Running Head: ETHICS: POLLUTION AND MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS

Ethics: Pollution and Multinational Corporations HRL

ETHICS: POLLUTION AND MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS 2 Pollution is a broad term. It encompasses far more than just chemicals affecting our environment. Pollution is defined by The Merriam Webster dictionary as “the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy such as noise, heat or light.” There are many types of pollution including, but not limited to, air pollution from man-made and naturally occurring contaminants, water pollution, noise pollution, light pollution, soil contamination, thermal pollution, as from commercial cooling systems or nuclear power plants, visual pollution from man-made structures like radio towers and billboards, and electromagnetic pollution such as radio frequency interference produced by man-made appliances. There is pollution we can control and pollution that we cannot control. Each type of pollution may have its own set of ethics which, of course, must relate back to the subject of a previous assignment relating to the ethics and culture of the civilization that one is existing in. For example, there are cultures that use incense for religious and entertainment purposes. They would not consider fumes and chemicals, from burning incense, to be atmospheric pollution. I, on the other hand, find the odor of incense to be noxious, offensive and an air pollutant. I am of the firm belief that any pollution that is not inadvertent is unethical. It is unethical for my neighbor to leave all of his outside lights on at night because they obstruct my view and neighbor’s view of the otherwise unpolluted night sky. I take the point of view that all man-made pollution of any kind is unethical. ETHICS: POLLUTION AND MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS 3 Pollution is not a new phenomenon, and the history of pollution gives a perspective on when and how the responsibility of humans and the ethics surrounding the issue have developed. Certainly prior to urbanization and the industrial revolution, no one had a clue as to what was going to happen as a result of pollution. One would not expect any consideration of the ethics surrounding pollution from those ancestors. They simply didn’t know any better. Forms of pollution can be traced back to pre-historic civilizations. Soot has been recovered on the ceilings of caves resulting from early man’s fires used for heating and cooking and might be considered some of the earliest forms of pollution. Of course pollution of the atmosphere from erupting volcanoes has been with our planet going back to its origin and is still a significant factor today following a major eruption. Although nature and man has polluted the atmosphere and the ecosphere for countless generations going back to prehistoric times, it is generally accepted that nature was able to handle the challenge so as to minimally affect the world. Concentration of humankind in towns and cities began to create pollution problems as early as the 13th century with the burning of coal in England. And sewage became a major health issue there in the 19th century resulting in construction of sewer systems to prevent the contamination of drinking water and control of disease. But the industrial revolution is really what created the pollution and environmental problems that we deal with today. With the construction of large factories and the tremendous volume of coal burned to create energy, heat and power industrial equipment, pollution of the air became a major problem and the by-products of manufacturing began to pollute and overwhelm our rivers, lakes and oceans. Air ETHICS: POLLUTION AND MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS 4 quality has become so bad in most major cities that an Air Quality Index is publicly announced daily. Environmental disasters resulting from but not limited to atomic bombs and testing, the sinking of oil tankers and oil rigs and the run off of farming fertilizers and pesticides has overwhelmed some parts of our environment and has changed entire eco-systems. Some rivers and bays have become off limits to fishing and bathing. Many species of fish have become non-consumable. The industrialization and development into modern times is now where the subject of our ethics must be considered. The term environmental ethics is all about our morals in how we deal with our environment. Although initially the problems surrounding pollution were urban and restricted to industrialized nations, the problems are now worldwide and the effects of the environment are not only felt locally but, can and do affect the farthest reaches of the world. Multinational corporations from almost every developed country in the world are operating and producing pollutants in every corner of the globe. The survival of life itself on planet Earth will be determined by the decisions that we make and the ethical guidelines that are continuing to develop and must continue to expand. Questions posed by environmental ethics are varied, but all deal with our commitment to the environment. What is our commitment and how far does it go? Possibly the most basic discussion in environmental ethics begins with examining the value of nature itself. Does nature have value, or is the environment only important to the extent that it benefits humans? The answers to this question dictate how different people approach issues of conservation and pollution. ETHICS: POLLUTION AND MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS 5 Multinational companies are becoming increasingly socially responsible as the effects of pollution have become so widespread and as pressure mounts from individuals, environmental groups, and governing bodies to protect the environment. However the impact on the environment has largely been ignored by businesses and we have a very long way to go. The amount of air and water on the planet is so vast that it is easy for a business to assume that whatever they place in it would be negligible. The effects of all polluters, when added together, is enormous. It is important to note in any discussion that businesses are not solely to blame for pollution. The end user of manufactured products is just as much a culprit. We are all responsible. The environment has a symbiotic relationship with all of its parts. The activity of each part of the environment affects another part and pollutants must be controlled to protect all parts of the environment regardless of whether the human race benefits from it. The survival of the planet and the human race will depend on every segment of the environment and it is our responsibility to ensure that human and non-human species flourish and survive. This focus on all aspects of environmental protection, human, and non-human is called deep ecology. Supporters of deep ecology subscribe to various principles and ethics. They espouse that we must come to appreciate the quality of life as opposed to always seeking a higher standard of living. The effects of humans on the non-human world have become enormous and worsening. Further, deep ecologists feel that in order for human and non-human life to flourish there must be a decrease in human population. They feel that all species have value and they have the right to survive and flourish. And humans have no right to decrease the diversity and richness of the ETHICS: POLLUTION AND MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS 6 planet’s many species except to satisfy and maintain their own essential needs. Deep ecologists demand substantial change in policies that will radically affect ideological, technological and economic systems. Many of these ideas might be considered unusual, impractical and impossible. Certainly they are indeed controversial. Deep ecology can also be referred to as the anthropocentric approach to ethics. But to develop a workable ethic regarding pollution we must look to two traditional views of ethics: Basic human rights and utilitarianism. . These two views are perhaps more simply defined as the anthropocentric approach and the opposing non-anthropocentric point of view. The anthropocentric approach sees the environment only in terms of what can be of benefit to humans. The non-anthropocentric approach, conversely, considers every part of the environment as intrinsic, from the great elephants and whales to the fleas on their backs and down to the very miniscule forms of microbial life. This view would require us to value and give moral consideration to every living organism on Earth. This, in reality, would be of no practicality, since, ultimately, some human needs will conflict with some parts of the environment. The anthropocentric basic rights theory espouses that every human being is entitled to a livable environment as a right. This is a problem for deep ecologists because, in this ethical model, all attempts to diminish pollution that might affect some species or a part of the environment that does not directly affect human beings, would be very costly and would not benefit the human race. Utilitarians, or non-anthropocentrics, on the other hand, argue that pollution should be eliminated because it harms the welfare of our society. When examining the utilitarian point of view one must examine the cost to the corporation to produce a product and then the costs to society to deal with the production of that product. Those costs would include ETHICS: POLLUTION AND MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS 7 pollution control, medical costs to society from that pollution and the cost of clean-up. Utilitarians argue that these costs should all be included in the cost of the products. But, would the buying public tolerate it? Environmental issues seem to be worse in underdeveloped and third world countries because in these countries government does not enforce environmental laws that set the standards for pollution control and the massive increasing environmental problems. Why? One may argue that perhaps it’s because the majority of the polluters are multinational corporations that may have assets well in excess of the entire gross national product of the countries that they operating in. The fines imposed upon them in these countries are miniscule to them and mean nothing. There is also some question as to whether graft and bribery of government officials to turn the other cheek may be in play as well.
It does appear that some progress is being made globally with citizenry, environmental groups, governments and religious organizations pressuring multinational corporations to save planet Earth. But we have a long way to go and a lot of greed to defeat.

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