The Importance of Information Ethics

Information ethics are especially important to consider in the context of climate issues. These issues hold a political and scientific controversy that can easily be tainted by the absence of "good" information ethics. Without integrity and thorough peer review our waters will be exceedingly fogged by junk information. It has been this absence of good information ethics which has led to such a confusing infosphere of global climate change speculation.

Information that can lead to incorrect conclusions is harmful. A subject as politically charged as global climate change requires the careful reasoning of science — not the information warfare we have seen in recent days. Administrative decisions that effect us directly are already resulting from a smattering of climate predictions. Shouldn't we be worrying whether or not they are correct?

The solution — the "good" information ethics — is our participation as globally effected and affecting peer reviewers. Information has been falsified — dishonest observations have resulted from honest data and visa versa. It is in my belief that common rationality can be utilized to make sense of this mass of global climate change information.

Research, fact checking, referencing, and refining will begin to take hold and we may still not be able to predict the future very accurately, but we can certainly conceptualize the possibilities in a reasonable manner. The evolutionary responsibility to understand a topic that effects our long term survival should be on everyone's shoulders. If the media is pushing incorrect climate change information, then it is our ethical responsibility to call them on it. If a scientist is presenting contradicting — or even complementing — data on climate change, then it is our ethical responsibility to do some fact checking. And if the government makes decisions based on media, polls, and science, then is was our ethical responsibility to have made sure these things were in everyone's interest.