Environmental Disasters
Businesses have created a variety of environmental disasters throughout history. As the world becomes more industrialized, the potential for disaster increases. For this Discussion Board, you will explore the Exxon Valdez oil spill to see how it influenced the discussion of a company's duty to environmental stakeholders.
Click on and read the Alaska Oil Spill Commission Report:
Alaska Oil Spill Commission. (1990). Spill: The wreck of the Exxon Valdez
. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/oil-spill/docs/alaska-commission-report.pdf
Who were the stakeholders in this incident? What should have been done to prevent this disaster? What responsibilities did Exxon have to future stakeholders? How did Exxon react to the disaster, and did they act responsibly before, during, and after this disaster?
Analyze this law or case law address whether this change in the law seemed to improve the moral climate or ethical standards of society.
Hello Class,
The stakeholders in this incident are Congress, the communities in Alaska that wee affected by this, the aquatic life that this spill occurred, and Exxon. Congress enforces the legislation of oil industry operations. The communities of Alaska are affected form their fisherman that make a living off it, to tourism for the that area, and food for the community. The aquatic life have their lives drastically affected since this poisons their living area, forcing them to flee and some to succumb to the poison and die. Exxon is directed tied into the accident due to it happening to their ship, and they are responsible for the actions of the crew in their employment. This disaster should never have happened in the first place. As the commission report discusses, three things could have prevented this: An advance oil transportation system; if the American people, state and federal governments and the oil industry had required stringent safeguards; if the diligence that was had in the construction of the trans-Alaskan oil pipeline in the 1970s were maintained in the 1980s (Alaska Oil Commission, 1990., p. 6)
Exxon has quite a bit of responsibilities for future stakeholders. At the time of the incident, they could have had better equipment which would had warned the crew about the tanker leaving designated shipping lanes (Alaska Oil Commission, 1990). Exxon needs additional equipment due to the massive size of the tanker ships they use (Alaska Oil Commission, 1990). Exxon needs to train their crews
about ship chain of command and responsibility of having a questioning attitude (Alaska Oil Commission,
1990).
