Bella Kusuma Wardani

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Ethics and the Environment

Threats to the environment come from two sources: pollution and resource depletion.
Pollution the undesireable and unintended contamination of the environment by human
activity such as manufacturing, waste disposal, burning fossil fuels, etc.
Resource depletion the consumption of finite or scares resources. Such as depletion of
species and habitats, depletion of fossil fuels, and depletion of minerals.
Air Pollution
The costs of air pollution increased exponentially is industrialization expanded. Today, air
pollutants affect vegetation, decreasing agricultural yields and inflicting losses on the timber
industry; they deteriorate exposed construction materials through corrosion, discoloration,
and rot; they are hazardous to health and life, raising medical costs and lessening the
enjoyment of living; and they theaten catastrophic global damage in the form of global
warming and destruction of the stratospheric ozone layer. There are many kinds of air
pollution:
- Global warming the increase in temperatures around the globe due to rising levels of
greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gasses (carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, and
chloroflourocarbons) gases that absorb and hold heat from the sun, preventing it from
escaping back into space, much like a greenhouse absorbs and holds the suns heat.
- Ozone depletion the gradual breakdown of ozone gas in the stratosphere above us
caused by the release of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) into the air.
- Acid rain occurs when sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides are combined with water
vapor in clouds to form nitric acid and sulfuric acid. These acids are then carried down in
rainfall.
Water Pollution
Water pollutants today, however, are much more diverse, consisting not only of organics
wastes, but also dissolved salts, metals, and radioactive materials as well as suspended
materials such as bacteria, viruses, and sediments. These can impair or destroy aquatic life,
threaten human health, and foul the water. There are two major types of water pollution:
- Organic wastes consist of untreated human wastes and sewage, as well as wastes
derived from industrial processing of various food products, and wastes from the pulp and
paper industry, and animal feedlot wastes.
- Inorganic pollutants salt brines, acids, phosphates, heavy metals, asbestos, PCBs,
radioactive chemicals.
Land Pollution
- Toxic substances can cause an increase in mortality rates or irreversible or
incapacitating illness or those that have other seriously adverse health or environmental
effects.
- Solid wastes residential garbage, industrial wastes, agricultural wastes, mining wastes.
- Nuclear wastes contains radioactive materials and can kill a person in high levels.
The Ethics of Pollution Control

Ecological ethics the ethical view that nonhuman parts of the environment deserve to be
preserved for their own sake, regardless of whether this benefits human beings.
Environmental rights:
- Blackstone argues humans have a right to fulfill their capacities as free and rational and a
livable environment is essential to such fulfillment.
- So humans have a right to liveable environment which is violated by practices that
destroy the environment.
- Such environment rights can lead to absolute bans on pollution even when the costs far
outweigh the benefits.
Private cost the cost an individual or company must pay out of its own pocket to engage in
a particular economic activity.
Social cost the private internal costs plus the external costs of engaging in a particular
economic activity.
Environmental injustice the bearing of external costs of pollution largely by those who do
not enjoy a net benefit from the activity that produces the pollution.

The Ok Tedi Copper Mine

Kegiatan pertambangan yang dilakukan oleh Ok Tedi Copper Mine memberi dampak kepada
lingkungan di Papua Nugini. Yang pertama adalah pencemaran air. Pada kasus ini,
perusahaan yang beroperasi di bidang pertambangan ini memberikan dampak negatif pada
sungai Fly yang airnya mengalir ke lautan. Karena limbahnya mempengaruhi sungai tersebut,
adanya penurunan jumlah ikan sebesar 90 persen yang pada nyatanya adalah sumber
makanan bagi masyarakat di sekitar sungai. Selain itu juga mempengaruhi kehidupan spesies
lainnya. Yang kedua adalah pencemaran tanah yang terjadi karena sungai yang
terkontaminasi limbah tadi menjadi banjir dan banjir membawa kandungan kimia ke atas
tanah dan merusak tanaman di daerah tersebut. Kandungan kimia tadi juga menurunkan kadar
oksigen di dalam tanah sehingga membuat tanaman menjadi tidak subur. Yang ketiga adalah
terjadi penyusutuan spesies dan habitat yang telah disebutkan sebelumnya dan terjadi karena
limbah hasil olahan pertambangan.
Dengan penjelasan diatas, terlihat bahwa perusahaan telah melanggar etika bisnis terutama
pada lingkungan. Perusahaan terlihat mengabaikan etika ekologi yang mana hal tersebut
sangat penting dalam jalannya proses pengolahan pertambangan perusahaan ini. Dengan
waktu yang tidak singkat, perusahaan telah membuang limbahnya dengan cuma-cuma ke
dalam sungai dan menimbulkan dampak yang cukup serius. Untuk itu, perusahaan harus
mengganti rugi dengan apa yang telah mereka lakukan. Perusahaan harus membayar ganti
rugi atas pencemaran yang dilakukan sebesar $500 juta dan membangun bendungan tailing
guna mengendalikan polusi.
Pada akhirnya, BHP memutuskan untuk berhenti melakukan penambangan di daerah tersebut.
Memang ada beberapa masalah yang muncul karena keputusan tersebut. Namun pemerintah
cukup baik dalam mengendalikan situasi dengan mengalokasikan tenaga kerja yang ada ke
sektor pertanian maupun peternakan yang mana memang kegiatan yang pada awalnya mereka
lakukan. Apabila perusahaan tetap ingin melanjutkan penambangan, sebaiknya terlebih
dahulu dipikirkan bagaimana cara mengatasi limbah yang dihasilkan dari proses

pertambangan tersebut. Karena apabila dapat menemukan cara untuk melindungi lingkungan
sekitar, perusahaan dapat terus melakuak kegiatannya tanpa merugikan pihak lain di
sekitarnya.