Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
For many years there has been lots of controversy over global climate change,
sustainability, greenhouse gasses, etc. and who is to blame for them. Many communities come
together to recycle trash and reuse household items to minimize their own global footprint.
Usually the common people are blamed for depleting the earth's resources, but we are not the
Corporations are supposed to have responsibilities just as people do. Milton Friedman in
his essay, “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Profits,” he explains that “A
corporation is an artificial person and in this sense may have artificial responsibilities, but
business should have a much higher obligation to use renewable resources and strive for
Businesses and corporations aim for success and try to increase profit to the best of their
abilities. That means increase of income and a greater expansion of their business through:
buildings, factories, employees. The more they grow, the higher human demand for their
products. Producers are usually protected from environmental costs and justice rather than the
consumer. There is so much a consumer can do to cut their global footprint through recycling
and emission output by getting fuel efficient cars and shifting their lifestyle; though, it is not all
up to regular communities. The companies are also to blame for our sustainability problems.
From, “Our Common Future: From One Earth to One World,” the United Nations talks
about “the ways in which sustainability is a global issue and the role that worldwide
organizations… might play in creating a more sustainable world” (92). The author emphasizes
Camille Scher
out technological growth, but examines the sacrifices of such growth. We can produce and move
goods around our earth faster than ever before, but we also have depleting resources and high
pollution. The author tells, “We see instead of the possibility for a new era of economic growth,
one that must be based on policies that sustain and expand the environmental resource base”
(93).
Consumption of nonrenewable resources and the burning of fossil fuels has caused
gradual global warming and has shifted natural ecosystems for many years. On top of that we
continue to wipe lands of forests for geoengineering, fracking, and farming across the planet.
Damaging agriculture above and below land from placement of toxic substances above and
below ground. The author of, “Our Common Future,” proposes that we need “new forms of
international cooperation of these issues that will influence policies and events in the direction of
needed changes; and to raise the levels of understanding and commitment to action of
individuals, voluntary organizations, businesses, institutes, and governments” (95). So not only
are the individuals of society held accountable for reducing their own footprint, but corporations
Citizens all around the world have come together to clean up past generations mistakes in
attempt to improve air quality, water quality, and create an overall better planet for future
generations. We have attempted to rebuild natural lands and repopulate forests and ecosystems. I
believe we need to not wait until after the fact, but try to create a better world to live in now, or
come of our decisions. Not only to people need to become aware of things such as runoff,
Camille Scher
greenhouse gasses, and deforestation; we need to realize where most of the emissions are coming
from and what corporations and businesses use in order to make certain products for consumers.
By placing laws and enforcing cooperation of them to better our earth, we might just be able to