Geoethics in the CityAMRyan Dalhousie University

You are part of a research team - metals in city soils, and you will be collecting samples from private homes to do this work.

The hypothesis is: soils from nearest the house

itself will have relatively higher levels of lead and other metals (from paint used in these older houses)

…than soils from beside the roadside (which have collected metals from car exhausts, gasoline fumes, etc)

… or ambient soil samples, away from either point source contaminant.

KEY ASPECTSAuthentic case

Tackle ethical issues WHILE learning and doing the science

Decision-making involves…Critical, divergent, and open thinking

Science-related ethicsGroup (and personal) ethics

Social responsibility and communication

“The time is always right to do what is right” (Martin Luther King)

GOALSApply newly-learned geoscience knowledge and skills, AT THE SAME TIME as identifying and making explicit ethical issues in a real-world geoscience context.

Understand ethics and societal issues not separate from our science, but rather integral to it.

Practice systematic decision-making, to establish ethical courses of action

Recognition of the complexity and uncertainty involved in geoethical decisions, as well as consideration of the consequences of their action or inaction.

• Glacial effects• Coastal city• >200 years old• Small-scale industry• Coal-burning

acidic slates and quartzites

“soil”

Where ethical decision-making arises…

I - You and the rest of the research team sample a number of locations*

II - prepare the samples for analysis**

and analyze the samples***

III - some samples have levels that are as high as 10x guidelines for some metals.

You had told homeowners that you would share the results with them****

The Task – Pt I …The “Ethics”Small group or

groups

Sample homeowner’s soils

Contacting homeowners

Establishing methodologies

Scientific principles involved

Societal considerations

Contact protocolPrivacyRespect for property and

“leave no trace”, etcWhere to take samples?How to take samples?How do they treat the

samples?Consistency in sampling

techniques and recordingAppropriate

methodologiesData recordingOther?

The Task – Pt II……The Ethics

Preparing and storing samples

Analysis

Recording data

Appropriate methods

Appropriate preparation

Identify assumptions and limitations (cost, etc)

Care in handling samples

Duplicates

Machine monitoring

Contamination

Accuracy in recording data

Other?

The Task – Pt III… …The EthicsRepresenting the data – tabular and graphical

Synthesizing the findings

Communicating the results

Choice of representation

Data to include and exclude – rationale

Comparison to guidelines, etc

What to do with duplicate data?

Limitations of the study?

How to communcate responsibly to homeowners?

Other?

Instructional Strategies: Decision-making

What are the facts involved?

What are the various possible solutions or approaches to the issue at hand?

What are outcomes or consequences?

What is the likely or possible impact of each solution?

Evaluate each of the potential solutions in terms of outcomes, likely impact, and values by considering the following: HARM

PUBLICITY (media, etc)

DEFENSIBILITY (to community, etc)

NOT IN MY BACK YARD

COULD I LIVE WITH MY DECISION

PROFESSIONAL

COLLEAGUE

ORGANIZATIONModified after: Davis, M., Developing and Using Cases to Teach Practical Ethics: Teaching Philosophy, Volume 20, 1997, 353-385

REFLECTION…. By the studentsIn the BROADER CONTEXT… Is there a need for “bigger” change?

(Thanks to my students for pushing my thinking!)

http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/making.pdf

Personal Reflection

The more difficult questions:How do we best inform the homeowners?

What can we, or should we recommend?

There are no human subjects, BUT… the results may impact humans, SO…Should we seek ethics approval through our research ethics board?

And finally… what are the BOUNDARY conditions?