3.1 Approaches in environmental ethics for business and engineering  (Page 7/9)

What you will do ...

Exercise one: how much is el yunque worth?

• Assume a developer is interested in purchasing El Yunque (the only tropical national park in the United States) for the purpose of turning it into qa recreation center. They have made their bid. A referendum has been announced where the Puerto Rican people can try collectively to out-bid this developer. Please indicate below the maximum amount you would pay each year to keep El Yunque in its present condition.
• El Yunque has just been purchased by Mega Entertainment, a huge, multi-national, mass media and entertainment park conglomerate. They plan on cutting down all the tropical stuff and replacing it with a recreation center, amusement parks, a theme park, several gourmet theme restaurants, a high end shopping mall, and a hotel-resort complex. You consider spending your honeymoon in the new Mega Entertainment El Yunque resort complex. The following are reasonable rates for a week-long stay in a resort complex. How much would you be willing to pay? (a) below $500. (b)$500-$1000. (c)$500-$1000. (d) More than $2000. (Assume these prices are competitive with other, high scale resort complexes.
• If the amount that you are willing to pay in #2 is greater than what you would be willing to pay in #1, does this mean that you value the Mega Entertainment El Yunque recreation complex more than the El Yunque National Park? Explain your answer.
• Now, assume that you as a Puerto Rican jointly own El Yunque as a national treasure. How much would Mega Entertainment have to pay you (and other Puerto Ricans) for you to become "willing to sell" El Yunque? What, in other words, is your selling price?.
• Compare your selling price with your paying price for El Yunque. What factors constrain what you are willing to pay? What considerations influence the price at which you are willing to sell?

Exercise two: super aqueduct

• The Super Aqueduct provides an interesting test for a conflict between basic human and non-human goods. Having affordable drinking water is a basic good for humans. However, is it necessary to sacrifice the estuary from which the Super Aqueduct pumps water in order to serve the water needs of the San Juan Metro area?
• Several questions have to be answered
• How much water must be pumped out of the Arecibo estuary?
• Is the Super Aqueduct the only means by which safe drinking water can be delivered to the San Juan Metro area?
• Have other measures like conservation been tried and thoroughly tested?
• Can the water shortages in San Juan be addressed by other partial solutions like repairing and up-dating infrastructure?
• Are technical solutions like desalinization viable in the short and long term?

Exercise three: windmills and environmental virtues

• Louke Van Wensveen identifies four virtue groups for environmental ethics. These consists of virtues of (1) Position, (2) Care, (3) Attunement, and (4) Endurance.
• If the windmill project were carried out in accordance with these virtues would it be a moral imperative to go ahead with the project?
• How would these virtues guide the design, construction, and operation of a windmill farm?
• Who would carry out the project? What would the role of the government be? What would the role of the local commmunity be?