Chapter 7 Flashcards
Definition of ecology:
The science of the interrelationships among organisms (especially humans) and their environments.
Ecosystems (def and what businesses does to them)
A total ecological community, both living and nonliving, webs of interdependency structure ecosystems – a change in one element can have ripple effects through the system.
- Business inevitably intrudes into ecosystems as it produces the things we want – but not all or all kinds of intrusions are justifiable.
Results of business regarding the natural world as a free and unlimited good:
pollution and the depletion of natural resources
The “tragedy of the commons”
Damage to the environment can also be explained as the result of a situation in which each person’s or business’s pursuit of self-interest can make everyone worse off – the reverse of Adam Smith’s invisible hand.
- The spillover effect:
Economists’ term for disparity between private industrial costs and public social costs.
- business often overlooks spillover.
- business often derives a profit from a product without considering the overall social cost – the damage the product or the production process has caused to the environment and human populations.
The “free rider” problem:
Protecting the environment is in everyone’s self-interest, but a company may rationalize (unfairly) that the little bit it adds to the total pollution problem doesn’t make any difference.
- so it benefits from the efforts of others to prevent pollution but “rides for free” by not making the same effort itself.
- Some philosophers maintain that every human being has a right to a livable environment.
The costs of pollution control
Determining the cost of pollution control requires cost-benefit analysis – which is difficult because it involves controversial factual assessments and value judgments.
Ecological economics:
A new discipline, which attempts to expand the boundaries of environmental cost-benefit analysis.
- It calculates the value of an ecosystem in terms of what it would cost to provide the benefits and services it now furnishes us.
- For example, the worth of a wetland in terms of the cost of constructing structures that provide the same flood control and storm protection that natural wetlands do.
Regulations: The use of direct public (state and federal) regulation and control in determining how the pollution bill is paid. Four drawbacks:
(1) Requiring firms to use the strongest feasible means of pollution control is problematic.
(2) Although regulations treat all parties equally, this often comes at the cost of ignoring the special circumstances of particular industries and individual firms.
3) Regulation can take away an industry’s incentive to do more than the minimum required by law.
(4) Regulation can also cause plants to shut down or relocate.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Incentives: A widely supported approach to the problem of cost allocation for environmental improvement through government investment, subsidy, and general economic incentive (e.g. by means of tax cuts, grants or awards).
The advantage is that it minimizes regulatory interference and coercion.
The disadvantage is that it moves slowly, pays polluters not to pollute, and is not always cost-effective.
Pricing mechanisms: Also called effluent charges,
spell out the cost for a specific kind of pollution in a specific area at a specific time. Prices are tied to the amount of damage caused so may vary from place to place and time to time.
Pollution permits:
Allow companies to discharge a limited amount of pollution or trade pollution “rights” with other companies.
- Critics argue that this approach entails an implicit right to pollute, and reject this as immoral.
Obligations to future generations:
- A broader view of environmental ethics considers our duties to other societies and upcoming generations.
- Some say we must respect the right of future generations to inherit an environment that is not seriously damaged.
- Others argue that by putting ourselves in the “original position,” we can balance our interests against those of our descendants.
- The value of nature:
- Adopting a naturalistic, non-anthropocentric ethic would…. but …
- The value of nature: A radical approach to environmental ethics challenges the human-centered assumption that preserving the environment is good only because it is good for us.
- Adopting a naturalistic, non-anthropocentric ethic would change our way of looking at nature, but many philosophers are skeptical of the idea that nature has any intrinsic value.
Our treatment of animals:
Business affects the welfare of animals very substantially.
- One way is through experimentation and the testing of products on animals.
- Critics such as Peter Singer contend that most experiments and tests are unjustified on moral grounds because, he says, animals have moral rights.
- Utilitarians stress the moral necessity of taking into account animal pain and suffering.
