PROFESSIONAL ETHICS AND PRACTICES - COLUMN 178
Topical Index-Table of Contents to the Professional Ethics and Practices Columns
A topically based Index-Table of Contents, “pe&p index.xls” cov ering columns, articles, and letters to the editor that have been referred to in the PE&P columns in Excel format is on the AIPG web site in the Ethics section. This Index-Table of Contents is updated as each issue of the TPG is published. You can use it to find those items addressing a particular area of concern. Suggestions for improvements should be sent to David Abbott,
dmageol@msn.com
Compiled by David M. Abbott, Jr., CPG-04570 5055 Tamarac Street, Denver, CO 80238 303-394-0321,
dmageol@msn.com
Geoethics and sustainability
The geoethics approach promoted by the International Association for the Promotion of Geoethics has been a topic in a number of these columns begin- Resource & Sustainability; Geoethics and most recently in column 177 (Apr. “The recent development of the concept ‘geoethics’ is a response by geoscientists to shape deeper engagement with their professional responsibilities and the wider societal relevance of geosciences. …[T]he development of geoethics to date, as a ‘virtue ethics’ focusing primarily on the role of the geoscientist, describes its meaning and function in relation to neighboring fields and explores how to situate geoethics in relation to a wider range of issues that require ethical consideration.”1 The 9th and 10th fun- damental values of geoethics state, “9. Ensuring sustainability of economic and social activities in order to assure future generations’ supply of energy and other natural resources. [and] 10. Promoting geo-education and outreach for all, to fur- ther sustainable economic development, geohazard prevention and mitigation, environmental protection, and increased societal resilience and well-being.”2
The concept of sustainability or sus- tainable development is an important part of both these fundamental values and is part of the Geological Society of London’s Scientific Statement and
my comments on James Howard’s, CPG-2536, “The Geosciences in Modern Society” discussed in column 177 in the last TPG. The most commonly cited definition of “sustainable develop- ment” comes from the UN Bruntland Commission, which states, “Sustainable development is the kind of development that meets the needs of the present with- out compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”3 Thus, there are no limits on the life of a “sustainable development” as commonly used and understood. The problem is that individual natural resource depos- its are finite in size, are depletable, and their extraction is time limited. As pointed out in my 2020 article, “The production of mineral resources and fossil fuels would seem to be activities that cannot, by definition, be sustain- able, but extractive industries provide necessary contributions to society.”4,5 As the following topic, “Reuse of quarries as solar farms” points out, using the ponds occupying former quarries as the sites of solar panel arrays is a more sustainable use of such property than alternative solar panel array sites.
So what does sustainability mean in other areas and in the long term? My colleague, Betsy Suppes, commented, “I do think that the Earth has a sustain- ability limit-I mean, can we really have 18 billion people on the planet? Who gets to live in warmth? Who gets to eat meat? Who gets to drink milk? Cows take up a lot of acreage. Will cemeteries need to be consolidated? Will people only get to have one house? Are you allowed to have more than one vehicle per driver? Should
all things be recycled? Is it more green to keep an old car going, as you are not needing to mine for more metals? Should all future homes have geothermal heat- ing? What can poor people afford? Poor people can’t afford solar panels, geother- mal heating, etc. Or electric cars.” Good questions with difficult answers. Who gets to decide the answers? Please send in your thoughts and suggestions.
Reuse of quarries as solar farms
Figure 1 - Former gravel pits in the NE Denver metro area now being used for water storage.
Fred Pirkle, MEM-1939, informed me following a presentation that dis-
1. Bohle, Martin, and DiCapua, Giuseppe, 2019, Setting the scene in Bohle, M., ed., Exploring geoethics: ethical implications, social con- texts, and professional obligations of the geosciences: Palgrave Pivot, Cham, XIV +214, ISBN 978-3-03012009-2, p. 1–24.
2.
http://www.geoethics.org/ctsg. 3. UN Brundtland Commission, 1987, Our Common Future: Oxford University Press, 400 p.
4. Wessel, Gregory R, 2016, Beyond sustainability: a restorative approach for the mineral industry: Geological Society of America Special Paper 520, pp. 17-21, Doi: 10.1130/2016.2520(03).
5. Peter Dohms, CPG-7141, commented, “David; I was quite taken with your Column 177. Your gentle criticism of the myopic attitude of IAPG with respect to practitioners in the extractive industries was a masterpiece of ironic understatement.”
www.aipg.org Jul.Aug.Sep 2021 • TPG 37
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