M7 (FAJARDO)

Research and find an alternative/opposing point of view to Climate Change as proposed in the Introduction.

Chalmers University of Technology has established a strong connection between climate change denial to right-wing nationalism in order to understand why climate change is not being taken seriously, to see its influence on political decisions, and bring awareness to the public on this matter. Many right-wing nationalist parties located in Europe list climate change denial as an important issue and dismiss the Paris Agreement and climate laws; they even praise climate change denier Václav Klaus as a hero and also mention the Trump admin as one their examples. CEFORCED  will be established, a platform for research in climate change denialism, where many disciplines of science are linked together to understand ways climate change denialism arises and spreads in different cultures.

 

Under Learning Objectives on page 248, find #6 and choose two (2) questions to answer. Be sure to list your questions in your post.

What obligations do we have to future generations?

To future generations I feel as though everyone has the obligation to leave the world better than they found it. Of course that is better said than done and it takes a lot for anything change in the world, but that doesn’t mean you have to do nothing. I believe even the little things you can do to make a difference can build up considering the millions of us that live on this world. Although change is ways from now, the fight for change is still going and it’s more important now than even during the climate crisis the Earth is going through.

Does nature have value in itself?

I think nature has value in itself, because it’s an environment that can sustain itself.. Of course we humans ultimately have had an impact on that, so the Earth natural environment appears to be dying along with animals in their natural habitat as the days past. We do give it even more value, because we get our resources from nature, but nature by itself has its own priceless value.

 

Lastly, as you read through Chapter 7, answer this question: Who should pay the cost for protecting the environment — those responsible for causing the pollution or those who stand to benefit from protection and restoration. Explain your position.

I think those who carry the most responsibility in causing the pollution and increasing climate change should be paying a large portion of the cost for protecting the environment. That doesn’t mean others can’t contribute in helping pay for protecting the environment even more, I believe it’s a shared responsibility of the world to protect the environment, but those who has caused increased climate change should pay the most.

 

 

Reference:

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-08/cuot-ccd082118.php

M6 (FAJARDO)

Nineteen years ago on the year 2000 Bridgestone Firestone Tire and Rubber Company installed faulty tires onto Ford trucks and SUVs. In the U.S only it is stated that 271 deaths and 800 injuries were linked to these faulty tires. In Venezuela having 46 deaths linked to the tires and the Middle East having seven deaths. Firestone recalled 6.5 million tires and Ford recalled 13 million tires. It’s crazy how many tires and deaths had to occur for these defective tires to be noticed and I think its safe to assume that any company of any kind that produces something would test for defectiveness. Millions on millions of tires just went by these companies noses and if it weren’t for the legal cases  Henningsen vs. Bloomfield Motors (1960) and Greenman vs. Yuba Power Products (1963), it is possible Firestone and Ford wouldn’t be held accountable if they weren’t be negligent, but those cases make manufacturer’s responsible regardless of negligence when a defective product causes injuries as a result.

 

References:

https://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/investing/T052-S000-10-biggest-product-recalls-of-all-time/index.html

https://content.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,128198,00.html

 

M2 (Fajardo)

THIS WEEK’S ASSIGNMENT: At some point in your life, I hope you have observed some of these normative theories in action.   Choose a situation from your life and describe how it applies to one of the theories you have just read about in Chapter 2 (Kant, Egoism, Utilitarianism, Good Will, Prima Facie Obligations, others, etc.). Discuss why you identified that particular situation with the stated theory. Be sure to describe the situation or example.   If you have not observed a theory in action in your life, find an example in our history and discuss how the theory applies to the situation.

One of the theories that most interest me and I can see applied to my own life and the lives of other is Prima Facie Obligations, where an obligation can be over ruled by an even more important obligation. While learning about this normative theory I could think about multiple situations where this is applied from childhood to adulthood. In my own opinion Prima Facie Obligations makes more sense from an ethics perspective of society compared to the other theories where there is only one good and one bad. The example in the text says that a murderer coming to your house is looking for your friend, so they could kill her and you are hiding her inside your home to protect them. While telling the truth is a general obligation to follow in most situations, the obligation to keeping your friend alive is more important than telling the truth. This proves that doing something that is regularly a good thing can turn into something that might put someone’s life in danger.

This theory applies to a situation in my life from situational and relationship stance. I have an older brother who is gay and in high school I realized that I’m queer. When I was a younger my brother was kicked out for being gay, because he told the truth to our mother. If I didn’t know this happened I would’ve told the truth as well, but since I knew this happened to him and risked his own well being and essentially becoming homeless, I didn’t want that to happen to myself. Sometimes keeping secrets from the people closest to you ensures your safety even if that’s keeping secrets from your own family.

 

 

M1 (Fajardo)

How do we develop our ethics?

What are the primary sources for us to develop our ethical position?

I think we develop our ethics through observation of others and questioning the values in which how we should behave in a certain way that is acceptable in todays society. Throughout everyone’s lives ethical values are developed within a moral standing of what is right and wrong, and in what ways can one determine if things that are right or wrong are necessarily good or bad. It’s ultimately up to an individual to determine their standpoint on what they chose to believe in and behave in a particular way. However there are things that exist to keep everyone within a standard that is considered good and those are law created by a country that everyone must abide by or faces consequences when not following them. Some of the primary sources I believe we develop our ethical position from are the people closest to us and who we decide to surround ourselves with, because an ethical position is ultimately  decided from the influence of society and the values and beliefs each of us carries as citizens of a country.