Editorial: Relationship between man and nature and the challenges of spreading geological knowledge

Abstract

The year 2020 will be unmistakable, as the population experiences, by the time this text is being written, harrowing threats to human health, in the midst of a humanitarian catastrophe of unprecedented proportions. Faced with the enormous challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic, important knowledge will be gained from this general picture of impotence. Now, questions  swell quickly, objective responses are slow to emerge, and the relationship between science and politics is at the center of the world scenario: “we are learning that science’s place in politics is determined not by the logic of the facts, but by the fundamental influence of human values” (Sarewitz, 2020). There will be corrections of directions, of great interest to Earth Sciences, since a good part of the knowledge to be generated concerns the way man relates to nature. Anyway, it is a geoethical relationship, as humanity applies Geosciences to shape the “human niche”, employing professionals in the field as operational instruments (Bohle, 2020)...