Is Clean Energy Ethical?
by Vincent Kafer
One of the most challenging global issues today is how to halt global warming. Countries around the globe are trying to contain their carbon emissions in efforts to stop the average global temperature rise. A major contributor to global emissions across the world is transportation. According to IEA.org, in 2020, transportation emissions accounted for over 7000 metric tons of CO2. The simple solution that everyone is talking about is to switch to electric powered vehicles. This would simply reduce carbon emissions by 100% if everyone stopped using gasoline powered cars. In this article I argue that the switch to electric powered vehicles is unethical. It is unethical because of the horrible working conditions that people are exposed to in order to create the batteries to operate electric cars. In the following paragraphs I will convince the reader that switching to electric vehicles is not the clear solution to halt global warming.
In this paper I will be using the following frameworks, consequentialism and utilitarianism, to convince the reader that everyone should not switch to electric powered cars. Consequentialism is the ethical framework that approaches moral choice from a net positive or negative perspective. If the moral choice creates an overall net positive outcome then this is the most ethical moral choice. Essentially the user of the framework bases their decisions on whether or not the choice would produce more good than bad. Utilitarianism is the ethical framework that allows the user to make ethical decisions based on the overall happiness of the majority. If the decision produces the most happiness amongst a population the decision can be deemed ethical.
When analyzing the choice of switching to an electric car from a consequentialist perspective, it is clear that buying electric cars produces more harm than good. For example, the process to create the batteries is extremely dangerous and unethical. According to Terry Gross from NPR, electric batteries are, “mined by workers laboring in slave-like conditions in the Democratic Republic of Congo” (Gross 1). Furthermore, Siddarth Kara in his interview with Gross explains, “Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced because their villages were just bulldozed over to make place for large mining concessions. So you have people with no alternative, no other source of income, no livelihood. Now, add to that the menace in many cases of armed forces pressuring people to dig”(Gross 10). It is clear that human suffering is an essential part to the creation of these batteries. Nobody should suffer for our benefit. There is an extreme net negative when choosing to support the electric car industry. People are still able to get from point A to point B. They can carpool, bike, walk, and take public transportation. These are all alternatives that can still lower carbon emissions. Due to the extreme human suffering in the creation of electric batteries, it is unethical to continue to support this industry.
Taking this information into consideration, our choice to support the electric vehicle industry does not align within a utilitarian perspective. Since one individual is buying an electric car, this would produce happiness for one individual. The individual in question would be happy only on the basis of a new material possession. However, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, thousands of people are suffering to produce this car. They are participating in “extremely dangerous labor for the equivalent of just a few dollars a day”(Gross 2). There is clearly no production of overall happiness with the decision to switch to electric vehicles. There is in fact more sadness and suffering when making this decision. Therefore, due to there being no overall happiness amongst a population the decision to switch to electric cars is unethical.
Works Cited
Campbell, Alastair V. “Chapter 2.” Bioethics: The Basics, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, London, 2017.
Gross, Terry. “How 'Modern-Day Slavery' in the Congo Powers the Rechargeable Battery Economy.” NPR, NPR, 1 Feb. 2023, https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/02/01/1152893248/red-cobalt-congo-drc-mining-siddharth-kara.
Iea. “Global CO2 Emissions from Transport by Subsector, 2000-2030 – Charts – Data & Statistics.” IEA, https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/global-co2-emissions-from-transport-by-subsector-2000-2030.