By Paul Hubley, P.Geo. “True Fact – the lack of pirates is causing global warming” – Forbes (2012) When Forbes Magazine published this graph along with the claim above, it caught my eye. In the graph, the average global temperature is increasing (on the vertical axis) as the number of pirates (on the horizontal axis) is decreasing. The reduction of pirates to “approximately” 17, roughly corresponding to the highest recorded temperature, is an oddly specific measurement (and my favourite part). There is even a handy timestamp along the curve and a familiar but outdated and partially obscured world map background for added authenticity. Taken together, the visual story woven by Forbes cleverly serves to reinforce some of our existing biases and our assumptions – it suggests that we need to pay attention as a society to this global issue of concern, that its all hands on deck concerning the increasing severity of the problem, its based on historical fact … and … global temperature rise is caused by an acute lack of pirates1. Geoscience publications are usually not awash with correlations of Earth systems and the activities of pirates, so this raised a red flag. Though as perhaps you’ve guessed, the graph is “tongue-in-cheek”, challenging those purveyors of “fact” to not confuse simultaneity with causation, in other words, to ensure that we take due care to link measured effects to their causes. It reminds us that we have a collective responsibility to ensure integrity in our data, use applicable scientific methods, and provide unbiased reporting – to stand on our moral and ethical footings.  Broadly, morals are guiding principles, and ethics speaks to rules, behaviours or actions. The graph’s issues of data, methods and communication cause us to drift us into ethical territory. It is reasons such as this that geoscientists (and other professionals) have a Code of Ethics to abide by, usually focused on honesty, integrity in data collection, due consideration of uncertainty using scientific methods and employing unbiased interpretation (etc.). Turns out that there is a Code for pirates too…   Context is Everything! Pirates in the Elizabethan era (the Golden Age of pirates, provided you weren’t Spanish) had codes of conduct to keep harmony on the ship and align the objectives of the crew. Bartholomew Roberts Shipboard Articles of 1721 consisted of a number of agreements between the Captain and crew. The articles were necessary as pirates were not governed by any other rules such as Naval regulations. For some aspects (stealing from each other, gambling, etc.) the rules were very tight, but generally all bets were off once on shore. One of the more interesting elements was Article 9, that is if injury should befall a pirate while on the job, they would be paid a sum commensurate with their injury – in other words, they had a meaningful worker’s compensation program.  Pirate captains were elected and could lose their position for abuse of their authority. However, aside from the agreed articles, there wasn’t much elaboration on what constituted abuse of ethics. Using a modification of Cressey’s Fraud Triangle (Source: David Bailey, 2015 (adapted from Cressey, 1951)), it’s clear that pirates already had the pressure and opportunity to move them into ethical risk territory when a ship was sighted – the promise of riches and glory saw to that. The only thing holding a pirate captain back from ethical shark-infested waters was rationalization2. But rationalization is a fickle passenger. At least, until society gets on board…  Canadian nautical society has a naughty history with piratical negotiations. Pirates receiving a Letter of Marque from the British Admiralty were thus commissioned as Privateers, notably during the War of 1812. These legal pirates were free to conduct their business provided their actions were aligned with the wider interests of society (i.e. the British Crown). One ship owner, Enos Collins, did rather well in 1812, becoming Canada’s wealthiest person; he also co-founded the Halifax Banking Company, a predecessor to the CIBC bank, using the spoils of privateering. If you’re in Halifax you can still see the oft-celebrated results of such shenanigans, starting at the Privateers Wharf (Sources: CIBC and East Coast Heritage. Photo by Thomas Goldsworthy Dutton via Wikimedia Commons). It is social context that allows a scurvy scallywag to turn into a prizewinning Privateer, without fundamentally changing their behaviours. Societal expectations (in the example above, articulated by the Crown) provide the necessary rationalization to justify naughty behaviour.   On the other hand, the inspiration of society can increase the strength of winds in a positive direction, creating neo (new) ethical expectations for the betterment of society – this became evident in the 1970s when the “Blue Marble” was first hoisted3. The Blue Marble Flag of the Earthship You have probably seen the Earth portion of this image without even noticing, as we take images like this for granted today. But it’s one of the most widely distributed print images in history.  It was this NASA photo taken from Apollo 17 in 1972 that became the essential symbol of the public’s collective imagination and expectations. It was widely circulated in the 1970s as a symbol, or flag of the Earth’s fragility, representing vulnerability and isolation in the limitlessness of space, a tiny Earthship alone in the vast ocean. The implied message was, without better care, the Earth would be replaced with a skull and crossbones – society no longer accepted the wanton polluting of the environment, and this trend continues today. This example demonstrates that societal awareness may push to shore as might a sustained wind.  Notably, the photo was not the first of its kind – a few years earlier there were similar photos available from NASA – but earlier photos failed to capture society’s collective imagination like this one, because they were not connected to society’s collective anxieties and will (therefore = shifting winds).  And so for our voyage, it is the 1972 Blue Marble photo that is selected as our Earthship flag.    These days many of us are on