TOW #18 (TEXT): The Big Business of Global Warming By McKenzie Funk

While there is no debate about the science of global warming, according to "The Big Business of Global Warming" By McKenzie Funk, many wealthy people intend to benefit off of the world's climate change even though it is threatening the world. In this article, Funk argues that exploiting climate change for profit is immoral as it results in a lack of awareness amongst the people. Funk's argument is that since people nowadays are more interested in making a profit off of climate change than actually helping to stop it, there is a huge moral dilemma in the world today. In her article, Funk discusses how companies like Bayer, a pharmaceutical company, as well as other businesses are already making profit off of climate change. Although large companies like Bayer are profiting off the increase in allergies and the lack of produce, Funk points out that some companies are actually helping by making mosquito nets to protect people from the rise of malaria. Throughout the text, Funk battles the idea of helping and profiting as many companies seem to be doing both. Although this is the case, Funk makes her final claim in the last paragraph where she writes, "There’s nothing wrong with selling mosquito nets, and there’s nothing wrong with buying them. But there’s something wrong if we ignore the true ethical stakes as an ever more imbalanced world keeps lurching ahead" In this quote it is seen that Funk's problem/argument is that the profiting from global warming is resulting in an ignorance of the damage we are doing. In order to further her point, Funk appeals to logos by using rational, sequential examples. In this manner, Funk is able to make logical sense and make her point easy to understand. She writes, "It happens that those largely responsible for the historic emissions that got us here — wealthy North Americans and Europeans — are the most likely to stay relatively prosperous, because we have our northerly geographies and we have enough money in our wallets for, say, high-performance polycarbonate building materials." This quote shows how Funk logically uses reason to back up her argument. In this case, she is demonstrating how the countries that are contributing to global warming the most are the ones who are most likely to gain from the climate destruction. This logical reasoning allows for the reader to realize that there is currently a problem that needs to be resolved. In addition to using logical reasoning, Funk uses a plethora of statistics to support her claim that help establish her ethos as well as appeal to logos. These statistics make her argument more reliable and stronger. Overall I think that Funk's use of logical reasoning and statistics made her argument stronger, and ultimately made me question the morality of profiting off of global warming.