CIPSH Chair on Geoethics (CIPSH-GC)

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Board of Scholars

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On 3 January 2024, the International Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences (CIPSH) has officially established the Chair on Geoethics (CG) at the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV, National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology), in Rome, Italy. The CIPSH Chair on Geoethics is funded by the INGV and is supported by:

• Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)

• International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS)

• International Association for Promoting Geoethics (IAPG)

• AGU Ethics and Equity Center – American Geophysical Union

• World Philology Union (WPU)

• Stockholm China Center - Institute for Security and Development Policy

• Geosciences Centre and Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra (CGeo)

• Faculté Polydisciplinaire de Safi - Université Cadi Ayyad, Morocco (UCA)

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Summary

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The CIPSH Chair on Geoethics is focused on creating a research network aimed at developing discussions on a global ethics grounded in geoethics, i.e. an ethics of responsibility towards the Earth system, through the lens of different cultural perspectives. Geoethics, initially developed to address the ethical and social implications of geoscience knowledge and practice, needs interdisciplinary approaches to develop its potential as an ethics capable of fostering a planetary ecological humanism. In this perspective, geoethics is the meeting point between geosciences, humanities and social sciences. The cooperation between scholars with different disciplinary background is the challenge for dealing with the anthropogenic global changes of social-ecological systems and creating pathways for a responsible human progress. From this point of view, the goals of the CIPSH Chair on Geoethics are in line with CIPSH mission of favouring the exchange of knowledge among scholars from different disciplines, international cooperation and the promotion of the richness and diversity of cultures.

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Context

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Anthropogenic global changes of social-ecological systems and their environmental, social, and cultural implications need to be discussed and faced from multiple perspectives, in order to make choices and take decisions capable to give planetary answers to problems that do not know ethnic, cultural, economic, religious, gender or national boundaries. This implies discussions if and how a global ethics, rooted in different cultural traditions, is desirable and possible. 
Decision-making and problem-solving oriented by geoethics should balance the expectations of finding common decisions for the benefit of humanity and the necessity to enhance diversity of approaches, methods, and strategies belonging to different socio-cultural communities within inclusive processes through a convergence of understandings rooted in people's practices and perceptions, built on different cultural and institutional backgrounds and diverse systems of belief, fostering a global and peaceful transformation. Understanding the Earth as a web of meanings and interactions at different layers is fundamental, namely identifying human sustainable practices and reflections, since these are the expressions of ethical understandings grounded in appropriate Human-Human/Human-Environment relations. 
The CIPSH Chair on Geoethics is focused to deepen interdisciplinary studies for strengthening the theoretical structure and practical applications of geoethics as a global ethics, capable to be declined in different social-environmental contexts and to foster a society rooted on an ecological humanism, i.e. a vision of spiritual and material progress capable to combine human needs and the respect of geo-ecosystem processes. In order to present itself as global ethics, geoethics must (a) promote the dialogue between different disciplines, between scholars of different sensitivity and expertise, between multiple social stakeholders and (b) compare its concepts, principles, values and methods with the ethical systems of other cultures, in order to seek an acceptable synthesis within the diversity of human knowledge and practices. From this point of view, the CIPSH Chair on Geoethics represents an authentic cross-disciplinary novelty in the cultural landscape that would strengthen also already ongoing initiatives like the international conferences on global ethics (2020, 2021, 2023) organized by the Stockholm China Center of the Institute for Security and Development Policy (https://www.isdp.eu/event/global-challenges-and-global-ethics-in-a-time-of-pandemic-and-climate-change/) and coordinated by Torbjörn Lodén, and/or  editorial projects on the topic like the special issue on global ethics published by the journal Diogenes (https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/dioa/64/1-2) and the book "Bridges to Global Ethics: Geoethics at the Confluence of Humanities and Sciences" (editors: Giuseppe Di Capua and Luiz Oosterbeek) published by Springer in the SpringerBriefs in Geoethics series (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-22223-8).

 

Objectives

 

The CIPSH Chair on Geoethics will expand and reinforce an international research network of institutions, non-governmental organizations, and scholars to foster interdisciplinary initiatives for bridging geosciences, humanities, and social sciences through geoethics, with the goal of continuing to create a geoethical framework for addressing the complexity of ecological crises and contributing to pursue the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.

The long-term objective is to strengthen an already existing international community of scholars with different disciplinary background dealing with geoethics and to involve other individuals and institutions/organizations in this international network in order to deepen discussions about geoethics and to improve its theoretical structure and practical applications in a wide range of disciplines, favouring a cross disciplinary fertilization.
In this perspective, the CIPSH Chair on Geoethics will carry out the following activities:

• Continuing to develop the theoretical framework of geoethics and the application of geoethical thought in different disciplinary fields at the interface between geosciences, humanities and social sciences.

• Promoting intra- and interdisciplinary knowledge exchanges to enrich the studies of topics of interest for geoethics, through multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary analyses.

• Initiating studies to compare geoethics and ethical systems belonging to other cultures. 

• Contributing to the discussions, already underway within the CIPSH community, which have already seen the realization of three conferences on global ethics.

• Developing educational resources for teaching geoethics, organizing courses on geoethics and creating links with Master and PhD programmes for including geoethics modules.

• Creating a Board of Scholars that could constitute the coordination structure of the Chair to set up research activities and organization of events on geoethics.

• Contributing to CIPSH conferences on global ethics.

• Carrying out editorial projects on foundations on geoethics and global ethics to be published in the SpringerBriefs in Geoethics series (https://www.springer.com/series/16482) or as special issue of the Journal of Geoethics and Social Geosciences (https://www.journalofgeoethics.eu/, diamond open access journal).