Chapter 7 – The Environment
1. The term ecology refers to the science of the
independent nature of individual ecosystems and animal species.
relationships between predators and prey withing a given environment.
total ecological community, both living and nonliving.
interrelationships among organisms and their environments.
2. Business must be sensitive to its impacts on the physical environment primarily because of the
fiscal obligations a business has to its stockholders.
intrusion into an ecosystem frequently causes favorable effects.
interdependence of an ecosystem’s elements.
possible public perception of negligence and potential legal implications.
3. The “tragedy of the commons” is
the lack of a commons-a common place where people can come together.
the failure to appreciate what we have in common with other species.
that cost-benefit analysis involves value judgments that we do not share in common.
that individual pursuit of self-interest can sometimes make everyone worse off.
4. Some environmental regulations (like forbidding the burning of coal in cities) benefit each and every one of us because
the air we all breathe is cleaner. If a company ignores the regulation and burns coal, while others obey the regulation, then
the company
violates our right to a livable environment.
benefits from externalities.
5. The moral theorist William T. Blackstone claims that the right to a livable environment
would solve the problem of how to conserve resources.
prevents the use of government regulation to control the actions of business.
is a fundamental human right.
implies that non-human animals have no genuine moral rights.