Ethical Issues In Technology

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CCS is probably one of the most contested technologies of recent times. The key debates (ethical and otherwise) on CCS, can be clustered into six broad themes – climate, energy, environment, safety, economics, and ethics (Egmond). Given the scope of this work, some of the key contentions on the technology through an ethical lens can be categorized as (Medvecky and others and Mabon): a. Issues of Epistemic Justice: The potential role of CCS in mitigating climate change in light of the urgency and criticality of the challenge is perhaps the strongest and most fundamental argument for promoting CCS. In the absence of the climate argument, CCS would lose its prominence. And issues of epistemic justice are particularly significant in the context…show more content…
In fact, issues of distributive justice in the context of climate change are overly deep-rooted and have far-reaching impacts not only for the current generations but future generations as well. Queries related to siting and management of storage sites which encompasses concerns associated with risks and uncertainties of the technology; consideration of risk perceptions of all stakeholders; autonomy (or monopoly) of actors over the development and implementation of the technology; sources of funding (cost burdens) for technology deployment; discrepancies between local hazards and global good nature of the technology (as it abates GHG emissions), etc. are some of the predominant moral contestations with respect to distributive justice within CCS. Thus, a fair allocation of benefits and burdens involves socio-techno-economic factors and calls for action by the local, national and international actors. Although most of these concerns are not specific to CCS only, but the complexity and political implications of these factors in the context of CCS is certainly much more intense and contentious as it firstly, pertains to climate change, and secondly, there are too many unknowns in the technology as of…show more content…
CCS fitted plants experience reductions in overall efficiency by 8-30% because of ‘energy penalty’. Though consequentially, CCS plants could result in reduced CO2 emissions and improved environmental quality, the efficiency losses in the process leads to elevated use of fossil inputs which in turn results in more fuel extraction, need for more CO2 transport and storage, more particulate pollution (air and water) and landscape destruction and geo-engineering. Thus, there could be significant spin-off effects from an ethical perspective. For instance, need for more fuel extraction shall further reinforce the ethical contestations on the already notorious mining industry. Leakage (slow and abrupt) of CO2 during transport and storage besides posing health risks to humans and local flora and fauna may balance out the net effect of CCS on global warming. Elevated particulate emissions from the power plants and mining sites resulting ain air and water contamination may have negative impacts on the local people’s health and also far away populations (following theories of pollutant dispersion) which probably may not have benefitted (socio-economically) from the implementation of the project. Similarly, on a comparative

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