Sirrus

Thanks for all of your comments so far guys. I definately find your points valid and now feel a lot more comfortable with the idea of working in oil. If I didn't have a philsophical community that I could easily, I would have probably pursued oil anyway... but at least you guys are here to ease my mind. Out of everyone I know, I value this community's input probably only second to Stef's While my mind is now fairly set, I still welcome more comments if anyone has them.

Haha Existing Alternatives, I like your view. I tend to forget all other coporations have a degree of government support. This makes me feel a lot more relaxed if I go into the oil industry. And FunFacts, I know I'm probably putting too much conern into this

Thanks for the video Dylan, I especially liked the little bit about spills. I'm not concerned as much with the environment as much as I am concerned with how I may be involved in affecting other people's lives. For example, the recent gulf spill had a negative impact on people who relied on the ocean for work, etc. Often the case is that the companies get off easy due to their fashistic relation with government.

Hey everyone, I'm currently in graduate school for my masters in geology and am wondering about my job prospects and the moral implications surrounding them. Basically I have two options for work; the oil or mining industry. Since oil geologists don't have to be away from home at weeks/months at a time like mining geologists often do, I feel this is the best choice for me since I plan on having a family in the future. I would never want to have kids if I knew I had to be away from them for extended periods of time. Now that being said, there are moral concerns I have with working for a large oil company. Oil spills are something that come to mind and I don't know if I should feel at all morally responsible to a certain degree if one were to happen at the company I work for. My job would be most likely be to help find the oil resovoirs and primairly its the managers that cheap out / cut corners who are primarily responsible. Other than spills, there is general pollution surrounding oil, but I am not convinced global warming is substantially manmade. The other negative moral implication is that I'd be working for a corporation which is shielded by state power. As Stef has mentioned, if these companies mess up (like cause a spill), the exectutives are safe, backed by the government and don't have to pay for most of the damage they created. Now I understand without government, it wouldn't be like this, and fundamentally the companies are not the issue, its state power. That being said though, if I work for them I don't know how morally connected I would be to everything. This same relationship of state power and coprorations exists also in the mining industry as well, just not to the extent that it does with oil. Beside the percieved negative aspects morally of working for an oil company, I think there are some moral positives. Oil is obviously something we use every day. Anything we use has to be shipped using oil. Its something society relies on and I feel it would be would be rewarding to help find reserves. Let me know what you guys think about all of this. Do the positives outweigh the negatives in your view?