Geoethics in a scheme: a simplified way to represent its definition, vision, and theoretical structure

Geoethics arises from the awareness that, only partly consciously, human beings have irreversibly modified and are continuing to modify the natural environments and territories in which they live and operate. Humans alter not only physical, chemical and biological characteristics of their niche, but also social and cultural traits that connote social–ecological systems today as in the past, which in turn, in a feedback mechanism, influence people’s economic development, social perspectives and sense-making. It then becomes a responsibility for geoscientists to look beyond their traditional areas of work and each interact proactively with civic communities to promote changes that are needed. The key concepts of geoethics constitute a cultural proposal for the whole society, on which to base new perspectives for the human agent.
Ten years ago, the first session dedicated to geoethics was organized at the EGU General Assembly in order to widen the discussion on ethics in geosciences. Nowadays the theoretical framework of geoethics has consolidated and it has become the proposal on which to base a global ethics of the human agent towards the Earth system. This work synthetizes in a scheme the reference framework on which geoethics developed, its definition, foundations, and main characteristics, highlighting the importance of sharing values and actions among planetary human communities to manage global changes and threats.