International Association for Promoting Geoethics – Portugal National Section

I’m convinced that the promise may support younger geoscientists in their acquisition of a clear and binding awareness of their ethical responsibility.

In 2018, the promise will be available in about 30 different languages. In Italy, the promise has been included as official declaration during the ceremony for the geological master degree in the Italian Universities, thanks to the cooperation of the IAPG Italy and the Geological Society of Italy. We hope to get the same result in other countries.

Why is it important to join the IAPG?

Thanks to all my colleagues working with me in the IAPG, geoethics has become a firm point at the EGU’s General Assembly and in several of the biggest geoscience events in the world. Nowadays, all the most important geoscience organizations recognize the importance of geoethics and the IAPG is considered an international reference point. Geoethics is becoming a new meeting point for geoscientists from all over the world, reinforcing the sense of their scientific activity and the awareness to belong to the same scientific community.

It is important to join IAPG to continue in doing all this. It is fundamental that our scientific and technical activities are also accompanied by an ethical and social reflection, to understand under all circumstances what is right or at least acceptable to do, why and how to act for the benefit of society and the safety of the environment. It is important to join the IAPG to feel strongly that beyond the cultural, social and economic differences, there are values that belong to all humans, that we can recognize as universal and share altogether. These values unite geoscientists from both developed countries and low-income countries, who work in more difficult political and economic conditions, many times without the freedom to make ethical choices in conducting their activity. There are unimaginable geological problems in their countries with very high impact on communities: natural disasters affecting hundreds of thousands of people, lacking safety regulations in mining, unstoppable pollution, strong soil degradation, water, and energy scarcity. Dedicating oneself to geoethics is also a duty to use our geological knowledge to help them to solve those problems. For all these reasons I invite all to join the IAPG, there is no fee to pay and to contribute to our activities in the own area of expertise.

Why ethics is important in geosciences?

There are disciplines that for their intrinsic nature have strong ethical and social implications: I’m thinking of biology and medicine. The same goes for geosciences, since they deal with the greatest global, environmental, challenges on the planet. And geoscientists cannot ignore these aspects. Our work on the territory, our scientific results may have a great influence on the lives of people, on local and national economy, and we must be aware of this. Sometimes, our technical decisions are able of moving millions of euros. Deciding where and how to place a dam can heavily influence the future development of an area. But are geoscientists aware of their great responsibility? What do their responsibility consist of? My research on geoethics started by the search of answers to these questions and this is the main reason that pushed me to devote myself to geoethics, to found the IAPG, to change the way in which we intend the geoscience practice, and to propose a vision for future years. All this might seem like an utopia, but we are now facing an epochal change of values, and we need also utopias.

Any recommendation to Early Career Scientists in the field of Natural Hazards?

I would like to suggest them to responsibly wonder about the deeper sense of their work.

When they will start to work in the field of natural hazards, they should always ask themselves: how can we best assist society? On which values of reference we, as experts of natural hazards, have to ground our activities? Let’s wonder: What is our responsibility, as risk experts, towards society? In which way can we support society against georisk?

Ability, individual and joint responsibility, collaborative attitude, reliability, transparency, impartiality: these are basilar values capable of allowing scientists to develop good science. Making good science is the essential prerequisite in geoscience practice. In addition, modern science requires to be good science communicators, capable of engaging with communities to build effective disaster risk reduction strategies.

It is  helpful to make geoscientists more aware of their responsibilities towards society and to clarify the role they can play in the interaction with other actors: decision makers, local authorities, government agencies, mass media, citizens. All these actors form a “defence system” that have to act with a common goal and in the same direction, each of them with clear and specific roles and responsibilities.

Geoscientists have to work so that values as prevention, safety, sustainability, education take root into society. or example: for those who works in the risk communication field, it is important to pay attention in making the population able to understand the scientific and technical language. For scientists studying risk scenarios, it is important that their models are well-grounded on observational data, including clear indications of their uncertainties, and before release, these models are discussed within the scientific community. For those involved in establishing protocols and procedures to be followed in risk management, it is important that those tools foster the cooperation among different categories of experts (engineers, geologists, disaster managers, etc.). For those employed in the educational field, it is fundamental to develop effective strategies and actions, able to transfer appropriate and timely information on risk scenarios and consequences of unpreparedness.

So, in each field of work, there is the possibility and the necessity to act ethically. Geoscientists possess the proper knowledge for bringing science closer to society. It is their task to make society aware that science cannot be the solution to all our problems, but it can give us helpful tools for our safety.

Becoming an IAPG member is easy and free!!!

http://www.geoethics.org/membership

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