47. The primary responsibility for preventing environmental damage belongs to government, not to individuals or private industry.
Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion expressed above. Support your point of view with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.
The responsibility for preventing environmental damage should be shared by government, private industry and individuals alike. The primary obligation, however, belongs to individuals. Moreover, within organizations like the government or a corporation, responsibility should be increasingly distributed to individuals according to level of authority.
The primary obligation to preserve the environment belongs to individuals for the reason that assigning responsibility to a government or corporation is problematic. This is because abstract entities like these do not fulfill the usual criteria for being responsible. An entity can shoulder responsibility only if it can be held accountable for its actions. Furthermore, being held accountable for an action requires that the entity act willingly and on the basis of conscious intentions. But governments and businesses are abstractions, having neither will nor consciousness beyond that of the individuals within them.
Still, we can make some sense of treating corporations and governments as if they were individuals. They are individuals under the law, and therefore subject to laws, penalties, and lawsuits. They can even be identified as beneficiaries in wills. Nevertheless, when responsibility is vaguely allocated to abstract entities like governments or corporations, it becomes easy for those within such organizations to cover individual actions that result in devastation to the environment. Consider the famous case of the Exxon Valdez accident and oil spill off the Alaskan coast. While it was easy to single out Captain Hazelwood and determine his blameworthiness the night of the mishap, it was not so easy to identify those responsible at higher levels. Someone was responsible for hiring Hazelwood; others should have known about his drinking or other job-related problems. Thus when we do assign responsibility to governments or business organizations, it must be clearly distributed to individuals in relevant lines of authority within the organization.
In conclusion, individuals are mainly responsible for protecting the environment. And while it makes some sense in a vague way to talk about the similar responsibilities of government and industry, in the end such obligations will belong to individuals within them. Therefore, some individuals will assume greater shares of responsibility for the environment, since they act in positions of authority on behalf of government or industry.
荷兰男子“自然捐精”9年生下82名子女
澳大利亚富豪将建“泰坦尼克2”号
体坛英语资讯:Tennis star Andreescu wins Canadas athlete of the year award
美油漆工为提早下班 两次火烧核潜艇
体坛英语资讯:Shaolin Liu aims to win gold medal in Beijing 2022
Why Are You So Happy 你为什么这么开心
西班牙妓女“性罢工”逼银行家帮穷人
国内英语资讯:Chinese vice premier meets with IMF chief, U.S. business leaders
温家宝历年答记者问
国内英语资讯:Vice premier stresses deepening vocational education reform
普京将添韩国女婿?韩媒空欢喜一场
美俄总统私聊曝光 “转达给普京”网络走红[1]
体坛英语资讯:China fourth in womens team sprint in ISU Speed Skating World Cup
美公司拟派机器人太空开矿 卡梅隆加入
澳女婴在加早产 医疗费达百万美元
国内英语资讯:China to ensure economic growth within reasonable range: Premier Li
国际英语资讯:Sri Lanka, Russia to actively engage in Shanghai Cooperation Organization
美国婚礼花费排行 纽约六万美元居首
伦敦上演“裸体秀” 身画血管图鼓励献血
国际英语资讯:Anger in Scotland after British PM rules out new independence vote
体坛英语资讯:Chinas women book semifinal place at Qinghai Intl Curling Elite
涨知识:关于动物的42个有趣事实(下)
国际英语资讯:Israel launches airstrikes on Syrian air base in Homs
国际英语资讯:Nearly 1,000 illegal immigrants rescued off Libyan coast in 2020
圣帕特里克节十大趣闻
威尔士的中学生要开始学汉语了
伦敦奥运会公布口号:激励一代人
国际英语资讯:U.S. aircraft dumps jet fuel on playground near LA, leaving 26 with minor injuries
体坛英语资讯:Lin makes history with China Open win
埃及奥委会为运动员提供“山寨”训练服
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |