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Ethics and Critical Thinking 9

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Ethics and Critical Thinking 9
Ethics and Critical Thinking
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Ethics and Critical Thinking: To Drill or Not to Drill In this scenario the inhabitants of Wyoming’s Upper Green River Valley are faced with a dilemma of whether to allow for drilling of natural gas or not. In this scenario various participants have different moral responsibilities to play. To start with, the government has the moral responsibility of ensuring that the gas drilling activities does not affect the other inhabitants of the ecosystem, through formulating laws requiring the gas drillers to employ drilling technologies that reduce pollution. Secondly, employees of the drilling companies have the moral obligation to stand up against activities their company that endangers the life of other ecosystem inhabitants. On the other hand, the surrounding community has the moral responsibility to support development that is aimed at promoting conservation of the environment. Furthermore, the company owners have the moral responsibility to ensure that their companies’ gas drilling activities do not contribute in causing harm to the area’s ecosystem, which many inhabitants rely on for survival. The stakeholders failmorally in a number of ways. In the case of the government it fails to regulate the activities of the gas drilling firms, leading to pollution of the environment. Employees, on the other hand, fail to act as whistleblowers of their companies’ activities that are not friendly to the environment, as they fear to lose their jobs. In this scenario the main idea that is in conflict is whether the conserve the environment or to allow for drilling activities that have many economic benefits that contributes to pollution of the ecosystem or not. The best outcome in this situation is for the drilling companies and other stakeholders to develop a program that will allow the company to continue with its drilling activities, but in a manner that pollution of the ecosystem is fully minimized.

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