132243 Business & Social
Responsibilities
Ethics and the
Environment
1
Introduction
Industrial technology has enabled us to
manipulate and control nature, but has also
polluted our environment and depleted our
natural resources.
Environmental trends in the 21st century
Population growth
Rising temperature
Falling water tables
Shrinking cropland per person
Collapsing fisheries
Shrinking forests
Loss of plant and animal species
2
Introduction (cont.)
Environmental Issues
What damage produced by industrial
technology?
How large does this affect our welfare?
What must be sacrificed to slow down such
damage?
Whose rights are violated by pollution?
Who should be responsible for polluting?
What obligations do firms have to future
generation?
3
The Dimensions of Pollution
and Resource Depletion
Pollution: the undesirable and unintended
contamination of the environment by the
manufacturer or use of commodities
Air pollution
Water pollution
Land pollution
Resource depletion: the consumption of
finite or scarce resources
Depletion of species and habitats
Depletion of fossil fuels and minerals
4
Air Pollution
Global Warming
Causes: the industrial release of greenhouse
gases (e.g. co2, nitrous oxide, methane, and
CFC) into the atmosphere, particularly by the
burning of fossil fuels
Consequences: deserts expanded, polar ice
melted, sea levels risen, several species
extinct, farming disrupted, distribution and
severity of diseases increased
Solutions: difficult (expensive) to solve,
perhaps we could try to stabilize the
concentration of greenhouse gases already in
5
the air
Air Pollution (cont.)
Ozone Depletion
Causes: the industrial release of CFCs
(particularly via the use of aerosol cans,
refrigerators, air conditioners, industrial
solvents, and industrial foam blowers) into
the air
Consequences: ultraviolet rays increased,
skin cancer developed, crops destroyed,
plankton destroyed
Solutions: we could try to reduce the release
of CFC gases, however the already existing
CFC gases in the air will continue their danger
6
and will persist for many years
Air Pollution (cont.)
Acid Rain
Causes: the industrial release of sulfur oxides
and nitrogen oxides (from the combustion of
fossil fuels used by utilities to produce
electricity) into the atmosphere
Consequences: acidity of the water raised,
aquatic organisms died, forest and wildlife
species destroyed, drinking water
contaminated, buildings damaged
Solutions: need international cooperation
7
Air Pollution (cont.)
Airborne Toxics
Causes: the industrial release of airborne
toxic substances (e.g. phosgene used in
warfare, methyl isocyanate, carcinogens such
as benzene and formaldehyde released from
the chemical brew, neurotoxins such as
toluene and trichloroethylene released from
the chemical brew)
Consequences: cancer developed
Solutions: less catastrophic because levels of
most airborne toxics have been reduced
gradually as a result of the strict regulation,
8
but still highly worrisome
Air Pollution (cont.)
Air Quality
Causes: gases and particulates spewed out by autos
and industrial processes (e.g. carbon monoxide
released by autos, sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides
released by electrical plants, ozone or photochemical
smog, particulates, and airborne lead)
Consequences: lung function deteriorated, infant
deaths (caused by sulfur oxides) increased, deaths
from pneumonia and influenza (caused by particulates)
increased, acid rain produced, people’s health
deteriorated
Solutions: the last decade has seen a considerable
improvement in the air quality as a result of
9
environmental legislation and regulation
Water Pollution
Water pollutants: organic wastes, dissolved
salts, metals, radioactive materials, and
suspended materials such as bacteria, viruses,
and sediments
Salt brines from mines and oil wells drain into
water sources, where they raise saline contents.
High saline levels kill organisms inhabit in water
sources.
Water drainage from coal mines contains
sulfuric acid as well as iron and sulfate particles.
High acid levels are lethal to most organisms living in
the aquatic environment
10
Water Pollution (cont.)
Organic wastes (largely untreated human
wastes, sewage, and industrial wastes from
processing various food products, from the pulp
and paper industry, and from animal feedlots)
deplete oxygen.
The household and industrial releases of
phosphorus compounds found in cleansing
detergents give rise to explosive expansions of
algae populations.
Inorganic pollutants (e.g. mercury, kepone,
cadmium, asbestos fibers) pose serious health
11
hazards
Water Pollution (cont.)
Heat from water used as a coolant in
various industrial manufacturing processes
is also a water pollutant.
Oil spills, which result from offshore
drilling, discharges of sludge from oil
tankers, and oil tanker accidents, is also a
water pollutant.
Oil spills are lethal to sea life.
12
Water Pollution (cont.)
Radioactive wastes (e.g. plutonium,
cesium, etc.) in seawater are hazardous.
Underground water supplies are
contaminated by organic chemicals,
inorganic chemicals, radioactive wastes,
and microorganisms.
Today many people lack access to safe
water.
Summary: water pollution is very costly,
and benefits from removing it is extremely
13
high
Land Pollution
Toxic Substances
Causes: the household and industrial
releases of acidic chemicals, inorganic metals
(such as mercury or arsenic), flammable
solvents, pesticides, herbicides, phenols,
explosives, and so on, into the land
Consequences: reproductive defects in
animals increased, abortions increased,
people’s health deteriorated
Solutions: toxicity of some substances is
known but that of many is still unknown and
difficult to determine
14
Land Pollution (cont.)
Solid Wastes
Causes: the release of residential garbage
Consequences: several toxic substances
released from the garbage dumps (e.g.
cadmium from rechargeable batteries,
mercury and lead from car batteries and TV
picture tubes, vanadium, copper, zinc, and
PCBs from refrigerators, stoves, engines, and
appliances built and dumped) are hazardous
to public health and the environment
Solutions: costly to solve
15
Land Pollution (cont.)
Nuclear Wastes
Causes: the release of radioactive materials
(e.g. carcinogens such as strontium 90,
cesium 137, barium 140, and iodine 131,
plutonium, ) from nuclear plants
Consequences: various types of cancer
developed
Solutions: make sure that our descendants
will never accidentally reach nuclear
repositories
16
Depletion of Species and
Habitats
Human beings have depleted dozens of
plant and animal species to the point of
extinction.
17
Depletion of Fossil Fuels
Fossil Fuels include coal, oil, and natural gas.
Exponential depletion
The rate at which resources were being used had
doubled with the passage of a regular fixed time
period.
The amount consumed can be represented by a
parabolic curve.
Peaked depletion rate
The extraction will peak and then continue, but at a
declining rate coupled with rising prices.
The amount consumed can be represented by a
Hubbert curve with no definite depletion point.
18
Depletion of Minerals
Minerals
E.g. aluminum, iron, manganese, molybdenum,
nickel, tungsten, zinc, copper, lead
The depletion of these minerals can be predicted on
the basis of an exponential growth model or on the
basis of a peaked growth model.
Conclusions: there are physical limits to our
natural resources. More substitute materials
may be found for many of these resources, but
not all of them. Whatever substitutes are
developed will also be limited.
19
The Ethics of Pollution
Controls
Ecological approach: non humans have
intrinsic value
Environmental rights approach: humans
have a right to a livable environment
Market approach: external costs violate
utility, rights, and justice
20
History of Pollution
For centuries, businesses have seen the
environment as a free and unlimited
good, and ignored the damages they have
inflicted on it.
Pollution problems are not rooted only in
business activities, but also in the use of
customer products and from human waste
products. In fact, every human being
pollutes.
21
Ecological Ethics
Ecological system: an interrelated and
interdependent set of organisms and
environments
Fish and aquatic organisms in a lake
Business firms and natural environment
Ecological ethics: the view that nonhuman parts
of the environment deserve to be preserved for
their own sake, regardless of whether this
benefits human beings
non humans (e.g. animals, plants, and natural
species) have intrinsic value and humans have a duty
to respect and preserve them
22
Ecological Ethics (cont.)
Utilitarian: the pain of an animal is equal
to the pain of a human
Non-utilitarian: each animal has a certain
moral rights (e.g. right to be treated with
respect)
Virtue lovers such as Paul Taylor: to be a
person who has reverence for life is to see
life itself, in all its forms, as having
inherent worth, a worth that inspires an
unwillingness to destroy and a desire to
23
preserve
Ecological Ethics (cont.)
Attempts to extend moral rights to
nonhumans are highly controversial
Difficult to see why a river or a mountain
exists implies that it should exists
Controversial whether animals have rights or
intrinsic value
24
Environmental Rights and
Absolute Bans
William T. Blackstone: a livable
environment is something that others
have a duty to allow us to have, i.e.
human beings have a moral right to a
decent environment
This right should become legal and should
override people’s legal property rights.
Absolute bans on pollution can secure this
right.
25
Environmental Rights and
Absolute Bans (cont.)
Questions unanswered by Blackstone
How much pollution control is really needed?
Should we have an absolute ban?
What goods should we cease manufacturing?
Who should pay to preserve?
What if the costs of removing certain amounts of
pollution are high in comparison to the benefits?
Any hidden costs (e.g. businesses shut down and
jobs lost) associated with the removal?
Maybe a cost-benefit approach is better.
Regulations are cost-benefit analyzed before they are
implemented
26
Market Approach
Private cost: the cost an individual or company
must pay out of its own pocket to engage in a
particular economic activity
Social cost: the private internal costs and the
wider external costs of engaging in a particular
economic activity
When private costs and social costs diverge,
markets no longer price commodities accurately.
As a result they no longer allocate resources
efficiently, and therefore social welfare declines.
In other words, pollution violates utilitarian
27
principles that underlie market system.
Market Approach (cont.)
When PC < SC, and the external costs are not
taken into account
Market price (output) of the commodity when all
costs are taken into account is higher (lower) than
when only private costs are incorporated.
Inefficient allocation of Resources
Resources are being used more than the optimal
level.
Firms are not motivated to reduce these costs.
Inefficient distribution of goods
External costs introduce effective price differentials
into markets.
28
Market Approach (cont.)
Pollution violates justice and fairness of
PC markets
Capitalism justice is not achieved
Pollution violates rights of PC markets
Producers impose costs on people they did
not voluntarily choose.
Victims of pollution cannot freely leave the
market.
Producers dominate the market that they can
force others to accept their terms.
29
Remedies
Internalization of the costs of pollution
Absorption of costs by the producer, who takes them
into account when determining the price of goods.
The polluting firm may pay those on whom its
manufacturing processes impose costs.
Consequences: Price determination includes these
costs and thus would truly reflect the true costs of
production. Market mechanisms then lead firms to
come up with ways of cutting down pollution to cut
down their costs.
The polluter may stop polluting by installing
pollution-control devices.
30
Justice
Pollution violates egalitarian justice
Pollution benefits the firm’s stockholders and
customers, but costs the poor.
Environmental injustice: the bearing of
external costs of pollution largely by those
who do not enjoy a net benefit from the
activity that produces the pollution.
Internalization may not work if firms
make basic good needed by the poor.
31
Justice (cont.)
Internalization is consistent with
retributive and compensatory justice
The costs of pollution are borne by
stockholders and customers.
The benefits of pollution control flow to those
neighbors who had to put up with the firm’s
pollution.
32
Costs and Benefits
Optimal amount of pollution control
A society should remove the pollution as long as the
costs from removing it < the benefits from removing it.
Problems
Measurement difficulties arise when the pollution
involves damage to human health and life.
Measurement difficulties arise when the effects of
pollution are uncertain.
Cost-benefit analysis ignores the question of whether
the costs involved in some polluting technology are
voluntarily accepted.
33
Social Ecology
Social ecology: the environmental crises we face
are rooted in the social systems of hierarchy
and domination that characterize our society
Success in the system of hierarchy and
domination becomes identified with the level of
dominance and control, and also with the
domination of nature.
Social ecologists argue that humans should see
themselves as stewards of nature, not as
masters who should dominate nature.
34
Ecofeminism
Ecofeminism: belief that subordination of what
is feminine in turn is transferred to nature,
which is seen as feminine (mother nature) and
with which women are felt to be more closely
associated.
Ecofeminists argue that women should strive for
an androgynous culture, which eradicates
traditional gender roles and does away with the
distinction between feminine and masculine that
justifies a destructive domination of nature. In
particular, the destructive masculine perspective
of domination and hierarchy must be replaced
with the feminine perspective of caring.
35
Demands of Caring
Karen Warren: concepts of utilitarianism, rights,
and justice are not enough. An adequate
environmental ethic must also take into account
in a central manner the perspectives of an ethic
of care. Nature must be seen as an other than
that can be cared for and with which one has a
relationship that must be nurtured and attended
to. Nature must not be seen as an object to be
dominated, controlled, and manipulated.
36
The Ethics of Conserving
Depletable Resources
Conservation: the saving or rationing of
natural resources for later use
Pollution control VS conservation
Pollution control benefits present
generations, whilst conservation benefits
future generations.
Pollution is a problem concerned with
renewable resources, whilst conservation
deals with nonrenewable resources.
37
Rights of Future Generations
We have an obligation to conserve resources for
future generations because they have an equal
right to the limited resources.
Arguments against this view
Future generations do not now exist and may never
exist
We must have to sacrifice our entire civilization for
our future generations
Our ignorance of the interests of future generations
38
Justice to Future Generations
John Rawls: we should put ourselves in the
“original position”, and without knowing what
generation we belong to, we should leave the
world no worse than we found it
Ethic of care: leave our children a world no
worse than we received
Robin Attfield: leave the world as productive as
we found it, although not necessarily with the
same resources.
39
Justice to Future Generations
(cont.)
Some utilitarians: we have a duty to
maximize the (discounted) future benefits
of our actions, and to minimize the
(discounted) future costs of our actions.
Market mechanisms (e.g. an increase in
price) cannot ensure conservation, but
voluntary or legal measures can.
40
Economic Growth?
E. F. Schumacher: industrialized nations
must convert from growth-oriented,
capital-intensive technologies to much
more labor-intensive technologies
Others: economic growth must be
abandoned if society is to be able to deal
with the problems of diminishing
resources
41
Economic Growth? (cont.)
Doomsday scenarios of the Club of Rome
(Figure 5.6)
The standard world model run restrictedly assumes
no major change in the physical, economic, or social
relationships that have historically governed the
development of the world system. Food, industrial
output, and population grow exponentially until the
rapidly diminishing resource base forces a slow down
in industrial growth. Because of natural delays in the
system, both population and pollution continue to
increase for some time after the peak of
industrialization. Population growth is finally halted
by a rise in death rate due to decreased food and
medical services. The decline in industrial output
causes a decline in pollution.
42
Morality of Energy Searching
Is it morally justified for a highconsumption nation to continue
approaching scarcity of energy resources
from other economically and militarily
weak nations?
43