Global warming is one of the increasing concerns for the world today. It is due to the emitting of greenhouse gases which was trapped in the atmosphere, causing the temperature of the earth to increase. The main contribution of greenhouse gases is due to human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels for energy. Due to our negligence, the problems of global warming have arise which affecting the survivability of our generation or even our later generation in the near future. One of the problems is climate change. We should not allow other people or our future generation to answer for our actions. Therefore, I agree that our decisions and actions relating to climate changes are ethical issues.
Firstly, developed countries are the main cause of emitting greenhouse gases due to rapid expansion in their industries. Is it ethical that third world countries should suffer the same setback with them? The people in the third world countries are innocent parties who do not contribute much of the greenhouse gases, but they are experiencing the effects of climate change now. For instance, India is facing the flood problem due to the monsoon rain over the part of Bihar. Villages that are previously not prone to flood are also affected (Oxfam International, 2008). The changing patterns of rainfall will cause inconvenient and constant rainfall due to climate change will cause flood prone areas to be flooded as well. The self-centred thinking of the developed countries has deteriorated the climate change. They have been generating revenue for their countries while causing suffering in the third world countries.
Secondly, we should not allow our future generations to suffer from the effects of climate change. We should answer for our actions and not them. The damage caused by climate change is devastating. According to Broome (2008), “the European heat wave of 2003 is estimated to have killed 35000 people.” And I believed the number of death will increase in the future as the Earth’s temperature continues to rise. This way of act is unethical as we are putting our future generation’s life in danger. We have no rights to endanger their lifes. Hence, we should try to alleviate the effects of climate change.
The consequences brought by the climate change are severe. The climate change is the results of our continuous production of greenhouse gases for our own benefits such as driving a car. We should not let any third party or our future generation to suffer because of our wrong doings as this is unethical. Therefore, our decisions and actions relating to climate change are ethical issues.
References
Broome, J. (2008, May 19). The Ethics of Climate Change. Scientific American
Magazine. Retrieved November 4, 2008, from
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-ethics-of-climate-change&ec=b_atl1
Oxfam International. (2008). India Flood 2008. Retrieved November 4, 2008, from
http://www.oxfam.org/fr/emergencies/india-floods
1 comment:
This is a hard article to write. It is hard to define what is right or wrong, but I feel the same way as you do. And that is we cannot live by just thinking about ourselves. We must be aware of the things we are doing.
Post a Comment