Importance of Ethical Energy in Belina State - Essay Example

 Assignment Title: Ethical Energy Coursework Assignment No: 1 Module Title: Ethics Environment and Innovation Table of Contents Executive Summary 1 Introduction 2 Why renewable resources should be promoted? 3 Conclusions and Recommendations 8 Bibliography 9 Executive Summary Renewable resources are resources extracted from the natural environment. It is often argued that renewable resources present a much higher per unit cost than other sources of energy, such as fossil fuels and nuclear energy. This means that the utilitarianist perspective promotes the use of other energy sources over renewable resources. However, the external costs of using fossil fuels and nuclear power are very high. Fossil fuels cause grave damage to the ozone layer and bring about global warming. They also cause air pollution. The threat of accidents in nuclear stations is immeasurable but the costs of such an accident are massive. In that, non-renewable resources are against the rights approach, the justice theory and the obligations to future generations approach used in environmental ethics. Renewable resources, on the other hand, present a clean alternative for energy production. Though the land required may be large, such land is available to the state of Belina. The high costs per unit are justified by the low social cost per unit. Therefore, it is recommended that Belina take up a combination of the wind power and biomass energy bids to supply the needs of its population. Introduction Renewable resources are energy sources that come from the natural environment (Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development, 1997). The other options to energy sources include use of fossil fuels and nuclear energy. Fossil fuels are finite, expensive to extract, and cause air, water and soil pollution, and produce greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. Renewable resources are cleaner alternatives to the problems of pollution and the social inequality that the pollution creates. These resources are also renewable – therefore, they will never run out (West, 2008). Why renewable resources should be promoted? Some people are of the view that the connection between economic growth and environmental deterioration is inevitable. Hesburgh (1992) recognizes that the connection between human energy needs and environmental deterioration is as old as human civilization. As man used wood for shelter and warmth, it caused harm to the environment. However, Hesburgh (1992) also explains that the ‘primitive societies were so small and fragile in comparison with the forces of nature with which they contended that their impacts were minimal’. Ausubel (2007) argues that renewable resources for the production of energy may be renewable but they are not green and they are almost as destructive or more destructive for the environment than the non-renewable sources of energy. Ausubel (2007) also points a grim finger at the land utilization of renewable energy projects. He explains that wind farms, river dams and growing of crops for the production of biomass not only ‘wrecks the environment’ but also requires large tracts of valuable land that could be better utilized for the production of consumer or capital goods. Ausubel (2007) promotes nuclear energy by stating that ‘Nuclear energy is green... Considered in Watts per square meter, nuclear has astronomical advantages over its competitors.’ He downplays the efficiency of biomass in favour of nuclear energy by saying that it is destructive of nature as it requires large amounts of land to be shaved every year. This leads reduction in the fertility of land and the absence of land cover – a concept known as desertification. ‘To obtain the same electricity from biomass as from a single nuclear power plant would require 2500 square kilometers of prime Iowa land... Increased use of biomass fuel in any form is criminal. Humans must spare land for nature. Every automobile would require a pasture of 1-2 hectares.’ However, there is a serious debate as to the merits of nuclear energy. Doubts about the probability of a major accident are in a nuclear power plant are prevalent but, as Velasquez (2008) points out, ‘even without catastrophic accidents, small amounts of radioactive materials are routinely released into the environment during the normal operations of a nuclear plant and during the mining, processing, and transporting of nuclear fuels’. Such routine emissions are naturally a cause of fatal diseases such as thyroid, lung or bone cancer, as well as genetic damage that will be transmitted to future generations. Regarding wind energy, Ausubel (2007) has pointed out that while wind farms are between three to ten times more compact than a biomass farm, a 770 square kilometre area is needed to produce as much energy as one 1000 Megawatt (MW) electric nuclear plant. However, ‘to meet 2005 US electricity demand and assuming round-the-clock wind at the right speed, an area the size of Texas, approximately 780,000 square kilometres, would need to be covered with structures to extract, store, and transport the energy. One hundred windy square meters, a good size for a Manhattan apartment, could power an electric lamp or two, but not the laundry equipment, microwave oven, plasma TV, and computer. New York City would require every square meter of Connecticut to become a wind farm to fully power all its electrical equipment and gadgets.’ Furthermore, critics have rejected wind power on the grounds that it destroys wildlife habitat. They also say that wind turbines are an offence to the aesthetic beauty of the countryside. Darmstadter and Palmer (2005) have attempted to explain the high costs of renewable resources: ‘Renewables aren’t on a level playing field with fossil energy. Competing coal- and gas-fired generators escape having to pay the full cost of the air pollution and other consequences they impose on society. Such externalities, though they certainly exist, are surely minimal for wind and solar generation.’ Many environmentalists have, therefore, promoted the use of renewable resources because of its friendliness towards mother nature. The use of renewable resources reduces the effects of ‘ecofeminism’ by being more kind towards the environment – namely the air and water. Brennan and Lo (2008) said that the feminist structure of the society is ‘androcentric’ and ‘patriarchal’. Darmstadter (2004) explains that renewable resources produce much less pollution than the non-renewable resources. Therefore, they lead to a reduction in societal inequality. The use of renewable is also in line with the rights theory put forward by Immanuel Kant. As Velasquez (2008) explains, Kant promoted that individual’s rights should be honoured, regardless of the utilitarian benefits it provides others. Therefore, just because it will cost the government a little bit more to produce electricity through renewable means, the rights of the population of Belina cannot be denied, who have a positive right to a clean environment. Velasquez (2008) also quotes Willam T. Blackstone who argues that ‘the possession of a livable environment is not merely a desirable state of affairs, but something to which each human being has a right’. Renewable resources also allow for the practice of justice – which was promoted by John Rawls. Corporations and Environment (2007) explains that pollution causes inequality. The owners benefit from not having to absorb environmental costs. Furthermore, the burden of environmental deterioration falls on the poor. As prices of the scarce non-polluted residential areas rise, polluted areas are all the poor can afford. If the poor environmental conditions lead to a deterioration of health for the poor, this deepens the inequality of income that is inherent in the lifestyles of every nation. The use of renewable resources will lead to a reduction in environmental injustice which, according to Velasquez (2008), is the bearing of external costs of pollution largely by those who do not enjoy the net benefit from the activity that produces the pollution. The idea is also in line with the concept of distributive justice. Distributive justice, according to Corporation and Environment (2007), is ‘the extent to which society's organisations ensure that benefits and burdens are distributed among society's members in ways that are fair and just’. Therefore, environmental preservation will also ensure fairness in distribution. Brennan and Lo (2008) quote Aldo Leopold who defined a standard for judging when an action was ethically correct or incorrect. He said that ‘a thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise’. By this standard, electricity through the utilization of natural gas will be unethical as it will lead to widespread pollution of the environment. A notable approach to environmental ethics concerns the duties one has towards the future generations. According to Corporation and Environment (2007), when we talk of preserving scarce resources, we are actually concerned about the obligations we have to the future generations. Velasquez (2008) relates the theory of Robin Attfield in this genre who said that we have a duty to ‘leave the world as productive as we found it’. Since the non-renewable resources such as natural gas and oil are limited in nature, we have a duty to preserve them for future use and to find alternatives for our current uses of energy. Brennan and Lo (2008) also quote Christopher Stone who suggests that ‘trees and other natural objects should have at least the same standing in law as corporations’. This brings us to the idea of ecological ethics. Ecological Ethics or deep ecology, according to Velasquez (2008), is based on the idea that ‘nonhuman arts of the environment deserve to be preserved for their own sake, regardless of whether this benefits human beings’. Another view that supports this view is the distinction drawn between instrumental and intrinsic value of the environment. Instrumental value means to further some other ends, while intrinsic value means the value of things as ends in themselves. Brennan and Lo (2008) explain how this fits in with the morality of actions: ‘Because the intrinsically valuable is that which is good as an end in itself, it is commonly agreed that something's possession of intrinsic value generates a prima facie direct moral duty on the part of moral agents to protect it or at least refrain from damaging it.’ Darmstadter (2004) also recognizes that renewable resources ‘are relatively immune to the rising cost that, in time, may hit depletable resources like natural gas’. In addition, renewable resources are not vulnerable to the ‘instability and uncertainty of world energy markets’. In that, renewable resources ‘can make us more “energy secure” and resilient to the effect of internationally triggered energy price shocks’. Though the quotations offered by companies for nuclear and natural gas powered plants may appear to be very attractive today, they represent a huge investment that may become very costly in the future, depending on the availability of natural resources. Furthermore, the productivity of the natural gas fields near Belina is unknown. This is in comparison with the wind power productivity. We know that the wind will not run out and the climate of Belina would make wind power a plausible solution to production of electricity. The term renewable depicts that these sources of energy are virtually inexhaustible. However, as Darmstadter and Palmer (2005) have rightly pointed out, renewable resources can be of different varieties of which some are of the exhaustible variety. While resources like wind will never run out, biomass as a source of energy is an exhaustible resource because it is as renewable as the fertile land on which the crops are grown. Velasquez (2008) explains that resources like land, water and air may become overused and concentrated. They can be recovered, however, when they are allowed a period of time to recover. Natural gas is currently a cheap alternative to renewable resources, but as Darmstadter and Palmer (2005) points out, ‘as trade in liquefied natural gas increases, natural gas may in time present challenges similar to those currently associated with large dependence on oil imports’. On the other hand, they have pointed out that renewable resources are largely ‘insulated’ against the impact of rising fuel prices in the global economy. On the other hand, one of the bids received is regarding an oil-powered station. Oil may not be locally available in Belina and may have to be imported. This will lead to an increase in the import bill of the country. The environmental arguments for the use of renewable resources stress the deterioration of the global environment as the main clause of environmental conservation efforts. Since conventional oil-powered stations create great externalities in the form of air pollution and make their contribution towards ozone depletion and global warming, there is a need to curb their use. Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development (1997) explains that ‘Global climate change due to pollution and the effects of pollution on the environment have become major environmental issues’ and there is a need to nip these issues in the bud. Conclusions and Recommendations: It is evident from the arguments presented that it would be in Belina’s long-term interest to invest in a renewable source of electricity generation. The power needs of Belina will be growing with the growth in population and investment. However, the needs of the population can be satisfied through a combination of the biomass and win energy power projects. This will mean saving of land and a diverse energy production portfolio which will reduce the risk involved in relying on one source of energy. However, it is emphasized again that it is important for any sources of energy to be renewable and environment-friendly. The state must pay heed to the rights of the general population and must practice justice and fairness when taking environmental decisions. Keeping the needs of the future generation in view, the government of Belina must bear the high costs of set-up and per unit cost today in order to avoid high external and per unit costs in the future. 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