The following e-mail was sent on Wednesday, 11 December 2019, to Profs. Edmund Nickells (cc: Profs. Qiuming Cheng and Stan Finney):
Dear Prof. Nickless,
I am writing you with regards to your article published in Episodes Vol. 42, No. 4 entitled «Report of the Ad-hoc Review of the Task Group on Global Geoscience Professionalism, September 2018«. In particular, with regards to your final comments about the International Association for Geoethics (IAGETH).
You wrote:
1) Our (IAGETH) presence «covering the subject of geoethics is unhelpful»
Please, let me stress that nobody from the Task Group contacted us to require our inputs or help. We use to answer any message (in particular if it is an official letter or requirement) in less than 24 h.
2) You wrote: » IAGETH might be considered to deal with the philosophical aspects of geoethics»
This is wrong. There are not philosophers in our association. In addition, our definition is clearly and unequivocally (visit our website) linking geosciences and ethics in a practical way. For instance, we have promoted the «practical» deontological codes in several countries (e.g. Spain, Russia, Mozambique) (in fact, before the Cape Town Statement).
As President of IAGETH –and on behalf of our 49 National Chapters and members–, I regret that you have written such Report (in the way of an article), expressing wrong and unjust information about our international association.
Sincerely,
Prof. Dr. Jesús Martínez-Frías, President, IAGETH (on behalf of the Executive Committee and 49 National Chapters)
P.S. Please, I’d require and appreciate to publish the present email in Episodes as a reply to your Report.