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Geoethics training in the Earth and environmental sciences

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment volume 1, pages 81–83 (2020)Cite this article

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Ethical dilemmas are regularly encountered by Earth and environmental scientists. Explicit training is required to allow the community to recognize such dilemmas, and to prevent and mitigate ethical issues as they arise.

Ethics is an integral part of all STEM disciplines. It encompasses: scientific integrity; collegiality among co-workers; protection and welfare of human and animal subjects; social responsibility; and institutional integrity, which considers relationships with sponsoring institutions, funding and government agencies1. In the geosciences, however, ethical concerns are particularly evident, not least due to the prevalence of field-based disciplines (where ethical dilemmas commonly arise) and the importance of geoscience for societally relevant topics, such as hazard mitigation and climate-based policy decisions. As a result, the long-term health and viability of the Earth and environmental sciences requires that our collective work is done to the highest ethical standards. The emerging field of geoethics — which lies at the intersection of philosophy, social science and economics with Earth system scientific research — offers a conceptual framework to provide guidance for Earth scientists in the responsible conduct of their work and research in the lab, field, office and community. Geoethics encompasses 4 important facets that broadly fall into two groups: microethics, which can be tied to responsibilities at the personal and intra-professional level (self and profession); and macroethics, which is concerned with the social responsibility of scientists, including stewardship of Earth (society and Earth).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA

    David W. Mogk

  2. Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College, Northfield, MN, USA

    Monica Z. Bruckner

Authors
  1. David W. Mogk
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  2. Monica Z. Bruckner
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to David W. Mogk or Monica Z. Bruckner.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Related links

Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Criteria for Accrediting Applied and Natural Science Programs, 2019–2020: https://www.abet.org/accreditation/accreditation-criteria/criteria-for-accrediting-applied-and-natural-science-programs-2019-2020/

AdvanceGEO Partnership: https://serc.carleton.edu/advancegeo/index.html

American Geosciences Institute Guidelines for Ethical Professional Conduct, 2015: https://www.americangeosciences.org/community/agi-guidelines-ethical-professional-conduct

American Geophysical Union Ethics and Equity Center, 2019: https://ethicsandequitycenter.org/

Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Promoting integrity in research and its publication: https://publicationethics.org/

Geological Society of America Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, 2019: https://www.geosociety.org/GSA/Membership/Code_of_Conduct/GSA/Membership/Code_of_Conduct.aspx

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

National Science Foundation, Responsible Conduct of Research: https://www.nsf.gov/od/recr.jsp

Singapore Statement on Research Integrity, 2010: http://www.singaporestatement.org/

Teaching Geoethics Across the Geoscience Curriculum: http://serc.carleton.edu/geoethics/index.html

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Mogk, D.W., Bruckner, M.Z. Geoethics training in the Earth and environmental sciences. Nat Rev Earth Environ 1, 81–83 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-020-0024-3

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