For a lot of organizations being climate neutral does not depend on whether the glaciers in the Himalayas are melting, or that the sea levels are raising, but it depends on the benefits it can bring to the company . Being ‘green’ has become a hype. At first being ‘green’ presented a problem of moral motivation for organizations, because this morally right thing to do would come along with higher costs and more uncertain revenues. However now it has become a hype, it is more of an opportunity to increase revenues. By selling ‘green’ products the producer offers not only the product, but also a high morale and a clean conscience to the customers.
Still this hype has its limits. When you look at the automotive industry, cars for example are becoming more and more fuel efficient. There are already quit some electronic cars, and charging points are popping up at different places. But will electricity replace fuel? A morally hard case arises. If the electronic cars will take over the automobile industry, what about the people working at oil companies and gas stations? Is firing millions of people to save emissions of carbon monoxide and spare the limited amount of oil available the morally right thing to do, or is ignoring the problems of carbon monoxide and oil to keep millions of people employed - with the knowledge that the population is constantly growing - the morally right thing to do?
If you will ask me I would chose this first option. I think it is selfish to ignore the changes necessary to prevent our children from having even bigger problems in the future. A clean planet is far more important than people having a job. These people can search for new jobs, but we cannot search for a new planet.
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1 comment:
I agree with your conclusion that we must give the environment priority over job protection in the oil industry. First, a healthy environment is one of the basic human rights and therefore it gets a higher priority than the job protection in the oil industry. Second, the free market will result in job creation in the upcoming “green market” and replace the jobs in the oil industry.
Business environments change all the time and jobs are created and lost on a daily basis. So is this case really a morally hard case? The transition is a slow process where the players in the established markets have time to adapt to their new business environment. The new segment that replaces the current industry will also result in new jobs and therefore I think it is clear what the morally right course of action is.
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