The socio-environmental outlook of the Chilean Geoethics Group: a Chilean approach to geoethics

Abstract

The article examines the socio-environmental outlook and geoethical approach of the Geoethics Group of the Chilean Geological Society/IAPG-Chile. Drawing on interviews with members of the group, I highlight the social and environmental significance of their work to transform how the geosciences are practiced and taught in the country. I argue that the study’s findings are crucial for understanding the geosciences’ evolving role in socio-environmental struggles for just green planetary futures and for ongoing efforts to integrate geoscientific insights with critical social science and humanities perspectives. Focusing on their recently published Chilean Code of Geoethics – the first document of this kind to date – I provide a socially and politically situated account of the work and pertinence of the Chilean Geoethics Group (CGG). Key topics explored in this study are the geoscience’s place in Chile’s education system, institutional support for the ethical oversight of geoscientists and geoscientific practice, the mining industry’s relation to geologic expertise, and geological understandings of the relation between the biologic, the geologic, and the social. The study finds that the work of the CGG identifies key features of what I describe as the geosciences’ “social turn,” characterized by internal efforts to better align the geosciences with pressing social and environmental needs. In particular, their work tries to re-imagine and institutionalize alternative visions of geoscientists’ social role and responsibilities, arguing for the integration of geoethics into geoscientific education, research, and practice and a corresponding reconceptualization of such notions as the biologic, the geologic, and the social.