Spreading geoethics through the languages of the world - Translations of the Cape Town Statement on Geoethics, http://www.geoethics.org/ctsg

Abstract

Ethics reflects on the conduct of humans and the criteria with which to evaluate behaviors and choices in order to identify “true good” including the means to achieve this goal. It also addresses the moral duties of humans towards themselves and others, and what is the right thing to do when facing a decision. Regarding the research and practice in geosciences, we refer to geoethics, as a general framework to identify duties and rights that regulate the professional activity of geoscientists, their responsibilities and obligations that arise by the possession of specific technical-scientific knowledge that can have important repercussions on society and the environment. In September 2016, during the 35th IGC- International Geological Congress held in Cape Town (South Africa), the IAPG announced the preparation of the “Cape TownStatement on Geoethics”, a guiding document as the result of an international effort to focus the attention of geoscientists on the development of shared policies, guidelines, strategies and tools, with the long-range goal of fostering the adoption of (geo)ethical practices in the geoscience community. The Statement sums up all the values, concepts, contents developed in the first 4-year activity of IAPG, giving a perspective for the future development of geoethics. In order to foster the dissemination of theStatement within the geoscience community, many IAPG members from all over the world contributed to carry out this multilingual publication, that collects more than 35 translations of theStatement from the original version in English. There are values that the human community accepts as globally representative of individual and social good, because of the universal character of the human species itself, such as honesty, justice, responsibility, respect for life and the environment. In the end, ethics and geoethics concerns all humans, without distinction, and especially those who have major scientific, political and social roles, and who certainly have to face issues of great ethical value such as geoscientists. The meaning of this initiative is based on the above considerations: geoscientists may have a stronger perception of the importance of geoethical values if they can read those values in their native language. Giving value to the cultural diversity means to have more possibilities, more opportunities, and more ways to act following geoethical principles in the different cultural, social and economic contexts. IAPG encourages to share geoethical values beyond the own cultural and linguistic differences: the translations of theStatement want to be a strong signal within our geoscience community. I express my personal thanks to all colleagues involved in this great achievement, for their kind availability and appreciable sense of responsibility to contribute to a common goal. (by Silvia Peppoloni)