Journal of Earth Science & Climatic Change
Open Access

Abstract

Our early life experience has a strong influence on our actions in later life. Humans today are starting to re-learn, collectively, how to treat Earth with the respect that it deserves and that is needed for our offspring to inherit a decent home. However, we still have far to go to instill in people at large the ethics, knowledge and skills necessary to ensure a healthy journey for humanity on spaceship. The experience of early upbringing, schooling and everyday life is probably the only sustainable path for people to develop a strong desire for ethical behaviour towards their environment. The problem is that the development of geoethical behaviours is woefully inadequate. My presentation will suggest some practical ways to help communities build geoethical frameworks and strategies to generate tools that guide young people toward more ethical behaviours regarding their environment and their communities. Examples might include: 1. Developing geoethical dimensions of internships, in all areas; 2. Designing and testing simulation/games+debriefing, providing a rich affective-cognitive context for grappling with geoethical problems; 3. Pressuring governments to make geoethics a central components of all educational programs (in, e.g., history, language, business, law, medicine, etc.); 4. Subsidizing environmental-care summer schools for families and teachers at all levels; 5. Introducing an academic journal in the area, with my experience of 26 years at the helm of another prestigious journal. We have an ethical obligation to science and our offspring (future generations), to help the planetary passengers learn about safety on spaceship earth.

Biography

David Crookall, PhD, has taught at several universities in several countries (France, Singapore, Thailand, USA, etc.). For many years, he was Editor-in-chief of Simulation & Gaming (Sage), and is on the editorial board of several scientific journals. He has published several books and many articles in top journals. He is often invited to run workshops and seminars.

Email: crookall.consulting@gmail.com