Geoethics values clarification: A playable poster

Values underlie geoethics and geoscience, especially climatology.  Can we understand or build geoethics without reference to values?  Are values and geoethics driven by beliefs, or should values remain unchanged despite changing beliefs?  Those are some of the questions that we may ask when considering ethics in life, in the geosciences and in climate change and action.  Values include honesty, compassion, quality, patience, objectivity, truth, respect, individualism, justice, power, peace and beauty.  How are these related to geoethics?  Often an ethical dilemma stems from two or more underlying value conflicts, such as individual identity and social value.  It is not easy to understand the principles and dynamics of such relations.

One way into this quagmire is by using a values clarification exercise or game (VCE or VCG).  A VCE can be a useful geoethics literacy tool to help people explore the complexities of such relationships, to allow them to express their own ideas, to confront their ideas with those of others and to gain a rich understanding of their own values that underlie geoethics.  Undorf and colleagues (eg, ^{https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-12732}, ^{https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-022-03435-7}) have adopted a philosophical approach.  We take an easier approach, that of interactive, participatory gaming.

We have designed and used VCEs and VCGs in a variety of cultural and social settings and with encouraging results.  Our poster will outline our prior experience and allow you to participate, albeit superficially, in a VCE.  Please come to see us during the poster session, and be sure to bring along one or two friends so that you can play; three players is better than two.  Also bring some paper and a pen.