Paper instructions:
It is Exxon Mobil Scandal in which the Corp misled the public on climate change.
Outline to follow:
1. Introduce the topic.
2. Summarize the real life legal case.
3. Talk about the ethical & legal principles violated.
4. Group’s view with reasoning.
5. Conclusion.
6. Sources & References.
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just a little information about the topic and
I need to do ONLY “ETHICAL PRINCIPLES VIOLATED” and “Group’s view with reasoning”
For the 3rd page, I want you to make some bullet points for the ppt slides and add notes for presentation (making q card)
ExxonMobil Climate Change Controversy
Ethical Principles Violated
The ExxonMobil climate change controversy stemmed from the corporation’s climate change viewpoint and activities. The company was involved in swaying the public’s perception of climate change by engaging in deceptive activities to vouch for climate change “skepticism”. In 2016, 17 US state attorney generals committed to investigate whether ExxonMobil violated consumer and investor protection statutes through their statements with regards to global warming (Supran & Oreskes, 2017). ExxonMobil’s actions were a blatant display of corporate irresponsibility, and the company’s participation in deceitful activities serve to taint its image.
ExxonMobil violated the ethical principle of primum non nocere which is to do no harm in the face of an existing issue. Evidently, acknowledging climate change and the link between fossil fuels and global warming would have hurt their market position. Such actions would have driven consumers away from fossil energy to clean renewable energy. ExxonMobil carried out intense lobbying and campaigns to ensure a steady global acceptance and consumption of fossil fuels.
Companies are increasingly using information as an arsenal to cement their positions, rather than a tool (McKay & Munro, 2018). ExxonMobil mobilized its resources to resist stricter environmental regulation. While the company donated money to climate and energy causes like Stanford University’s Global Climate and Energy Project, it also funded organizations that did not acknowledge the link between human activities and climate change (McKay & Munro, 2018). ExxonMobil betrayed the public’s trust by choosing monetary gains over logic with regards to a common problem that should have been nipped in the bud. The company contributed to climate change studies and also simultaneously rejected the notion.
Group’s View
ExxonMobil’s pursuit of a conflicting dual narrative regarding climate change was unethical and a breach of the trust that investors and the public had placed in the company. Internally, the company recognized the causes and implications of climate change while externally, it doubted the effects and reasons for climate change (Johnston, 2017). Consequently, ExxonMobil exploited the differences that existed between scientists who believed in the human causes of global warming and those who did not. Today’s technological progress and economic growth have all been fueled by a cut-throat industrial system grounded on the extraction and utilization of fossil fuels (McCright & Dunlap, 2011). Acknowledging and tackling climate change continues to be a problem in the contemporary world, and this phenomenon has drawn in corporations like ExxonMobil. McCright and Dunlap (2011) note that the US environmental community, including the scientists and policymakers had already identified global warming as an urgent issue. However, companies like ExxonMobil actively delegitimized global warming as an urgent problem.
ExxonMobil engaged in a wide range of practices to undermine the necessity for a change in environmental policy regarding global warming. The company took advantage of the lack of consensus among stakeholders on the causes of global warming to further the notion that burning oil did not cause the planet to warm. The company’s research on climate change has been inconsequential in defining the content of its communication. Political and economic polarization have guided ExxonMobil’s stand on climate change. Companies have to adhere to a stringent set of moral values and carry out business ethically, and this means placing public interest before any financial gains. The decision by ExxonMobil to fund front groups to further false claims on climate change makes it a dubious beneficiary of misinformation because it benefitted in sales.
PowerPoint