...Irresponsible is a word that fast food companies are no stranger to and is defined as the lack of accountability of a person or thing, for something that’s within their power, control, or management. I believe that fast food’s irresponsible and negligent behavior has damaged and impacted our society. A. It has become extremely evident that the fast food industry serves a major role in destroying our environment. 1. Fast food has contributed to the significant growth in food wastage and is the second largest contributor of discarded waste. The amount of food waste generated in the last 25 years has skyrocketed by 1.2 million tons, greatly due to fast food’s increasing expansion and popularity. 2. It also drives the industries that strip our land of its natural resources, such as grain, cattle processing and transportation. 3. Every second, MacDonald’s sells 75 hamburgers and producing a cheeseburger involves the emission of about 3kg of carbon dioxide. Data shows that McDonald's contributed 1,882 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per year. 4. MacDonald’s uses beef from 350,000 cattle a year and a cow will produce 220 kg of methane gas in its lifetime, however, methane gas warms the world 20 times faster than carbon dioxide. 5. Greenpeace claims that tests done on KFC’s pulp-based products like napkins and French fries holders, found fibers of tropical hardwood trees, specific to Indonesia’s forests that are home to many endangered species...
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...When it comes to our daily food intake, we are greeted by innocent looking supermarkets claiming “fresh choices”; as well as fast food restaurants at every corner providing “100 percent genuine beef.” We go about our lives without ever stopping to think ― where exactly does our food even come from? Is our food harming the environment? Why is our health getting worse? Like million of Americans today; little do they know about the true food industry and the dangers it has provided. Our environment and our health is facing a crisis due to the food industry. It’s time we learn the truth, and the possible solutions to fix these issues. The amount effort being made to create process food is not only harming the environment, but us as well. In the “Carnivore’s Dilemma” (2010) Nicolette Hahn Niman tells us that the studies show only that the prevailing methods of producing meat - that is, crowding animals together in factory farms, storing their waste in giant lagoons and cutting down forest to grow crops to feed them - cause substantial greenhouse gases (169). Knowing that 5 percent of the greenhouse gases are produced by...
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...Eating meat has become a ritual since mankind was created. Hunting to survive and to feed, or in other words our ‘survival instinct’ is one of the few traces that our ancestors have left the modern mankind today. Although mankind are not carnivores per say, we have evolved into thinking so. The majority of us have been brought up eating meat and presumably, have never questioned it. Taking these into account, how ethical is meat eating? One can argue that non-human animals also have the same rights and killing them for food and using them as a mean to human gratification, does not treat them respectfully. The fact that one has been raised to eat meat is cannot be an explanation of why mankind started eating meat and it cannot justify the claim that eating meat is ethical. Yet most of us have no idea that when we eat meat, we are in fact making a subconscious choice. When we were growing up, forming our identity and values, it is fair to say that generally our parents decide on whether we eat meat or not and opposed to making our own choice. We were never asked to reflect upon this daily practice that has such profound unethical dimensions and personal implications. Eating animals were just a given; it was just the way things were. However, this kind of argument allows us to eat human flesh all that required is that one is raised in a cannibalistic tradition, because then we can say that ‘this is the way that things are! But what if in a culture eating human was ethically...
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...wondered where all that trash came from? Where all that trash ends up? Or who gets affected by it? A solution should be made for ocean pollution for the sake of ocean life, but specifically, Yellowfin tuna. Ocean pollution is caused by many reasons, oil spills. Fertilizers, garbage, sewage disposal, and toxic chemicals. Ocean pollutants found in Tuna are weakening our immune system, is affecting the entire food chain, and is also harming sea life. With this in mind, ocean pollution is being detrimental to not only Tuna, but also the ocean and humans as well. As an illustration, ocean pollutants were found in Yellowfin tuna and is making our immune system weaker. Meaning, “Persistent Organic Pollutants, or POP, affected an important cellular protein found in most animals and plants.” (Ocean Pollutants Found in Tuna Weaken the Immune System, TakePart) TakePart also explains that, “The protein, called P-gp, usually ejects toxins from the body. But the team found that all 10 pollutants weakened P-gp’s protective function.” In other words, pollutants were found in yellowfin tuna which affects our protein cells and also weakens our immune system. Thus, ocean...
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...climate change on main sectors that specifically apply to the Pacific Islands are listed below. (reference here) Agriculture is extremely vulnerable to climate change, with high temperature levels reducing yields of desirable crops and changes in precipitation patterns increasing crop failures (reference here). Pacific islands are constantly being exposed to these threats of climate change and we have already witnessed the effects of these threats. For example the different weather variations occurring in different parts of the pacific islands, low levels of our crops and forestry production, the frequent natural disasters occurring in so many pacific countries and less do we forget the recent tsunami triggered by a massive earthquake which had our country in mourn. Agriculture is what our pacific people depend on the most to make a living especially with their local food, however due to flash floods and droughts local food production for example rice, taro, banana as well as sea...
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...reading the book “Ishmael” by the author Daniel Quinn, my mind has begun to expand and widen on the subject “How the world became this way?” Of course before reading this my mind was already set on the fact that us, humans, were the reason for this terrible tragedy. However studying this book further I have begun to learn more about how we are heading into chaos. At first I thought we were only causing minor damage but after reading “Ishmael” I have learned that we are doing so much more and why. In my essay I will explore my opinion of how we are gluttonous, brainless, human beings harming our own lives and how Ishmael wants us to fix it. I will examine how we have a mass contribution to destroying our planet and how I think Daniel Quinn...
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...comes to preventing suffering and what hinders us to prevent or reduce that suffering. They both agree that donation to charity to reduce suffering is a short term solution, while reducing the population on the planet is a permeant solution to the suffering of starvation. They argue that it is our individual duty to make reasonable choices that will help prevent the suffering, but their view on what these choices are differs. In his essay, Perter Singer argues that affluent nations have the duty to prevent avoidable poverty and death in poorer nations. He states that our negative actions towards the suffering caused by poverty and death are not justifiable. By ignoring the suffering, we as a society are taking life for...
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...job security and can also lead to further raises based on performance and at the same time it will increase a company’s performance level because of the added increased productivity within a company. There is a passage that Epstein includes from Payne v. Western & Atlantic Railroad in out text that reads; “[M]en must be left, without interference to buy and sell where they please, and to discharge or retain employees at will for good cause without thereby being guilty of an unlawful act per se. It is a right which an employee may exercise in the same way, to the same extent, for the same cause or want of cause as the employer.” This is so true and is in my opinion the way the EAW works for the most part. For instance I used to work at a food court where we had all EAW employees and it worked. We gave employees the raises they deserved and when an employee would do something wrong we would document with a write up ensuring that the employee would know what they did...
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...The Film Super Size Me Ethical Paper Zhen J. Huang California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Introduction Take a look around when you go out, what do you see? Loads of fast food restaurants? Maybe McDonalds is the exact name. In the documentary film Super Size Me, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock (2004) shows that fast food has become a fixture in the American culture, as well as other countries’ cultures. As Spurlock (2004) said in the film “what would happen if I ate nothing but McDonald’s for 30 days straight? Would I suddenly be on the fast track to becoming an obese American? Would it be unreasonably dangerous?” For this paper, I am going to discuss about the concerns of fast food, namely McDonalds by using three ethical theories: Hedonism, the Desire Theory, and Ethical Egoism. Hedonism: The Pleasure of the Super Size As Rabinowicz and Ronnow-Rasmussen (2005) explains, “an object is thought to be intrinsically valuable … depends on … final value if it is valuable ‘as an end’, ‘for its own sake’, rather than for the sake of something else” (p. 115). The kind of pleasure hedonists claim is always intrinsically valuable is health. If people know that they are healthy and are free of sickness or pain, they are living a good life, and a good life is a happy life. Basically, health contributes to happiness and the happier the person is, the better his/her life is going to be. According to Veenhoven (2003), “There is a longstanding discussion about the merits of this...
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...months all year long. Now taking this in to a large scale, by driving cars, planes and other things that burn gas to run, we are putting more carbon dioxide in the air, which traps warm air, causing the earth to become warmer then what would be normal. Scientist have taken satellite pictures of the polar caps showing that the glaciers have been melting since 1850, which they claim is because of the increase of greenhouse gases, getting worse in 1980 to were some glaciers are completely gone. Because of this the sea level has risen 10-20 cm over the last 100 years, harming the coastal communities. There has also been a change in weather, scientist that globe annual temperatures is 1.0 F degrees warmer than they were in 1900, and the rate of warming has increased three times faster in the last 30 years. They believe that this is the reason that we have had hurricanes that are more sever then before. Even though the US counts for 5% of the world population, we a ranked number one as the highest polluter, this means that we need to take a bigger stand on reducing pollutants in the air, then other countries. There has been many laws made by the government, but has there been any change since these laws were...
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...and therapeutic cloning. Cloning Recombinant DNA cloning consists of transferring DNA fragments from an organism to a self-replicating element, like a bacterial plasmid. The fragments join with the cloning vector and are reproduced with the host cell. This technology is most commonly known for its use in genetically modified foods. DNA fragments that code for better tasting, higher nutrient qualities are spliced into regular plants to produce super foods (US Dept of Energy Genome Program, 2009). Reproductive cloning takes all the genetic information out of a cell and replaces it with DNA from the desired organism. With luck, this cell will begin to divide until it becomes an embryo and can be implanted into a host mother (US Dept of Energy Genome Program, 2009). Gene Therapy and Stem Cell Research Therapeutic cloning is by far the most controversial. This type of cloning produces human embryos for use in research, and usually for the stem cells that can be harvested from these embryos. Stem cells can be used to clone organs and body parts from the patient’s own DNA to eliminate the tissue rejection that commonly occurs from organ transplants (US Dept of Energy Genome Program, 2009). This type of cloning can also be used as gene therapy. In this case, mutated genes are replaced with healthy genes, removed completely, or introduced to fight disease. It is still risky and therefore reserved to cases that have no known cure (Genetics...
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...When he is approached by the male cannibal, he is told to come get food and the father responds, “You don’t have anything to eat” (McCarthy 65). We have already been told that the man is cannibal therefore you can assume that he is referring to humans as the food. The father’s response shows that he has never once considered humans as food and he will not no matter what he may face. This truly is what separates the “good guys” and the “bad guys” in my eyes. The father would much rather suffer in his quest to find food rather than eat another human being because once he does, then he knows deep down that he is now a “bad...
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...months all year long. Now taking this in to a large scale, by driving cars, planes and other things that burn gas to run, we are putting more carbon dioxide in the air, which traps warm air, causing the earth to become warmer then what would be normal. Scientist have taken satellite pictures of the polar caps showing that the glaciers have been melting since 1850, which they claim is because of the increase of greenhouse gases, getting worse in 1980 to were some glaciers are completely gone. Because of this the sea level has risen 10-20 cm over the last 100 years, harming the coastal communities. There has also been a change in weather, scientist that globe annual temperatures is 1.0 F degrees warmer than they were in 1900, and the rate of warming has increased three times faster in the last 30 years. They believe that this is the reason that we have had hurricanes that are more sever then before. Even though the US counts for 5% of the world population, we a ranked number one as the highest polluter, this means that we need to take a bigger stand on reducing pollutants in the air, then other countries. There has been many laws made by the government, but has there been any change since these laws were put in place? When you don’t see a change in Global Warming, people start to wonder if what is being said is in fact true....
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...Through its products from seeds or genes used by other companies have the monopoly of Monsanto arrived in some crops in 70-100 of the market share of the foregoing became Monsanto's supporters and anti-where the point of view of the supporters was that Monsanto since reached technology that can contribute to solving the problem of food shortages in the world, including availability of high-yield products and resistance to pests. The opinion of the owners and your monopoly may make Monsanto multinational giant requisition food supplies in the world modified seeds genetically its health effects and the environment and biodiversity with all this division between the pro and anti-Monsanto this giant did not stop from becoming the largest and most govern in crops. All this controversy makes us look into the history of Monsanto where beginnings were in the production of chemicals that make us more wary of Monsanto products, modified Rathian the safety of individuals and the environment violin that Monsanto record third parties free of moral ethical issues makes us more wary. In 1901 in St. Louis it was established Monsanto for the production of synthetic food additives and with the outbreak of the First World War Leaders soon realizes the growth opportunities in the chemical industry and started a company specializing in plastics and agricultural...
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...What are we doing to protect our surroundings? Garbage heaps are increasing and disposal of waste seems an alarming task. People are becoming insensitive towards plants and animals thereby harming our ecosystem. As a student, what have you done to protect our environment? Do you know why we need to conserve our wildlife? We must make a conscious effort to conserve the world's plants and animals. Plants are essential for our own survival. Plants use the sun's energy to make food—a process called photosynthesis. Therefore plants are the first important link in the food chain of which humans also form a part. During photosynthesis, oxygen is released and oxygen is vital for the existence of life itself. Animals need plants in order to survive, but plants also need animals. Animals and plants are therefore delicately bound together. The removal of even one species of animal/plant can drastically alter the ecosystem. Isn't this frightening? Our own survival may be threatened if we cause too much disruption to the natural processes that occur on this Earth. Destruction of rain forests, for example, has reduced the local rainfall. A further reduction in rainfall will increase desert areas. We need to preserve our wildlife as well. We use many plants and animals to supply us with food, materials, chemicals, etc. If we continue to exploit these species to a point where they cannot replenish themselves, they will no longer be available to us. Gradually if we manage to destroy most...
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