Applied Ethics And Sustainability – An Explanation

Pollution of the Global Commons and Sustainability

Explain Applied Ethics and Sustainability.
 

Although the privately owned companies work with the ulterior objective of profit maximization, they are always liable to the public to abide by certain rules of the society  and ethical codes of conduct. As the eminent economist, Friedman, has already stated, that the private companies can adopt any strategy in order to enhance their profit level, but at the same time they must never compromise with the quality of the goods sold, nor can they spoil the ecological balance by dumping of wastes. Hence, business ethics should be adopted by an organization, so that it does not affect the ecological balance, or the socio-economic well-being of the world (Newton et al. 2014).

Figure 1: The Three Pillars of Sustainability

Ecological sustainability is a matter of great importance in today’s world. Ecological balance implies an environmental condition, where the environment is full of diversity and productivity, and the ecosystem, with its sea, rivers, land , or climate does not pose any threat to the future sustainability of mankind. However, the global commons which include a variety of objects in the environment, starting with land, rivers, ponds, ecological animals, to valleys, and glaciers, have fallen prey to the tragedy of commons, in the words of Hardin. With the rapid growth of industries and technological advancement, the land, river, air are all contaminated at the same time, ultimately resulting in climatic aberrations such as Global Warming, Acid Rain, and depletion of the ozone layer of the atmosphere (McCormic et al. 2013). Industries as well as vehicles discharge extremely harmful and poisonous gases such as Nitrogen Oxide, Carbon Di Oxide , Sulphur Di oxide, Carbon Monoxide, etc. which can not only lead to diseases such as Asthma and infertility, but birth defects among the humans (Vogler et al. 2014). Animals are equally affected by air pollution, as they consume high amount of toxins, while feeding on plants, which are contaminated, by toxins such as Mercury. Besides, the use of pesticides in the agricultural fields often run off and mix with the water, or the untreated sewage  and industrial wastes are most carelessly dumped into the water bodies, which contaminates oceans, rivers and lakes. Apart from affecting humans, it directly harms the ecological sustainability by harming marine animals such as fishes. Littering the plastics products and polystyrene, carelessly in the environment, can also threat the question of sustainability as  many animals, and birds may unknowingly consume these products, and hence this may block their intestine, resulting their death by either starvation or malnutrition. However, environmental balance is an important issue, as it provides humankind with the basic resources to survive in the future. Hence, for retaining ecological sustainability, much steps are being taken. For example, the Environment Protection Agency, has already set up regulations, related to setting up a limit for an industry for the highest amount of emission per day, to charging factories in case the limit exceeds. Further, the EPA, has also recently made it mandatory for the automobiles to have pollution control services, such as catalytic contractors (Leslie et al. 2015).

Most Significant Ethical Issues Concerning the Pollution of Global Commons

While speaking of environmental ethics, two important issues are to be dealt with- one being the relation between Man and Nature, and the second one is the relation between Man and Man. The question of preserving environmental sustainability becomes primarily important, solely because the environment is a stakeholder, and ultimate provider of life to all creatures on the planet. Further, the loss of biodiversity, the change in climate, or melting of glaciers, has an extremely negative and disastrous effect on humankind. The human life, itself is dependent on the natural resources, such as fresh air, healthy plants and drinking water, clean land, etc., and failing to preserve these resources in future, will threat the survival and sustainability of future generations. In the year of 1968, Hardin has already pointed out, how the global commons are being overused and exploited so much, that by the present time, there is a huge shortage of natural resources, and a shocking absence of a healthy ecosystem (Edenhofer et al. 2014).

Recently, Climate Science is an emerging concept, which unveils the terrible fact, as to how the climate has disastrously been affected owing to reckless human activity through the process of industrialization. As the graph below suggests, over the years from the 19^th century to the 20^th century, there has been a remarkable soaring of temperature (Brown et al. 2013).

Figure 2: Graph Showing the Rise in Global Temperature over the Years

Because of the emission of harmful gases, such as CFC, Methane, Nitrous Oxide, the Ozone layer is depleted, which acts as the protector of Earth from the intense heat of the Sun. Consequently, the heat penetrates the atmosphere directly and increases the global temperature. Further, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research, the year 2015 in fact was the warmest year, showing a huge rise in the annual temperature  of the earth, and a melting of several glaciers across the world. Keeping into consideration, the huge instances disrupting ecological balance, it has become important to control the ill effects of pollution, by influencing the ethical attitude of human beings. Nowadays, people are being made more aware of the possible danger caused by environmental degradation, by making the study of EVS a mandate in school and college levels. The study of the subject from childhood helps in shaping the moral duty of the individual student towards the preservation of the ecological balance of the world. Apart from the Environment Day, celebrated on 5^th June, countries like Australia celebrate School Tree Day, where the children are encouraged to actively participate in the process of environmental conservation. Environmental ethics as a new branch of study, focuses on two important questions:

• What should be the role of an individual to protect and conserve the environment?
• What steps and regulations should the government introduce to limit the process of reckless exploitation of natural resources? (Attfield et al. 2014)

Pollution of Global Commons and Business

Already, the companies and the industries have to follow the environmental standards, that are being set up by the EPA authority. Some companies, due for emitting excessive amount of polluting gases, have installed machines for reduction of environmental pollution. It should be remembered that the present generation should never overuse the natural resources so much that they become unavailable or exhausted in future. Similarly, killing animal species, leading to their extinction, destruction of forests, can threaten the possibility of human survival in future. Besides, the Environmental Justice Movement of North Carolina stated that impoverished people are more likely to suffer from the pollution of Global Commons, and hence strict measures should be taken to protect their interests as well (Riordan 2014).

Private companies are usually so much driven by their profit-seeking motives, that tey usually disregard the importance of sustaining the environment and preserving the ecological balance. A business organization, not only exploits and overuses the natural resources, but at the same time, disposes the remnants of their wastes, after use, resulting in the destruction of ecological sustainability. A business transaction may harm an entire species or a race, by contaminating the environment. For example, the industrial wastes discharged by the industries and factories, are dumped into the water, which contain toxins that can kill marine plants as well as fishes who feed on them. Because of this whole process, the anglers section of the society gets adversely affected (Downing et al. 2013).

No matter, how much an industry leads to the economic development of a nation, it emits harmful gases, such as SO2, NO_X, which not only leads to diseases, but also has adverse effects such as climate change, Global warming, increasing desertification problem, etc. Besides, when an industry transforms a raw material into a final product, it does so, by utilizing resources from nature, and overuse of resources, especially the non-renewable ones will lead to exhaustion. In order to continue the same growth of production in future, the industries must utilize the principle of 3Rs, which consist of reusing, remanufacturing and recycling the same product. This helps in preserving the natural resource, and prevents the possibility of environmental pollution through discharge of waste products and industrial wastes. A group of eminent scientists in the year of 2008, headed by Pavan Sukhdev, revealed that the total amount of environmental damage caused by the industries alone, sums up to a whopping amount of $2.2 Trillion every year. If this kind of pollution is not controlled now, the future will be doomed. The words of Harlem Brandtland, should not be discarded, that the health of the human beings and that of the ecosystem are inseparable, and deterioration in one, will essentially affect the other (Heutel et al. 2012).

Since the success of a business organization will always depend on the efficient use of natural resources, an ethical attitude to the question of environmental sustainability is needed. Nowadays, with the growing interest among the private companies, in CSR, the private organizations are becoming more responsible in handling the environmental resources through their day-to- day business operations. For example, IT companies such as Cisco, has put enough emphasis on the importance of environmental sustainability. Cisco, in fact has aggressively set up targets before itself to control the total amount of emission, and in fact by the year 2012, it has already achieved two successive missions of reducing total GHG emissions. Starbucks, has also recently shown much interest in the idea of environmental sustainability by using low-flow water valves, and buying cabinetries which are made up mostly from post-industrial wastes. This idea of recycling and reusing, has also been utilized by E-bay (Hocking et al. 2013). Introducing these CSR based initiatives, the companies can not only contribute to the ecosystem but also gain goodwill amidst the consumers. Besides, apart from the existent policies and regulations, the government of each country should take an active step for protecting the environment against the pollution of Global Commons. For example, the cost-benefit approach can be taken, whereby the government sets a limit for emission of gases, exceeding which the company has to pay tax. This will, to a great extent control the reckless business activities of the large organizations, who harm the environment to raise profits over a short period of time. Besides, the authorities such as EPA, already controls the total amount of pollutants emitted by the factories, and in case of excessive contamination, the companies are directed to install machines, which are energy efficient or can reduce the emission of gases (Zhang et al. 2016). Again, there should be a pricing mechanism system, where the places which have higher amounts of pollution, can impose higher amount of pollution price on the industries, while places with lower risk of pollution, can lower down the pollution tax. The idea of permits was already successful a step in reducing the pollution of the environment. Accordingly, a company will have to buy permits from the government, at higher price, which will beget the company the legal right to pollute the environment. There should be a limited number of permits, and re-selling of permits among the companies should be allowed. Above all, incentives should be provided to the companies, which succeed in reducing pollution. The EPA and other agencies, already offer rewards to such companies, which have voluntarily reduced the environmental pollution. The government, in fact can reward a company, not only through financial means, but also can provide financial assistance to the companies for installing pollution control machines (Vesilind et al. 2013).

Conclusion:

It is absolutely an unfair and selfish course of action, if the people of the present generation use up the resources and destroy the ecological balance, without thinking of the needs of preserving global commons, for the future generations. Usually people tend to believe that business authorities are obliged only to serve mankind, and non-human creatures are absolutely discarded in the process. Hence, everyone should be educated about the need of maintaining an ethical attitude towards the idea of environmental sustainability (Mckinnon et al. 2013).  

Reference List:

Attfield, R., 2014. Environmental Ethics: An Overview for TheTwenty-First Century. John Wiley & Sons.

Brown, D.A., 2013. White paper on the ethical dimensions of climate change.Widener Law School Legal Studies Research Paper, (13-58).

Carroll, A. and Buchholtz, A., 2014. Business and society: Ethics, sustainability, and stakeholder management. Nelson Education.

Downing, P.B. and Hanf, K.I. eds., 2013. International comparisons in implementing pollution laws. Springer Science & Business Media.

Edenhofer, O., Flachsland, C., Jakob, M. and Lessmann, K., 2013. The atmosphere as a global commons–challenges for International Cooperation and Governance. The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements DP, 58.

Heutel, G., 2012. How should environmental policy respond to business cycles? Optimal policy under persistent productivity shocks. Review of Economic Dynamics, 15(2), pp.244-264.

Hocking, M.B., 2013. Handbook of chemical technology and pollution control. Elsevier.

Leslie, H.M., Basurto, X., Nenadovic, M., Sievanen, L., Cavanaugh, K.C., Cota-Nieto, J.J., Erisman, B.E., Finkbeiner, E., Hinojosa-Arango, G., Moreno-Báez, M. and Nagavarapu, S., 2015. Operationalizing the social-ecological systems framework to assess sustainability. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(19), pp.5979-5984.

McCormick, J., 2013. Acid Earth: the global threat of acid pollution (Vol. 4). Routledge.

McKinnon, A., Browne, M., Whiteing, A. and Piecyk, M. eds., 2015. Green logistics: Improving the environmental sustainability of logistics. Kogan Page Publishers.

Newton, L., Etzion, D., Rasche, A. and Schuler, D., 2014. Special Issue On: Environmental Sustainability and Business: Crisis or Opportunity?. Business Ethics Quarterly, 24(02), pp.300-302.

O’Riordan, T., 2014. Environmental science for environmental management. Routledge.

Preston, C.J., 2013. Ethics and geoengineering: reviewing the moral issues raised by solar radiation management and carbon dioxide removal. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 4(1), pp.23-37.

Vesilind, P.A., Peirce, J.J. and Weiner, R.F., 2013. Environmental pollution and control. Elsevier.

Vogler, J., 2012. 13 Studying the global commons: governance without politics?. Handbook of Global Environmental Politics, p.172.

Zhang, H., Wang, S., Hao, J., Wang, X., Wang, S., Chai, F. and Li, M., 2016. Air pollution and control action in Beijing. Journal of Cleaner Production, 112, pp.1519-1527.