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Environment or Development? One of the most controversial ethical issues in the modern business area is the conflict between environmental protection and economic development. Economic development demands that a large number of products be produced in a time as short as possible. Mass production, therefore, requires the involvement of factory work that would generate a lot of wastewater and air pollution, which would not only influence the condition of the lands but also the health of human beings. However, economists believe that the lack of economic development would hinder the development of human civilization, which might cause the lack of advanced medical technologies to defend human beings from unexpected diseases. What is more, the insufficiency in employment positions can also deprive human beings of earning salaries and providing themselves with life necessities such as food and water. Therefore, this essay would focus on the ethical conflicts between environmental protection and economic development and discuss whether human beings should prioritize environmental protection or economic development and suffer the environmental problems it creates.
From the perspective of environmental protection, the development of the economy would generate waste water and polluted air to deteriorate the condition of nature. Environmentalists believe that the pollution of nature conditions would cause damage to human health because the Earth can be seen as a single organism. The analogy between the Earth and an organism comes from the Gaia theory, which states that the entire is like a single organism, and thus the mutual interaction between human beings and the environment can decide the overall condition of the planet (Schlossberger, 67). One of the recent articles titled 'Another Lawsuit Seeks to Make Ottawa Enforce Its Own Environmental Laws' published in Calgary Herald in 2019 introduces a public lawsuit by Canadian citizens to appeal for the government to enact the regulations to prevent the fish from being hunted (The Canadian Press, 2019). These fish protectors put the lives of the fish on priority, which hinders the benefits of the fish hunters who rely on selling fish for profits. Since the fish protectors aim to improve the life of the fish in the ocean by asking for the government to create a friendly environment for the fish and prevent people from hurting the fish, the economists on the contrary believe that the prevention of fish hunting by fishers can compromise the benefits of them. The economists’ statement can be supported by the principle that similar cases should be treated the same way (Schlossberger, 125). Since both fish and fish hunters are dwellers living on Earth, their benefits should both be considered when making decisions. Therefore, if the fish hunters were to be prevented from hunting fish, their living environment might be compromised because their foods are becoming less obtainable.
In conclusion, there lies an ethical issue between environmental protection and economic development. While environmentalists want better living conditions for nature and the species, economists want the market to be more dynamic with people’s business activities that might involve the transformation of natural resources into profitable products.
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