Environment

Environmental ethics considers the

ethical relationship between people and
and the natural world and the kind of
decisions people have to make about the
environment:

Study

of human interaction with nature.

In a business sense, environmental ethics is
concerned with a company's responsibility to
protect the environment in which it operates.
Public awareness of damage caused to the
environment by human action has driven a
demand for governmental regulations
directly affecting the ability of businesses to
conduct their operations.

Environmental Ethics

The

Environment is defined as the totality

of mans surroundings.

Todays

environment said to consist of

elements each of which is a resource

Resources of Environment

Natural

Resources- Land , water, air, fauna

and flora (plant and trees), energy and
fuels and raw materials, i.e minerals

Man

made resources- The socioeconomic structure, cultural heritage, the

people

Examples of Resources

The

quality of environment is fast

deteriorating through
Industrial pollution
toxic chemicals
oil spills in the ocean
deforestation

Environmental pollution

Air

pollution Largely caused by

automobiles exhaust and other measures
carbon dioxide,
sulpher oxide.

Air Pollution

Prevention

interventions, a better way of controlling air pollution. These

can either come from government (laws) or by individual actions.
A. Government (or community) level prevention
Governments throughout the world have already taken action against air
pollution by introducing green energy. Some governments are investing
in wind energy and solar energy, as well as other renewable energy, to
minimize burning of fossil fuels, which cause heavy air pollution.
B.Governments are also forcing companies to be more responsible with
their manufacturing activities, so that even though they still cause
pollution, they are a lot controlled.
C. Companies are also building more energy efficient cars, which pollute
less than before.

Air pollution prevention,

monitoring and solution

A. Encourage your family to use the bus, train or bike when commuting.
If we all do this, there will be less cars on road and less fumes.
B.Use energy (light, water, boiler, kettle and fire woods) wisely. This is
because lots of fossil fuels are burned to generate electricity, and so if
we can cut down the use, we will also cut down the amount of pollution
we create.
C.Recycle and re-use things. This will minimize the dependence of
producing new things. Remember manufacturing industries create a lot
of pollution, so if we can re-use things like shopping plastic bags,
clothing, paper and bottles, it can help.

Individual Level Prevention

Water

pollution prevention and control measures

are critical to improving water quality and
reducing the need for costly wastewater and
drinking water treatment. Because water pollution
can come from many different sources, a variety
of pollution prevention and control measures are
needed.
Water pollution through sewage discharges and
drainage from mines, water composts, chemicals
which are toxic for human life, fishes and birds
etc.

Water Pollution

e too toxic for some of the organisms. If the toxins kill certain plants in a pond, then many fish could die. This in turn cou
are also harmed by business transactions.

All of the damage done to the pond, fish, and fishermen

are externalities
Many companies discharge waste into bodies of water, like
ponds. Sometimes this is relatively harmless to the
ecosystem, but increasing the amount of waste could
become too toxic for some of the organisms. If the toxins
kill certain plants in a pond, then many fish could die. This
in turn could frustrate fishermen who make a living by
catching fish in the pond . or spillover.
Business transactions arent always just transactions
between two people during trade. Sometimes other people
and non human animals are also harmed by business
transactions.

Externalities

(a)

Ecology
(b)Traditional business attitudes towards
the environment
(c) Problems involving environmental abuse
(d) Environmental protection
(e) Methods to pay for environmental
protection
(f) Other issues involving environmental
ethics

Environmental Issues of
Business Ethics

Pesticides

often harm or kill fish and birds

and can cause illness in children . Too much
pesticide is dangerous to adults
Air pollution contaminates the air, despoils
vegetation and crops, corrodes construction
materials, and threatens our lives and health
We generally assume we get sick from
allergies, bacteria, or viruses; but pollution
is a very common cause of illness as well.

Environmental Issues we face today:

The

ozone layer was damaged from

chlorofluorocarbons .
Carbon dioxide (and other greenhouse
gasses) are causing global warming .
Toxic chemicals in our environment cause
many health issues .
Nuclear power plants require minding,
processing, and transporting of nuclear
materials that causes cancer in many people,

Environmental issues

Ecology-

study of plants, animals, people

and institutions in relation to
environment.
It refers to inter-relationships between
people and fuanna (birds & animals)
Ecosystem is totally of-living and nonliving elements in the ecological
community interacting with one another
and environment

Ecology

Businesses

, A company would harm the

environment to whatever extent was
profitable
Overfishing , If the fish population is
depleted by fishermen, then the fishing
industry will go out of business.

Businesss traditional attitudes towards the environment

Garrett

Hardins parable- The Tragedy of

the Commons, he describes the
importance of the environment to human
interests based on the fact that its limited
Hardins parable- is often relevant to real
life issues, such as overfishing. If the fish
population is depleted by fishermen, then
the fishing industry will go out of
business.

Parables

 Its

in our interest to protect the environment

insofar as we are human beings and we are often
harmed by environmental damage and measures
to protect the environment can benefit us all
many people dont feel responsible for
harming the environment because they dont
personally do much harm to it
companies that harm the environment have
externalities (and harm others) that they unfairly
benefit from, which can violate our right to noninjury

Ethics of environmental protection

The

environment is one of the most important moral issues not only

because harming the environment often violates our right to non injury,
but also because environmental damage has been incredibly harmful to
both people and other animals. Not to mention that many
environmental issues can create even more devastation in the future,
such as the possible depletion of the worlds resources to future
generations.

The

importance of the environment not only shows traditional failures of

business ethics of the past and present, but it also helps clarify the
importance of externalities and animals. Businesses traditionally saw no
need to pay for externalities, but we now know that externalities are of
grave importance and are often a matter of life and death. Businesses
traditionally saw no need to respect animals, but many moral
philosophers no longer see any reason to value ourselves over other
animals at any cost.

Summary