Draft version 1.3 beta — Revised July 15, 2026

A Geoethics Primer for Geoscientists

Part 5. Paramount Obligations

5.1 Introduction

The geoscience community’s ethical standards and norms — expressed through its many ethics and professional-practice codes — both guide and constrain our decisions. While these codes share many similarities, they differ in emphasis and detail. However, a few core principles underpin them all. These are the paramount obligations of a geoscientist: the fundamental ethical principles that supersede personal interests and even the interests of employers or clients. ¹ We have each made the personal choice to pursue a career as a geoscientist. Through certification, licensure, or affiliation, we have agreed to abide by ethical codes that take precedence when they conflict with our narrow self-interest.

The concept of a paramount obligation — or as it is sometimes called, a primacy principle — is most familiarly exemplified by the Hippocratic Oath, which compresses the breadth of medical ethics into the simple admonition, "First, do no harm."

I am reminded of an even more impressive example of philosophical compression, provided by Hillel the Elder, who was a prominent religious leader in Jerusalem from about 30 BCE to 10 CE. In a story from the Talmud, a potential convert told Hillel that he would convert to Judaism if Hillel could explain the entire Torah to him while he stood on one foot. Hillel told him, "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole Torah; all the rest is commentary. Now, go and study." ² In that instant, Hillel boiled the five books of Moses — the Torah — down to the essential: the golden rule from the Book of Leviticus 19:18.

Robert Tepel is a licensed and certified professional geologist and has contributed decades of extraordinary service to the geoscience profession.  His papers exploring issues related to the professional licensure for geologists are freely available ³ and should be read by all applied geoscientists. Tepel wrote,

Through their professional association codes of ethics, many professionals affirm that they practice in the public interest, and that they therefore must hold the public health, safety, and welfare paramount in the performance of their professional duties... The preamble to almost every existing licensure law for geologists uses language very similar to the language found in many professional codes of ethics. ⁴

For example, the purpose of the code of conduct specified in California's license law for professional practice of geology and geophysics ⁵ is "To protect and safeguard the health, safety, welfare, property of the public, and California's environmental quality..."

Using similar language, the American Society of Civil Engineering's Code of Ethics ⁶ listed as the first of its fundamental canons, "Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public and shall strive to comply with the principles of sustainable development in the performance of their professional duties."

The second canon of the American Institute of Professional Geologists (AIPG) Code of Ethics ⁷ concerns obligations to the public:  "Members shall uphold the public health, safety, and welfare in the performance of professional activities, and avoid even the appearance of impropriety."

Throughout our professional lives, we face choices that are frequently complex. Often there is no single “good” option — only alternatives with differing risks, costs, and uncertainties. In such cases, keeping our essential or paramount obligations in mind provides a compass for ethical judgment.

5.2 Paramount Obligations

I recommend that we geoscientists personally adopt this brief list of paramount obligations. It aligns well with the common morality introduced in Part 2, the science ethics discussed in Part 3, and the standards reflected in the geoscience codes of ethics surveyed in Part 4 of this Primer

Paramount Obligations. In our professional scientific work, geoscientists must act with integrity ^{8, 9} to...

1. Safeguard the health, safety, and well-being of other people
2. Adhere to the ethical principles, standards, and norms of science to seek and report faithfully on reliable information — truth — about our world, and
3. Provide, together with the other members of the geoscience community, intellectual stewardship for Earth and its systems, resources, and ecosystems, on which we all depend.
   That is, to safeguard the viability of Earth's ecosystem.

The first paramount obligation reflects long-standing language in professional ethics codes and licensing laws that prioritize public health, safety, and welfare. Expressing the same obligation differently, in the negative, "Do not endanger the physical, psychological, financial, and material well-being of other people." In addition to aligning with both science ethics and geoscience ethics, this paramount obligation is fully consistent with the rules of common morality. ¹⁰

The second paramount obligation affirms our obligations as scientists — to uphold the ethics of science and to pursue truth that withstands the test of experience. ¹¹ In the negative, this might be recast as "Do not distort or misrepresent the results of scientific inquiry, presenting false statements about physical reality as if they are true." The second paramount obligation is also fully consistent with the rules of common morality.

The third paramount obligation acknowledges that our geoscientific knowledge, skills, and experience provide geoscientists with an expert understanding of Earth's systems over time. While the scope of an individual geoscientist's knowledge is limited, collectively the geoscience community has amassed an enduring record from two centuries of investigations. As noted in Part 3 of this Primer, with that knowledge comes the responsibility to communicate what we have learned to non-geoscientists. Einstein said, "...the right to search for truth...implies also a duty: one must not conceal any part of what one has recognized to be true." ¹² That general duty for scientists is reasonably extended to geoscientists, who can recognize, characterize, and help mitigate or avoid hazards, some of which are entirely natural while others may be caused or worsened by human activities.

Among scientists, geoscientists have a unique connection to deep time as we investigate the long history of our dynamic planet. We work to understand the interplay of Earth's systems and processes, and use geochronometric data to discern changes over time. Our access to geophysical data collected by Earth-orbiting satellites, and by networked sensors like seismographs, automated weather stations, tide gauges, ARGO and other robotic floats, and fixed GPS/GNSS stations, along with the sampling and analysis of ice and sediment cores as well as labs that routinely sample atmospheric and ocean chemistry, allows us to use our expanding expertise to characterize many aspects of our planet today and in the past. And these capabilities enable us to make useful scientific projections into the near future, based on established trends, improving understanding of processes, and a healthy respect for uncertainties.

We know that global mean sea level is rising, that global mean surface temperature is rising, that the acidity of the oceans is increasing, that the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases is increasing, and that the global total ice mass is decreasing. The consequences of these trends include a variety of increased hazards that can endanger people and threaten their well-being. Members of the geoscience community who have relevant knowledge, skills, and experience are engaged in studying these phenomena and their consequences, and communicating what they are learning to all of us so that we can make better decisions for ourselves and our descendants.

Can geoscience as a profession make positive, long-term contributions to global mineral-resource, energy, and climate-change issues without an ethical imperative to act now in beneficent ways whose benefits will outlast us? The third paramount obligation addresses this question.

At the Conference on Ethics in the Geosciences in 1997, Victor Yannacone emphasized, "In choosing to become geologists, you have assumed a burden — one that at the time you may not have fully realized but now must shoulder: that is, the intellectual stewardship of the planet Earth as a dynamic system. No one else is serving or can serve this function." ¹³ Society depends on geoscientists to help sustain a livable Earth for both current and future generations.

Failing to act with integrity to fulfill these paramount obligations would be a profound transgression against our common morality, the ethics of science and geoscience, and the reasonably assigned duty of stewardship for our planetary home. A personal commitment to fulfill these paramount obligations validates the public trust that justifies our work as scientists.

5.3 Notes and References