GENRIETTA S.
SENATSKAYA - VÁCLAV NĚMEC
Introduction
For many people geoethics is a completely
unknown or only poorly known discipline. The concept of geoethics continues to
be crystallised. Especially the regular meetings to this subject at Příbram
(since 1992) and in Moscow (since 1997) as well as Special Symposia at the
International Geological Congresses (since 1996) have been serving to this
purpose. On the other hand any "official" definition has not yet been
approved and for this reason some differentiated concepts have to be tolerated.
Thanks to the initiative of Genrietta
Senatskaya an item on geoethics has been prepared for the Encyclopaedia to be
published in Moscow in both Russian and English version. This item can serve
also as an issue for a general discussion at the Příbram meeting - usually
attended by highly experienced people from various parts of the world. For
this reason we present the English version in the Symposium Proceedings.
The only difference of the English and
Russian version of the item consists in the references (respecting differing
availability of individual publications). The references given at this occasion
represent a combination of both original versions, furthermore some documents
and papers from the recent period have been added.
Critical
remarks, comments and personal ideas will be highly appreciated (also after the
Symposium by mail or e-mail - addresses of authors given at the end).
The authors thank to Dr. Isobel Clark for
revision of the English text.
Item
"GEOETHICS"
Authors:
G.S.Senatskaya, V.Němec
GEOETHICS (from the Greek gh - Earth and htikh - morality) -
a set of moral standards which are to be used when utilising the geosphere.
Geoethics was established as an independent scientific field in 1992 when in
the Czech town Příbram an international meeting of representatives from
five countries took place under the aegis of the symposium "The Mining
Příbram in science and technique". The Czech scientist Václav Němec is
author of the term "geoethics" as well as founder of this scientific
field.
Geoethics - born at the junction of
ethics (science about morality and moral standards) and geology (science about
the Earth and its resources) - has been accepted by scientific society (both
earth and social sciences) because any correct use of natural wealth is
inconceivable without a proper ethical attitude to it and to the whole
geosphere. Geoethics - accordingly to V. Němec - is to be developed with regard
to all specificities of Earth sciences as well as to social responsibility of
their representatives.
At the initial period of developing
geoethics as a new scientific field the notion of geoethics had to be defined.
E.g. M.A.Komarov (with his co-authors) considers geoethics as "the
attitude of the man and the society to the geological environment in various
aspects of its appearance". In the view of G.S.Gold geoethics is a field
studying "possibilities of applying ethical principles and standards in
activities" concerning the field of mineral resources. From the point of
view of present global problems N. Shilin has formulated the conception of
geoethics. Taking into consideration the works of V. I. Vernadsky - founder of
the noosphere (i.e. the brain sphere) as a new Earth (or, rather,
planetary) sphere - the author explains that the noospherical way of thinking
makes it possible to realise geological and ethical role of the mankind in
transforming all other Earth spheres. In such a context geoethics - accordingly
to Shilin - unites the complex of ethical problems connected not only as a
whole with both geological science and its practical applications but also in
particular with the use of mineral resources. In any case all investigators
agree that geoethics incorporate moral principles with special regard to the
Earth as a geological body as well as a social and economic object in all
varieties.
The development of geoethics follows
differentiated principal ways: theoretical aspects (G.Gold, N.Grigoryev,
M.Komarov, L.Němcová, V. Němec, G.Timčák, A.Trembecki and others), applied
geoethics (V.Babaev, L.Němcová, L.Ryzhova, I.Stočes and many other authors),
social and ecological geoethics (N.Grigoryev, G.Senatskaya and others),
methodological, educational, moral and religious, cultural and also economic
and other aspects of geoethics (A.Gaydin, G.Gold, V.Gur, L.Němcová, V.Němec,
G.Senatskaya and others). The danger of exhausting the Earth resources (and
especially mineral reserves) is among the most important global problems of the
mankind. From the point of view of the problem of how to use natural wealth -
and in particular how to exploit the non-renewable mineral resources - the role
of geoethics is of substantial importance. E.g. when evaluating mineral
reserves in individual deposits the geologists use the so-called resources
index (in years), i.e. they show for how many years the explored reserves will
be available to the users in given exploitation volumes. And here an ethical
(geoethical) problem arises: how, when and how many mineral raw materials are
to be exploited in order to assure the use of Earth resources not only for
those presently living but also for all future generations because finally
these resources belong to the whole of mankind. When limiting the solution of
this problem only by economic and ecological approaches then - accordingly to
N. Grigoryev - the freedom of choice for future generations is also being
limited, but that is contradictory to moral principles. Geoethics can serve as
means of influence over consciousness of people: as a stimulating motivation to
create technologies that take into consideration economy of resources;
ecological aspects and sustainable development all over the planet; to a
complex and reasonable use of resources; to search for alternative
(renewable!) sources of raw materials and energy; and to prevent
critical ecological situations. Methods applied by geoethics are the same as in
other fields of knowledge: education, cultivation and culture that lead
substantially to forming harmonically developed personalities able to find responsible
solutions and to make responsible decisions based on priorities of spiritual
and moral values common to all mankind.
References
The Mining Příbram Symposium, The international section on
geoethics, Proceedings and Abstracts
volumes, Příbram, Czech
Republic, 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2003
30-th and 31-st International
Geological Congress, Beijing, 1996 - Spec. Symp. 21.3, Rio de Janeiro,
2000 - Spec. Symp. 26.1 (Special Symposia 8.3 and 8.4 in preparation for the
32-nd IGC, Florence, 2004)
III-rd, IV-th, V-th
and VI-th International Conference “New Ideas about Earth Sciences”,
Abstracts, section "Geoethics", Moscow (Международная
конференция “Новые
идеи в науках
о Земле”,
тезисы
докладов,
секция
Геоэтики), 1997,
1999, 2001, 2003
Grigoryev N., Holistic
Approach to Geoethics (in Russian: Григорьев
Н.,
Холистический
подход к
геоэтике). Ibid.
Moscow, 1997
Němcová L.,
Geoethical principles of social responsibility (in Russian: Немцова
Л.,
Геоэтические
основы
общественной
ответственности). Ibid. Мoscow,1997
Němec V., To the
problems of developing geoethics (in Russian: Немец
В., К
проблемам
развития геоэтики). Ibid. Мoscow, 1997
Němcová L., Němec V., Geoethical applications of the 10 ethics management tools. Ibid.
Moscow, 2001
Shilin N. Geoethics
and Noospherical Way of Thinking (in Russian: Шилин
Н., Геоэтика и
ноосферное
мышление). Ibid.
Moscow, 1997
Němec V., Němcová L., Geoethical Backgrounds for
Geoenvironmental Reclamation. In: Geoenviromental
Reclamation - Internat. Symp.- Oxford & IBH
Publ.Co., New Delhi, 2000 - ISBN 81-204-1457-8
Němec V., The International Development of Geoethics. - In:
Funkcjonowanie i rozwój organizacji w zmiennym otoczeniu II - pp. 99-102, WSM Legnica, 2002 - ISBN 83-913465-9-5
Němcová L., Němec V., Spirituality in Management and
Sustainable Use of Mineral Resources. - Ibid., pp. 103-106
Němec V., Mineral
Deposits as Ethical Category. In: Funkcjonowanie i rozwój organizacji w
zmiennym otoczeniu III - pp.16 - 19, WSM Legnica, 2003 - ISBN 83-913465-9-5
Senatskaya G. Geocreationism
and geoethics (in Russian: Сенатская Г.,
Геокреационизм
и геоэтика). In: Soznanye i phisicheskaya realnost (Сознание и физическая реальность), vol.2, №4, М., 1997
Authors
Addresses:
Dr. Václav Němec, K
rybníčkům 17, 100 00 Praha 10 -
Strašnice, Czech Republic - E-mail: lidmila.nemcova@quick.cz;
G.
S. Senatskaya - E-mail:
admin@viems.ru