To prepare students to develop just and sustainable solutions to increasing environmental challenges, they must be trained not only as scientists and engineers, but also as ethicists, according to the authors of a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The article, “Why environmental scientists need ethics training more than ever before,” was published on July 1. 

“We argue that ethics needs to be incorporated into environmental education more systematically if we want to train students properly for the challenges they will face,” said Kristy Ferraro, who is a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability. 

Ferraro co-authored the paper with Ann Thresher of Northeastern University in Boston.

Today’s environmental challenges, including climate change, biodiversity loss and sustainable development, are not just scientific or technical problems but also ethical ones, the authors write. Environmental professionals must routinely make difficult decisions that involve competing values and trade-offs, such as balancing conservation with agriculture or evaluating emerging technologies like geoengineering and de-extinction. Because these decisions depend on judgments about fairness, responsibility and whose interests should be prioritized, the authors note that environmental scientists need formal training in ethical reasoning alongside their scientific education.

Although students are generally well trained in scientific methods, most environmental degree programs do not require ethics courses, despite growing calls from students and faculty. Ferraro and Thresher argue that ethics education should extend beyond traditional Western perspectives to include Indigenous, Eastern, African and other global ethical traditions, noting that environmental solutions are most effective when they respect local cultures, values and relationships with nature. 

To address this gap, the authors recommend making environmental ethics a core component of environmental science education rather than an optional topic. They propose several approaches, including required ethics courses, classes co-taught by scientists and ethicists, embedding ethical discussions throughout science curricula, and hiring environmental ethicists within environmental departments. 

Read the full article.