to geoethics
2. Will be aware of the dilemmas involved in making geoethical decisions
3. Will have gained some experience in taking a geoethical approach to real-world cases

Programme of the course and links to videos:
0. Forewords to Honour Jan Boon (Giuseppe Di Capua): 

1. Theoretical foundations of Geoethics (Silvia Peppoloni):

2. Responsible conduct of research and professionalism (David Mogk):

3. Development Perspectives for Geoethical Thoughts? (Martin Bohle):

4. Education for Confronting (geo)ethical dilemmas (Eduardo Marone):

5. Geoethics and responsible mining (Nic Bilham):

6. Geoethics in natural hazards from the perspective of an engineering geologist. (Vince Cronin):

7. Geoethics’ case studies: Paleontology and Geoheritage (Daniel DeMiguel):

8. Geoethics’ case studies: effects of the EU directive on conflict minerals (Vítor Correia):


Online resources of the IAPG School on Geoethics and Natural Issues:

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IAPG - International Association for Promoting Geoethics