1) What is the decision that Alvaro Richter faces? Why is it a moral dilemma?
Alvaro Richter found out that the Nitrous Oxide Trap system that Volkswagen uses with their 2.0ltr 4 cylinder TDI engines is actually increasing fuel consumption and limit performance by reducing torque. Also, the exposure of nitrogen oxide gases has serious harmful effects on human such as asthma and tens of thousands of premature deaths every year. However, a lot of people are unaware of these results and Alvaro has faced difficulty in whether to tell senior management at the Volkswagen Group, government regulators, or journalists to let all the people know.
Alvaro has already talked to a VW group marketing executive and he said that they can’t compromise on performance
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If Alvaro tells senior management of Volkswagen first, the company will convince Alvaro that other companies are also involved with emission cheating as well and they would make it as not a corporation crime. If Alvaro decides to tell the journalists and the society, he is considered as utilitarianism that maximize sum of all human welfare by preventing everyone from toxic emission and no pollution.
3) Do we know whether senior management at Volkswagen Group knew about the cheat devices? How does this effect Alvaro’s decision, if at all?
In my opinion, the senior management at Volkswagen Group knew about the cheat devices since Alvaro has talked to Jacob and Ottilla about the loss of performance and fuel efficiency and they say that it will not affect their sales and harm anyone. If Volkswagen knew, it is considered as egoism that only acted for their own interest regardless of the buyers or people who affects by the emission. If so, Alvaro may decide to tell government and journalist since they selfishly seek their benefits only and have negative externalities on global pollution and
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No. I don’t agree with Emanuela that the emissions cheating did not have any bad consequences. Although the households wouldn’t get cancer or disease because of the NOx vehicles passed the garden only one time and not directly affecting the household seriously, it is not ethical to ignore even a small scale of negative externalities. Based on the textbook, a consequentialist approach is based on the principle that ethical action is one that produces good consequences, or good results.
If your mother has just bought some new clothes and asks how she looks, it follows that the ethical response is to be honest. If you think the clothing makes her look old or unattractive you should say so. You should not say “You look great, Mom” (p 51-52). Therefore, if you know the facts that the NOx emission harms environment negatively, you should admit and be honest in your emission cheating. And, they need to prove good consequences of emission cheating if they state no any harms.
7) Roseanna Tamburri describes the research of Dr Pamela Murphy. How do people rationalize questionable ethical actions, such as cheating and
On one of the article was the discussions about the act of dishonesty itself, and how the losses due to the cheating of the emission test stood up to losses incurred by other related problems. The writer also included the financial burden the cheating
Beginning in 2006, Volkswagen began designing a new version of diesel engine for future cars it planned on producing. The engineers tasked to this job quickly realized that they could not meet customer needs and emission standards at the same time [1]. The engineers decided to use software known as a “defeat device” that allowed the car to sense when it was going through an emissions test and reduce its pollution output [1].
One pivotal point regarding the debate on environmental ethics and the course humans should take is regarding future generations. How do the actions we take today impact those who inherit this planet after us? Some people argue that we do not inherit this world from our parents, but rather borrow it from our future children. Regarding the text Sustainability and Responsibility to the Future, several different viewpoints are offered regarding both sides of the ethics of environmentalism.
Ever since 1908, when Henry Ford manufactured a car that was affordable to most families, the need for oil has been growing more and more every year as humans want more and more products that use oil or are made from it. People and their need for oil far exceeds the need to fill up their car. It stretches out to vast amount of products that people use every day. Including plastics bags when they go shopping, the shampoo they use to clean their hair, the toys their kids play with and the insulation used to keep their houses warm. However with all the positives of oil they’re a lot of negatives that are a result of using oil. One immediate negative oil causes is pollution, oil has two predominant types of pollution. But before we can talk about the different types of pollution. We first need to understand what pollution is. According to Jack Dini and two chapters from his book, Challenging the Environmental Mythology: Wrestling Zeus. Dini says his definition of pollution is “To pollute is to make physically impure or unclean: to contaminate especially with man-made waste” (Dini-2). He later mentions that pollution has two different parameters. The first one being dirtiness and the second being danger. Dini writes “while safety is often talked about as an absolute requirement, modern science can detect such infinitesimally small dangers that the decision about how much health threatening pollution to allow becomes a matter of preference or efficiency, not and absolute.” (Dini-2). By writing this Dini recognizes that there is technology that can tell people when there is to much pollution, however once they know how much pollution there is, it is up to the people to decide when enough is enough and make a change. One being air pollut...
Finding a definition of child physical abuse is controversial, but the signs of a child being abused is straightforward if you know how to read them. For example, Hitting, punching, kicking them, or using objects to injure to abuse them. All those examples are seen in the case of 8- year- old, Gabriel Fernandez after he was brutally abused for eight months.
The Volkswagen emissions scandal is a series of choices made by the company and the people employed by Volkswagen to install a "cheat" button to alter the amount of emissions produced only under testing situations. Ordinarily, all vehicles on the road that run off of gasoline have a set about of CO2 and other harmful emissions produced by the burning of gasoline. Violation of these rules can result in fines and recalls. Due to an increased attention on car companies to fight global warming and air pollution a number of emissions have lowered in the over the year for tighter regulation on the amount of CO2 produced. Consequently, this reduction in the amount of CO2 produced is the source of the scandal. This change may come across as minor,
The invention of the automobile in the early 20th century has had an adverse affect on our environment. Our society has used technology in order to advance the automobile to make it better and more efficient. The automobile industry knows what sells and they take advantage of that. With this growing technology to advance automobiles also comes flaws. The biggest and most obvious flaw is pollution. Because of pollution, we find ourselves asking the question of whether this technology has helped our society more than it has hurt it.
Purchasing a car is one of the hugest or biggest accomplishments that a person can achieve on their own. However, what happens when that purchase turns out to also be the worst decision that was ever made? The purchase was a success and a goal was achieved, but the moment the key is turned and the engine is started the contribution to environmental harm begins. As the car is driven, the gasoline fumes that are released from the car contribute to the other many factors and pollutants that damage the environment. Not only is the purchase now a contributor to the depletion of clean air, but it could also play a part in the depletion of someone’s health. For example, asthma or bronchitis could develop in an adult or child as a direct result of breathing in noxious automotive fumes. Depending on where one lives, there could be strict regulations on air pollution. One must be accountable for any and all contributions made to the demise of what was once a healthy Earth. One must be accountable for his or her own carbon footprint. Some individuals have taken steps to reduce their carbon footprints and cause less harm to the environment by purchasing electric cars.
The search for a cleaner burning fuel is not a new one. Although most people know that they?re cars are spewing out toxins that are harmful to the environment, they drive the car anyway. In this modern day when faster is better, cars have become necessities. Air pollution caused by cars hasn?t always been such a big problem. When there were fewer cars on the road, nobody thought anything about the possible consequences. Not thinking ahead has always been human nature though. Environment concerns have only arisen in the past few decades because technology has allowed scientist to m...
Last Sunday, the company’s then CEO, Martin Winterkorn, issued a brief statement declaring that the Board of Management at Volkswagen AG “takes these findings very seriously.” The findings revealed that the automaker used “defeat devices” to fool emissions testing, effectively concealing the reality that certain cars spew emissions some 10 to 40 times the legal limit.
PURPOSE: To persuade my audience that we must take action now to control air pollution
Each day an individual will make a decision that will affect their life in some way. Should I wear the green shirt or the yellow shirt? Should I order a shake or lemonade? Should I wash the car today or wait until tomorrow? These simple decisions often happen without serious thought. Why? Because these decisions are not life changing ones. But what happens when the decision is not so easy to make, when it’s life changing. Sometimes a person’s conscious greatly affects one’s decision making, especially when the topic of whistle blowing arises. In this paper, I will discuss and analyze whistle-blowing, where it occurs, the effects of whistle-blowing, the consequences of whistle-blowing, and finally I close my paper with a conclusion.
In the recent past, there have been several employees who have brought to light corrupt and unethical business practices on the part of their employer. Whistleblowers are known as internal and external individuals who disclose their firms’ illegal behavior. When faced with such an accusation, some companies have tried retaliating against the informer (Beatty 743). As a result of these cases, there are numerous laws that exist that protect employees from retaliation. Within this paper, the most significant whistleblowing protection statutes and acts will be discussed, as well as, important cases, and the ethics behind whistleblowing.
* Shirk, Evelyn. “New Dimensions in Ethics: Ethics and the Environment.” Ethics and the Environment. Proc. of Conf. on Ethics and the Environment, April 1985, Long Island University. Ed. Richard E. Hart. Lanham: University Press of America, 1992. 1-10.
...e are many benefits that can be expected. One benefit, which may not be a benefit so much as a bragging right, is that an expansion of VW brings Porsche that much closer to becoming the world’s biggest carmaker. Additionally, although not directly tied to the merger but an issue that gained additional attention from it, is the EU-ordered repeal of the VW Law. Porsche’s former boss, Wiedeking, was looking forward to changing, and if VW does indeed become more competitive in the global market as a result of the merger or the repeal of the law they could see an increase in profits. Lastly, there is the tension created by putting the competing brands of Audi, Bentley, Porsche, Bugatti, and Lamborghini under the same, corporate umbrella, a move that should naturally result in a reduction in the number of models offered and price increases in the luxury car market.