Environmental Ethical Issues Essay Example

and exempted from federal regulations outlined by the 1977 Federal Clean Air Act. So because of a loophole Environmental Ethics Issues 3 they continue to illegally pollute and poison us legally, when it should have stopped over 30 years ago.

The Fisk and Crawford plants spew more than 17,000 tons of deadly toxins into the air annually and take a huge health toll on residents of the area. Chicago's asthma hospitalization rate is double the national average. A Harvard School of Public Health study found that air pollution from the two coal-fired plants causes more than 40 deaths, 550 emergency room visits, and 2,800 asthma attacks annually.

I would fight for closure of these old 20th century power plants and fight throughout our state for new 21st century renewable energy plans for the all of our future energy needs.

The negatives associated with light pollution include: • Energy waste. We waste an astronomical amount of energy and money by all this bad lighting, shining it where it is not needed or wanted (including up into the sky) and by using energy inefficient light sources and lighting designs. In the United States alone, over One Billion Dollars is wasted every year just to light up the night sky. In a small city for example over $200,000 is wasted annually on its municipally owned street lights alone!

This waste is totally unnecessary, since there are cheap and efficient substitutes.

• Glare. Glare never helps visibility, but it is far too common in all of our cities and in most lighting everywhere. We should strive for and accept only a glare free environment. Let's not

be blinded by glare. Far too much present day lighting has glare; it is always bad.

Environmental Ethics Issues 4 • Light trespass. Many present lighting installations bother us as much or more than they help. The wasted light shines into our yards, our windows, even our telescope buildings.

As with noise pollution, we don't need any of these intrusions. Such lighting is not best serving the purpose for which it was installed. • A trashy looking, confusing nighttime environment.

We should, all of us, be striving for an attractive nighttime environment, just as we should be doing in the daytime. Such poor environments are part of the stress of today's life. We should help with the problem, not compound it. The night is part of the environment, too.

As a nation we want to achieve energy independence, one of the simplest steps is to end light pollution.

Following are some solutions that minimize light pollution without compromising in any way nighttime safety, security, or utility: • Use night lighting only when necessary, turn off lights when they are not needed, and use the correct amount of light for the need, not overkill. • Direct the light downward, where it is needed. The goal is to use fixtures that control the light well, minimizing glare, light trespass, light pollution, and energy usage. This can be done cheaply and efficiently.

Environmental Ethics Issues 5 Use low-pressure sodium (LPS) light sources whenever possible. Areas where LPS is especially good include street lighting, parking lot lighting, security lighting, and any application where color rendering is not critical. • Apply rigid controls on outdoor lighting when development

is unavoidable. Such controls need not nor should not compromise safety, security, or utility. Outdoor lighting ordinances and codes have been enacted by many communities to enforce effective nighttime lighting of high quality. We must do what we can to protect the nighttime environment.

All the solutions have benefits of maximizing the quality of the lighting, reducing pollution, saving money, and saving energy. Eliminating Light Pollution is another of the key environmental issues confronting our civilization, one of the simplest to remedy, yet one that most people are unaware of. Now is the time to move America in the direction of cleaner, renewable energy such as wind, solar, bio-fuels and other potential sources. This is not only necessary to reduce global warming; it is essential in creating good jobs and keeping our country economically competitive in a global marketplace.

We can lead the world in these technologies – and the new industries they will spawn – but only if Congress provides the necessary incentives to reduce our dependence on foreign fuel sources. My generation must be the one that ends our nation's dependence on oil and ushers in a new energy economy.

We need energy independence from unstable and hostile areas of the world, from global warming pollution, and from the old ways of doing business. If we harness American ingenuity to reach for transformative change, we can Environmental Ethics Issues 6 merge from the crisis of global warming with a new energy economy that stimulates innovation, brings the family farm back to life, and creates more than 1 million jobs in America's farms and industries. We should put a set of goals

to freeze global warming. We need to freeze global warming by capping and reducing greenhouse gas pollution and leading the world to a new global climate change treaty. Create a new energy economy and 1 million new jobs by investing in clean, renewable energy, sparking innovation, a new era in American industry, and life in family farms.

Meet the demand for new electricity through efficiency for the next decade, instead of producing more power. If our government put a plan in action by 2025 America will import 7. 5 million fewer barrels of oil a day, produce 65 billion gallons of ethanol and other befouls a year, generate 25 percent of our electricity from renewable sources, and produce more than 2 billion fewer tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year. Within a generation, America's cars and trucks will be virtually petroleum-free.

Coal is a source of energy and it should be used, but it has to be used without ever hurting anybody.

I think we're smart enough to do it. Technology is improving all the time. If oil goes to $150 a barrel because we've bombed Iran, coal might be something that we can become more independent with.

I think technology is super, and we are capable of knowing how to use coal without polluting other people's property. Although I Environmental Ethics Issues 7 feel our government need to take a hard look at clean coal. I have advocated carbon detachment; our president will need to look for better solutions on making power plants looking clean and efficient.

I doubt very much that using coal in liquid form for transportation could ever

pass the environmental test, but I am willing to join an organization and do the research to prove one way or another. The political pressure will remain intense, and I think everyone have got to admit that coal which we have a great and abundant supply in America is not going away.

So how do we best manage the possibility of using clean coal, but having very strict environmental standards? It is not going to do us any good if we substitute one dirty energy source for another.

America's responsibility is to clean up our own house in a very aggressive way, and as we are doing that then we have the credibility to go to China and India and the countries that are most crucial to developing a world response to this problem. We the great innovators that we are need to make technology available to developing countries that will need it in order to achieve a significant reduction in greenhouse gases. China is building more than one coal-fired power plant a week and none of them are scrubbed, which will do incredible damage to the environment. America has to lead them in a different direction.

Environmental Ethics Issues 8 I do believe that ethics plays a part in the solving of environmental issues. When people are considering obligations to the environment and making judgments on policies and procedures, ethics often come into play. When members of society are determining responsibility for future generations, morality is often a factor and ethics could be a component of the process. How do we answer the question; “What are the guidelines for farmers that use

chemicals to fertilize their fields, when that water may eventually make its way to a water source? Ethics are part of answering that question. The future brings a wide array of emerging or potential environmental problems.

Unfortunately, the problems of the future are being stacked on the problems of today. Where things have not been solved, more issues are stacking on them. Air quality, noise reduction (pollution), ozone depletion, fossil fuel related pollution, population growth, waste management, biotechnology, potable water, ocean pollution, and the emergence of resisting disease are just a sampling of these issues. How these issues are tackled is somewhat determined by politics and funding.

Policies and laws are being created by lawmakers to address environmental issues. Again, opinions and judgments are factors. Again, ideals and ethics become important. Environmental Ethics is a very important field.

It continues to provide valuable information on current environmental issues to which society needs to react. These reactions will provide critical information to address the issues at hand. Societies need to make decisions and those decisions, I believe, will have ethics at their root. Personal Environmental Ethics Issues 9 houghts and opinions, and ultimately decisions, will shape the environment for generations to come. Works

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/light-pollution4.htm

http://www.pilsenperro.org/coalpower.htm

https://www.sciencedaily.com/news/earth_climate/environmental_issues/

http://www.globalissues.org/issue/168/environmental-issues