Abstract:

To promote planetary sustainability and human prosperity, it is necessary to (re)think about the relationship between human beings and the Earth system. Human actions and behaviours impact (and are impacted by) the Earth’s dynamics. Our planet comprises five open and interconnected subsystems – atmosphere, biosphere, cryosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere. These subsystems are responsible for the Earth’s holistic, complex, and adaptative system. Understanding the subsystems’ interdependence, that humanity integrates the Earth system, and it must live in harmony with Earth dynamics are three needed elements to develop what in the literature is named environmental insight. The environmental insight development allows citizens to recognize their role in the Earth system, letting them reflect on their attitudes and behaviours towards the planet – which is the study target of geoethics. Geoethics supports the quest for more interdisciplinary, efficient, and realistic solutions to the human-Earth relationship challenges. Thereby, geoethics contributes to balancing anthropogenic impacts on the Earth system. Pollution, human occupation, agricultural practices, and climate change are examples of important topics in the current scenario concerning sustainability. The education of citizens subordinated to a holistic view of the Earth system from a geoethical perspective appears necessary to foster conscious and active citizens to face these and other issues. Intending to develop educational resources that address geoethical aspects of the human-Earth system relationship, the researchers preliminarily applied a cognitive test to diagnose the knowledge of Portuguese 11th-grade students (n=20) and senior citizens (n=18) about the Earth system and geoethics. Based on the quantitative methodology, the data collected were subject to statistical treatment through descriptive analysis, the Fisher’s exact test, and the Mann-Whitney U test. Students scored a mean of 71.2% and seniors 43.4%. Fisher’s exact test results showed statistical significance concerning the classifications, with students presenting better performance than seniors (24.76; p=0.039). When comparing the means obtained by these two groups resorting to the Mann-Whitney U test, students have a mean statistically superior to senior citizens’ mean (U=313.00; p<0.001). Regarding the answers to the different test questions, the students showed poor results (correct answer rate below 50.0%) in the relationships between Earth subsystems and scientific areas that contribute to geoethics identification and in the application of the geoethical values. In addition to showing poor results on the same issues mentioned in the students, seniors fail to identify the nature of the relationships between Earth subsystems and the geoethics definition. This study’s results reveal that formal, non-formal education or scientific communication activities are necessary to increase scientific literacy, especially among seniors. These results justify the development of the educational resources on the Earth system and geoethics so citizens can create knowledge that allows them to participate actively in society in scientific issues related to the anthropic impacts on the planet. Increasing knowledge and participation of citizens in these issues contributes to sustainability, confronting the grand challenges that contemporary society faces.

Keywords:

Earth system, geoethics, undergraduate students, senior citizens.