James Garveys Book the Ethics of Climate Change - Assignment Example

Essay Response to Business Ethics Questions Question James Garvey’s book, The Ethics of Climate Change focuses on the science of global warming and the effects that it has on the world population. The book, however, fails to talk about the opportunities associated with the new climate trends. Unlike Garvey who merely urged business to reduce their carbons emissions, Funk’s Windfall: The Booming Business of Global Warming identifies the various opportunities created by global warming and which can be used to make profits and increase revenue flow. These are known opportunities that Garvey failed to identify. Garvey talks about obligations, reasoning and the justification associated with business practices (Garvey 63). However, by failing to talk about the new business opportunities with respect to the reasoning and justification for ethical practices, the author has overlooked a very critical aspect of global warming debate. There are companies and business that have a large appetite for risk taking. Such organizations are able to venture into different undertakings so as to increase their revenue flow. With the existence of such organizations, there is a possibility that the new opportunities identified by Funk may be a source of more problems. As such, Garvey has overlooked a very critical view point on the global warming issue. Business ethics require organizations to not only concentrate on profitability, but also be aware of the impact that their decision may have on the environment, their employees and the community at large (Garvey 52). Ethical practices and decisions cannot be overlooked in the current world. When organizations take up the ideas identified by Funk without taking into account the potential effects of their practices on the external communities, then there is the possibility that they will be creating more problems. As such, Garvey needed to address the obligations that they will have even as they try to solve the global warming challenge by offering solutions to various problems that it creates. This way, it will be possible for them to strike a good balance between profitability and ethical practices for the benefit of the enterprise, the society and the world at large. It is, however, worth pointing out that failing to address the business opportunities resulting from global warming does not make Garvey’s book irrelevant to the business ethics discussion. However, by including the opportunities in the book, the author would have effectively provided both a scientific and business account of the global warming issue. Question 2 The effects of global warming has provided ideal business opportunities that can be used by businesses to make profits and remain competitive in the dynamic business environment. The solutions that will be provided by these organizations will be helpful to the world population by minimizing the negative impacts of global warming (Funk 32). However, it is also important to remember that there are those companies and organizations that may choose to maximize profits in unethical ways thereby making the created opportunities a source of problems rather than a way of offering solutions to the global warming challenge. In the world today, most businesses have been able to earn profits through acceptable and ethical business practices. However, there are others that do not consider the effects of their practices on the world population and even on their employees as long as they are able to achieve their main goal of increasing profits and revenues. This is a very negative practice that may impact on the sustainability of the new opportunities that have been identified by Funk in his book. It may not be prudent to conclude that the idea of exploiting the new business opportunities suggested by Funk in his book is totally unethical and unacceptable. Doing so will be an act of generalizing all businesses and insinuating that there are no businesses in the world today that can be able to rely on ethical practices and decisions to make profits. However, it is also a known fact that it is not an easy task to draw a boundary between ethical practices and the unacceptable business goals. Businesses that find themselves in such positions may not be able to distinguish between ventures and undertakings that are beneficial to both an enterprise and the community from those that benefit the enterprise at the expense of the general population. The problem may be further worsened by the need to maximize profits to satisfy the demands and needs of the shareholders. It is for this reason that organizations must always weigh the cost of pushing the profits up and the sustainability and acceptability of their activities. The other concern about the created opportunities is that there is bound to be some form of tension between profit making and ethics in such enterprises. Global warming is in itself an aftermath of unethical business practices and is largely attributed to practices such as emission of dangerous gases to the atmosphere (Funk 56). This implies that providing solutions to the created problems is also bound to give rise to some ethical concerns, which will in one way or the other conflict with the need to maximize profits. The companies that are to engage in the new undertakings will have to choose whether they want to maximize profits at all costs or to make profits while at the same time engaging in ethical practices. In instances where they are lost in profit making, the enterprises will be desperate and will engage in all forms of activities as long as they achieve their goal of high profits (Garvey 89). Such situations create both internal and external tensions that must be tackled and effectively addressed before it can be concluded that Funk’s ideas are sustainable and realistic. Question 3 In its current state, it can be argued that the planet is terminally ill due to the impact that global warming has had on it. Funk’s suggestion and ideas on the solutions that businesses can offer to deal with the challenge is a short term solution for the larger issue of global warming. As the businesses strive to offer solutions to the various problems, it is also worth noting that in the cause of their operations, they are likely to contribute to the larger problem one way or the other. The factories and manufacturing plants that will be offering various global warming solutions will still be impacting negatively on the environment. In the long run, the short term gains will start fading away and the true effects that global warming has had on the world will be seen. This implies that there are no long term benefits that are associated with the new business undertaking. With this line of thought, it is apparent that the main goal of such businesses will be to increase revenue and make profits rather than find solutions to the global warming challenge facing the masses today. The success of every business undertaking must always be measured based on the long term gains that are made since the short term gains cannot be sustained for a long time. The long term gains offer an actual measure of the impact that business practices and decisions have had on an enterprise, employees and the world at large. Since the businesses that will be involved in the new ventures suggested in Funk’s book will only be offering short term solutions and measuring their success on the short term gains and impacts that they have on the planet, there are chances that some may end up engaging in unethical practices by compromising their decisions making processes. Such decisions do not only compromise the suitability and sustainability of the ventures, but also raise a lot of business ethics concerns. Works Cited Funk, Mckenzie. Windfall: The Booming Business of Global Warming. New York: Pearson Books, 2015. Print. Garvey, James. The Ethics of Climate Change. Bloomsbury Academics, 2008. Print. Read More