Geoscientists's professional duties go beyond scientific and technological knowledge and skills. Ethics is part of their (our) professional responsibility. Geoethics was born in 1991 at the junction of Ethics and Geology, and it has unequivocally shown a spectacular advance in the last two decades linking different disciplines, applying different methodological procedures and technologies, and facing new scientific, social and cultural challenges. However, geoethics as a discipline is still not yet very well known. Broadly, deontology is one of the main ethical decision-making approaches which are concerned with doing what is correct, in other words one of those kinds of normative theories regarding which choices are morally required, forbidden, or permitted. In this contribution we examine the origin, grounds and evolution of geoethics, emphasizing its multidisciplinary significance at different levels and institutions/organizations, providing new information regarding its recent integration in the geological and deontological context, and calling attention to the advance which represents its incorporation to the current and future developments in Planetary Geology and Astrobiology (e.g. Planetary Protection). It is unequivocally stated that geoethical issues concern all of us as Earth and Planetary Scientists.
展开▼
