Poverty and Pollution Control

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Poverty and Pollution: A Case Study Shelle C. Mays March 3, 2013 , Professor Strayer University Poverty and Pollution The Ethical Implications Businesses have a responsibility to contribute certain moral obligations to its countries. In particular, when discussing pollution and protecting the country’s environment and the population, businesses are responsible in part to developing economic progress as well as protecting the environment. The ethical implications of businesses polluting a third world country are that the businesses are harming the lives of those in poorer regions, while at the same time making a profit. “Businesses damage the environment when they take natural resources from the Earth and dispose of waste. All of this is done within the natural environment, a kind of ecological system.” Shaw (2010). Most under-developed countries lack environmental standards and have inadequate environmental safety precautions, but businesses know that more developed countries, i.e. third world countries, are concerned about their health and safety and choose to dump their pollutants and toxins into these underdeveloped countries. “Pollution is almost unchecked in many developing nations, where Western nations dump toxic wastes and untreated sewage flows into rivers. Many times, the choice for Third World governments is between poverty or poison, and basic human needs like food, clothing, and shelter take precedence.” (http://www.bookrags.com/research/third-world-pollution-enve-02/#bro_copy.” Businesses can also export industrial hazards by moving their plants to countries with less restrictive pollution control laws than industrialized nations. (Id.) Most businesses find that it is more cost effective to move their plants to less developed countries, not taking into consideration the health implications being imposed on the
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