Ethics are a set of values and moral principles that guide the actions of a group of people or a person. A string of organizations whose main objective is to earn money often disregard the consequence of their actions to the environment and people living in it. Third world countries being poor and underdeveloped with no proper restrictions on pollution in place are often taken advantage of by the businesses located in the developed countries. In order to churn out more money, often business organizations from first world countries dump their hazardous waste materials on to the grounds of third world countries. The main objective of these companies being earning profit, they don't care whether in the process they cause irreparable damage to the animals, plants, lands and the environment. These business organizations believe that it is ethical to spoil the environment of the third world countries which don't have any strict rules and laws in place on pollution. The waste dumped by the first world countries generate a slew of problems in the third world countries including air pollution, water pollution, soil erosion and deforestation. It is the right of human beings to live in a pollution free environment and these business organizations by dumping their industrial waste in the third world countries are depriving the third world country people of their right to breathe in fresh air. Their actions exhibit institutionalized discrimination in the form of environmental racism which shows that it is fine to force pollution upon third world countries to keep the environment in first world countries clean (Bullard). However, in recent times this matter is under investigation by the United Nations and some international agencies which are making attempts to prohibit these foreign business organizations from polluting third world countries. There are various reasons why business organizations conduct operation in third world countries disregarding the standard of pollution control.
Pollution is unrestricted in most of the developing countries and it is one of the reasons for foreign investors to start business operations in these countries. Since the population in general in developing countries suffers from a lot of other problems related to basic needs for living like food, clothes and shelter, their right to live in a pollution free environment is often disregarded and the government doesn't address any environmental problems because enacting rules and enforcing them would be a cost intensive affair for a developing country in which a good percentage of people still live under poverty line. In order to attract foreign investors third world countries completely disregard the environmental safety issues because they are led by the belief that foreign investors would create jobs in the economy which would help the common people earn their livelihood. The safety of environment relegates to the list of least priority and the businesses of the first world countries take advantage of that by building plants without the maintenance of proper safety standards and by dumping industrial waste into third world countries. In the event of western countries strengthening laws and rules regarding the safety of workers, many manufacturing companies have moved their factories into third world countries in which there is little or no occupational law in place but the companies in a bid to make profit forget that human beings irrespective of which place they come from have the fundamental right to livable environment.
Whether a person hails from third world country or first, he should have the right to live in an environment free of pollution. This is a fundamental right which should be applicable to all the people living on this earth. Therefore, any attempt made by a business organization to pollute the environment is akin to infringement on someone's right to a livable environment. The condition of air and water determine the health of a population in a country and the government should be responsible for bringing up laws and regulations in protection of the environment so that the citizens of a country may enjoy the breath of fresh air. Any company or industry violating the environmental laws by causing pollution should be brought into justice and similar way any individual or a group of people causing harm to the environment by throwing plastics randomly and otherwise should be charged with a hefty fine. Additionally, everyone in this world should be made aware of the hazards of pollutions and encouraged to do their bits by planting trees to keep the environment clean (Shaw, 2001) but it seems pollution comes as a byproduct of economic progress.
In modern world, developed countries are developed because they are more industrially advanced than developing or underdeveloped countries. More industrial development means more industry and more industry means more pollution. Definitely that's the direct price of development. Even a developed country indirectly pays price for its development. A developed country has more money to its people which mean they can afford and buy more cars and other types of automobiles which causes even more pollution to the environment. There is a link between population growth with economic development. The growth of population in a particular area determines the economic progress of that area and normal activities of that population contributes to pollution. The governments around the world make endeavors to augment the living conditions of the people by introducing new technologies and creating new jobs through establishment of new industries and this leads to an increase in pollution. But in order to sustain economic development, a proper environment protection policy should be in place because "The cure for poverty is economic growth and sound environmental policy is necessary for durable growth” (Business Ethics). Environmental pollution can ruin the health of the workforce in a country leading to a reduction in productivity which could be damaging for the economy and therefore, greener industries and renewable sources of energy could be an alternative option for curbing the increasing level of pollution.
Since wealthy countries already have the knowhow of greener technology they should help poorer nations develop greener industries and sources of energy so that the poorer countries can combat global warming effectively. Since global warming is a global phenomenon affecting all the people living on this earth, unless we make a combined effort to cope up with this problem, the earth will suffer and so do we. Developed countries have better finances and are advanced in terms of technology and manpower and therefore they should be obliged to help the have-not or poor countries with limited means to develop renewable sources of energy and green industries. This would be a crucial step in making the developing countries adopt clean energy which would ultimately prove beneficial not only for the world itself but for the developed nations as well. If developing countries become more efficient in production then it would reduce the price developed nations pay to developing countries for purchasing goods and raw materials because the overall efficiency of the developing countries would bring the cost of per unit production down and in turn the selling per unit price would also come down. Moreover, adoption of green energy by developing countries would contribute to the global effort in tackling the global warming and as more and more developing nations become green energy efficient, the global health of the world will improve.
As more and more countries become conscious of the degrading world environment they will feel the need to create global environmental organization which will put in place a uniform global pollution standard that would set down the permissible limit of emissions and any company exceeding that limit would be charged with a fine. On the other hand, if any company or industry can manufacture products in a way that causes less emission than the global standard, then that company would receive carbon credits which can be used to get tax benefits. This measure will encourage the companies across the globe to produce industrial goods in a greener way. Since one of the major contributors to pollution is automobiles, stringent global automobile pollution norms should be enforced in phased manner. Credits should be awarded to companies who would be able to produce cars that function on green fuel. The norms would vary from country to country initially based on its economic condition. For example, developed countries should have more stringent pollution norms than underdeveloped countries as people from developed countries can afford cars with engines of better quality than people from poorer nations. However, eventually after few years all the countries should assimilate global uniform automobile norms.
References
Bullard, Robert D. Poverty, Pollution and Environmental Racism: Strategies for Building Healthy and Sustainable Communities. Clark Atlanta University. Retrieved on 24th June 2013 from <http://www.ejrc.cau.edu/PovpolEj.html>
Hill, Charles, & Jones, Gareth. (2009).Strategic Management: An Integrated Approach, Cengage Learning, 9th Edition.
Shaw, William H (2001). Business Ethics, Wadsworth Publishing. 4th Edition
Perkaus, James (1995). Environ Ethics: A Declaration of Interdependence. Retrieved on 24th June 2013 from <http://www.neodot.com/eemscrpt.html>
