Posted: February 21st, 2023

Environmental Ethics Paper

GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL HARMS
Laila Almarzoog

Question: Should individuals be morally responsible for taking actions to mitigate contributions to global environmental harms, such as climate change or plastic pollution, or does the duty lie with corporations and industry that have a far bigger impact than an individual?

I. Introduction
Global environmental harms are being a popular topic worldwide. Everyone around the world do agree that the global is facing a global warning related to the climate change and plastic pollution. Environmental pollution has been defined by many environmental ethics philosophers. There is a definition that I really like in the book of Environmental Pollution and Control. According to (Vesilind et. Al, 1990), “We define environmental pollution as the contamination of air, water, or food in such manner as to cause real or potential harm to human health or well-being, or to damage or harm nonhuman nature without justification”. Fossil fuels emissions from factories and industries are the largest contributors to global warming worldwide. According to EPA (2020), “fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes contributing about 78% of the total greenhouse gas emissions increase from 1970 to 2011”. However, these sources are not the only one responsible for the global environmental harms that is happening in different countries. However, agriculture, deforestation, and land use are also contributors to global warming in many developed countries.
In addition to that, plastic pollution Is another leading factor to global warming due to the high demand of using plastic in human activities and the accumulation of plastic in landfills. Plastic production is around 8.3 billion metric tons, and around 6.3 billion metric tons is considered as a plastic waste. As a result, what is being recycled of plastic is only account for nine percent, and the majority of plastic that accounts for 79 percent is accumulating as a waste in the landfills or as a litter (Parker, 2019). An ethical contribution from individuals and industries could lead to a decrease in the environmental harms which could benefit the environment from developing a severe global warning in future. In order to combat the climate change and plastic pollution globally, individuals and corporation owners are ethically responsible to work together to have the greatest impact to reduce the environmental harms that are proofing to be a leading source of pollution to the environment and trying to eliminate the problem by following specific regulations set by local agencies because we all share one environment.

II. Give a detailed analysis of your topic.
Because we do share one environment globally, each individual either a human being or a company landowner is ethically responsible to save the environment from the pollution that could accumulate in the environment due to human activities. Pollution such as fuels emissions and plastic pollution consider as environmental harms which is impacting the global and leading to global warming world widely. These kinds of pollution could be eliminated when both individuals and company owners unite to reduce the source of fuels emission and plastic pollution to help having a healthy environment. Having a healthy environment means we are saving not only the individuals well-being, but also the aquatic life, food, and ocean will be cleaner from landfills that is being end up in oceans. Due to the increasing population around the world, it is more likely to have an increasing pollution due to human activities such as traveling using automobiles, dig deeper into the land, and build more communities to fit the population. As a result, the following problems will occur due to human impact on the planet. These problems could include “biodiversity, forests, and wetlands, long range transport of toxic substance, decline of costal ocean quality and degradation of the world’s freshwater and ecological systems” (Brown, 2001). Setting environmental regulations that could be implemented by environmental health practitioners will help eliminate the pollution sources that could be emitted to the environment and leading to a global warning.
Individual and companies’ owner are morally responsible to save the land that they live on. However, some individuals and companies are not doing this action unless there is a rule that regulate them to do so. Which makes the problem even harder because our environment needs a global unite in order to eliminate the pollution that harms it, or at least having a significant reduction. As a result, there is an ethical problem from humans being toward their environment and pollution prevention action should take in place.

III. Give an ethical criterion for how you will approach this topic
I will be using the book of Environmental Pollution and Control to give an ethical criterion on how I will approach my topic. This book has 25 chapters explaining in depth the environmental problems and how to control them and stating the environmental regulations to on how to control these problems. The authors talked about pollution and environmental ethics. They explained in detail the roots of our environmental problems and how we can apply ethics in general, and in public health, conservation and preservation of environmental ethics, and the development of environmental ethics in general. As a result, this section will help me navigate how to implement the ethic side in my topic.
Moreover, the authors explained water pollution and in depth of sources of water pollution, aquatic ecology, biodegradation, and the effects of pollution on streams and lakes which will help me state how the plastic pollution is a real problem to the environment. Not to forget that they already stated how to measure and treat water which will help me give more reliable solution to water pollution. They explain the solid waste disposal and what are the main problems from these waste sources and how to reduce it. Which is a part that I can rely on my paper to provide ethical solutions to help improve the environment by following specific regulations on how to handle waste disposal.

IV. Body of the paper
a. Scientific approach that shows the global is facing an climate change.
i. According to NASA “Scientists have high confidence that global temperatures will continue to rise for decades to come, largely due to greenhouse gasses produced by human activities”.
1. According to NASA “According to the IPPC, the extent of climate change effects on individual regions will vary over time and with the ability of different societal and environmental systems to mitigate or adapt to change”
b. Plastic pollution and water pollution
i. How the plastic is increasing during the global pandemic and how to control it.
1. What are the “Policy that was adopted due to COVID-19 pandemic”.
2. Sustainability challenges due to covid-19
3. What are the recommendation to decrease the plastic pollution and increase water quality.
These arguments will support my thesis because it gives an overall view of how the global is facing a serious problem about climate change and how gives some actions to reduce the global warning. In addition to that, it gives an overview idea about plastic and water pollution and it shows how individuals and companies increased the demand on plastic production during this global pandemic. As a result, it gives recommendation for further actions to be taken to stop this environmental problem and help reduce the climate changes in future.
V. Conclusion
The global is facing a real problem which is climate change and plastic pollution. Both individuals and company owners are ethically responsible for the environment that they live in and protect it from environmental harms that could lead to serious problems in future if no actions is being taken at the present. The two arguments that I found will support my thesis in giving more environmental ethics from the book that I found for environmental pollution and control. Also, the other peer-reviews article will help me introduce the problem of plastic pollution and how the use of plastic has increased during the global pandemic and what are the recommendation to reduce this problem and have a safe water quality, I will be using the book in these sections too because it will help me give more solutions to ethically think about that the environment is having rights to protect it so it can protect the organisms that lives on it such as humans, plants, and animals.

References
Author Donald A. Brown, Author Information Donald A. Brown is Senior Counsel for Sustainable Development for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Information, A., & Donald A. Brown is Senior Counsel for Sustainable Development for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. (n.d.). The ethical dimensions of global environmental issues. Retrieved February 15, 2021, from https://www.amacad.org/publication/ethical-dimensions-global-environmental-issues
Global greenhouse gas emissions data. (2020, September 10). Retrieved February 13, 2021, from https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-data#:~:text=Since%201970%2C%20CO2%20emissions,been%20the%20second%2Dlargest%20contributors.
National Geographic Society. (2019, July 01). A whopping 91 percent of plastic isn’t recycled. Retrieved February 13, 2021, from https://www.nationalgeographic.org/article/whopping-91-percent-plastic-isnt-recycled/#:~:text=Of%20the%208.3%20billion%20metric,the%20natural%20environment%20as%20litter
Silva, A. L. P., Prata, J. C., Walker, T. R., Duarte, A. C., Ouyang, W., Barcelò, D., & Rocha-Santos, T. (2020). Increased plastic pollution due to COVID-19 pandemic: Challenges and recommendations. Chemical Engineering Journal, 126683.
The effects of climate change. (2020, December 23). Retrieved February 16, 2021, from https://climate.nasa.gov/effects/
Vesilind, P., Peirce, J., & Weiner, R. (1990). Environmental pollution and control (3rd ed.). Butterworth-Heinemann.

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