The BP Oil Spill in April 2010 got national attention because of the large environmental impact it had on the Gulf of Mexico and surrounding areas.  BP was quick to respond with clean up work and activism to help restore the Gulf to its original state (Deepwater Horizon).

Now, years later, BP has moved away from activism to an approach showing they are working to be socially and environmentally responsible by looking for problems before they arise.

Using Rawls as an ethical perspective, BP’s stance to move away from activism is justified.  Behind the veil, no one would know who was responsible for the oil spill and would be happy a company is working to be socially responsible and address problems before they arise (Christians, Fackler, Richardson, Kreshel, Woods, 2012).

Using an Aristotelean approach, the middle ground would be to work to be socially responsible, but also continue efforts in the Gulf to restore it after the incident.  It was BP’s fault for the oil spill and it is good they worked for a time to help restore it, but BP should not move to a position where it acts like it never happened.

Reference List

Christians, C. G., Fackler, M., Richardson, K. B., Kreshel, P. J., & Woods, R. H., Jr. (2012). Media Ethics: Cases and Moral Reasoning. New York: Allyn & Bacon.

Deepwater Horizon accident and response. (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2016, from http://www.bp.com/en_us/bp-us/commitment-to-the-gulf-of-mexico/deepwater-horizon-accident.html