A Utilitarian Assessment Of The Morality Of Consuming Alberta’s Oil Sands

At first glance I would have said that a utilitarian would have said this was a moral act, as many are benefiting from the oil sands where as there are only a few sufferings but thinking upon this question for quite a period of time has led me to believe that this is not the case. A utilitarian would argue that the suffering due to the negative consequences out weigh the happiness coming from the positive consequences therefore judging these acts as immoral. Utilitarianism is the judging an action moral, or immoral according to the greatest happiness principle. This is a principle that claims that we are morally obliged to maximize happiness and minimize the suffering of as many people as possible. If we consider all the benefits that are products of oilsands, (jobs, car gas, economic growth, oil, electricity) one might argue that the amount of happiness provided by these this is quite high, but when start to recognize all the people and animals that have suffered along with the negative changes made in the environment which will eventually take a toll on the rest of life on earth, the answer to this question becomes very clear.

Although only a small group of people are being directly affected by the company, their friends and family are suffering too. Furthermore, they also suffer from the fear of being affected themselves, which can be considered as a lot of mental suffering, especially when dealing with an illness as ruthless as cancer. As mentioned in question 1, due to this industry, green house gases are emitted and thus further encourage global warming that will have an impact on most of the animals living on earth. Due to this industry, wildlife living in the forest will have their homes destroyed, they suffered and eventually died. All the animals who migrated through the boreal forest have also suffered or died. The contaminated water passed on illnesses to the animals that lived in the area near by and there was a noticeable drop in population levels amongst the caribous. These poor creatures were cut down to half their population in only 10 years. The fish in the Athabasca river died and are still dying due to the high levels of toxicity in the water caused by the leakage of waste water from the industry’s process. There are also different people suffering in the political field as they are unable to fight back against this alliance between the government and the oil sand companies. There are also other activists who are suffering from hopelessness as global warming is only becoming a bigger and bigger issue, yet no one is doing their part, especially big companies like sun core.

Now even if the amount of suffering does not currently add up to the amount of happiness felt by the benefits, the threat of the future in regard to global warming will balance it out. The amount of pollution this industry has caused is simply outrageous. This industry alone emits as much green house gases as all of Canada’s passenger cars green house gas emission. This kind of pollution is so threatful, it can put many lives all over the world in danger. With the increase in temperature, the permafrost glaciers will melt, causing the sea level to rise and potentially destroy many people’s homes. Natural disasters will become more reoccurring and ultimately cause many deaths and increase the worlds overall suffering. Also, if the rate of water consumption stayed the same, fresh water will eventually run out. A utilitarian would try to predict as many variables as possible to make sure the overall happiness out weights the overall suffering. Therefore, it is obvious that a utilitarian would consider this situation as very immoral.