Small Steps Leading To Victory Case Study

Zallian’s (1997), A Civil Action chronicles the wrongful death suit fronted by personal-injury attorney Jan Schlichtmann against W.R. Grace and Company and Beatrice Foods for their roles in discarding toxic chemicals into the water supply of the Woburn, Massachusetts; allegedly causing the deaths of eight children, several adults and illnesses of countless others (Rainer, 1999). Seeking answers, an apology and an environmental overhaul; the families of the deceased children sought the legal counsel Schlichtmann, Conway and Crowley.

Capitalizing on Environmental Injustice: The Polluter-industrial Complex in the Age of Globalization by Daniel Faber

Toms River—the arrogance of companies in Ocean County, New Jersey affected the environment and human health from dumping waste, discharging acid-laced wastewater, and polluting the air and water exposed toxic chemicals that made children become at higher risk for cancer. Government negligence left these chemical companies avoid prosecution and dumping waste improperly became a common practice. The main idea from this book is the environment does impact your health significantly. Therefore, it is best when regulations are being managed and controlled. Also, studies should be approached in different ways to prove an evidence and remain open to new possibilities and exposures. The main problem in Toms River were regulations were not being enforced

As the world looks on, people start to realize that the problem of environmental pollution is a global

The purpose of this piece is to draw awareness to the many contradictions relating environmental justice movements and to create a society more conscious of decisions by considering consequences.

Comedian Robert Orben joked, “There is so much pollution in the air now that if it weren’t for our lungs there’d be no place to put it all.” As Homer Simpson famously said, this joke is “funny because it’s true.” The pollution of Earth has been going on for decades, but recently scientists have been pushing very hard for practices that do not harm our planet. In 2006, the first Environmental Performance Index (EPI) was published, ranking countries on how well they are protecting Earth with their policies and practices. Who doesn’t love a little competition? One would think America would love a competition, looking at their competitive market economy. But America is not faring well in this environmental competition.

Developing countries tend to have “the most fragile environments” (Baker 197) which is due to the flow of resources dictated by the core. The core, taking advantage of the developmental level developing countries are on, exploit their lack of laws restraining harm to the environment, setting up factories causing even more environmental damage. Thus when comparing the environmental status of a developed country to a developing country there are major differences. These differences are the interaction of the people with the environment, in terms of needs, and the number of factories profiteering from the use and exploitation of natural resources. When this difference is identified then it is easier to assess not only the source but also to create laws prohibiting this exploitation and constructing programs to reverse environmental damages to specific circumstances, helping developing countries to move forward on the developmental scale instead of backwards. If this is taken into account then why is the source causing environmental damage, the core, not stopped? This is due to the dominant ideology stating that with infinite economic growth, eventually the sustainability of the environment will be achieved. The developing countries reinforces this by inviting and encouraging organizations to base their factories in their country which has immediate results, creating a smoke screen

“Cleaning up China” written by Rana Foroohar, informed Americans about environmentalist Ma Jun’s efforts to reduce pollution in China. Foroohar is an assistant managing editor for Time magazine. She also speaks to millions of television news watchers across the world for CNN. Foroohar recently traveled to Beijing and had the opportunity to extensively interview Ma, who has developed the strategy of publishing some of the polluting companies’ environmental data online. Using the Internet, he planned to expose to the entire world how foreign companies and their suppliers are polluting China, using that exposure to persuade those businesses to change their policies. Those records quickly went viral, producing a substantial impact. “ A 2011 report on Apple, for instance resulted in a major effort to clean up environmental violation in the company’s supply chain” (Foroohar, par. 4). Apple is just one of the many companies trying to change their environmental impact on China, principally because they care about the image they project to the world. However, Ma Jun’s strategic plan is not limited only to major corporations but to convince the entire world to jump on the environmental bandwagon. Foroohar wrote, “The initial goal is to coax the SOEs to grab the low-hanging fruit—retrofitting coal-fired power plants to reduce the worst emissions or stopping overproduction of steel” (Foroohar, par. 6). However, according to the news reports on CNN as late as October

All forms of personal transportation account for “30 % of all U.S Global warming.” The oil will soon be “harder to extract”, which will end up creating more and more dirty emissions as well as harm the economy. Creating “Fuel efficient vehicles, Electric cars, and cleaner fuels” will help contribute to a solution for global warming problems but not permanently (UoCS Web). Big business have given an “up close” view of The damage caused through business practice. Because of this, big business have found time to adopt “environmental safeguards” to cover up environmental damage through “national parks." Siding with big business, “Some of the most powerful forces,” is one of the best ways of solving environmental problems (Diamond 16). Big business has large amounts of money that could be invested in new forms of cars that could be completely electric or have clean

Over the past couple of years, countries and companies alike have taken the steps to ensure their citizens or employees are living an economically friendly lifestyle. This can be achieved by recycling programs, motion activated lights, and producing products with sustainable materials that do no harm to the trees or atmosphere. While countries like the United States and those in Western Europe have the capabilities to achieve this with advanced technology, education, and funds, the more poor countries of Earth still have to surrender themselves to unethical solutions. It is not only businesses in these regions that make these crucial decisions, but the government as a whole. A current example is the Nicaragua Grand Canal that is deciding to

The industrial revolution in the 1800s enhanced the lives of the American citizens. No longer were cultivation and farming a chief concern; instead, manufacturing and machinery were the major improvements of that time. Still today, big corporations are looking for the next big thing that could aid citizens in their everyday lives. What is often ignored, however, are the environmental factors that are being affected by the decisions made by these industries. Harmful acid rain, smog, and buried nuclear wastes diseased the Northern continent where some places were deemed uninhabitable to the public because of the threatening health risks. Environmental laws and agencies were then created in the 1970s to shift the impact that corporations have on the environment. The unchecked power that big corporations have exhausted has enhanced the decline of environmental stability and initiated many territorial restrictions due to the careless actions of the company.

Pollution is a serious global issue that has been occurring for as long as humans have inhabited the planet. There are many different varieties of pollution, as well as an abundance of materials, both natural and synthetic, that the earth has been contaiminated with. Shifrin ( 2005), states: “To date, wastes remain a fact of life and there are only three places to dispose of wastes-air, water, or land. Waste management always involves tradeoffs.” (p. 676). Even though Shifrin is correct in his analysis, it does not excuse the amount of environmental poison that continues to exist today, nor the amount of environmental problems that it has caused throughout history. The “tradeoffs” of pollution have devastated entire communities, causing waves of sickness and death in their wake. According to Shifrin (2005):” Water-borne contagious disease still caused devastating epidemics in the early 1900s, compounded by growing, congested populations. Air pollution also grew to a high priority by midcentury because its impact was so observable and immediate.” (p. 676). Generally, these diseases were spread through poor sanitary practices as well as the overwhelming volume of pollution that was generated by so many indivduals with little knowledge about what the adverse effects on the overall environment would be.

Living in a highly industrialized world that is ruled by capitalism, the concern for the environment often takes a back seat. Individuals or companies nowadays prioritize achieving optimal profit without putting into mind what their respective actions or productions may have an effect on the environment. They do not realize how important the role of our environment plays in the quality of human life. We can say that a good environment leads to a better quality life, while a bad environment could lead to a harmful and unproductive life. Now, it becomes unfair and unjust when the risks and costs of a company affect a certain group of people and on the opposite side of the spectrum another group of individuals enjoy the benefits without costs. The individuals that are affected badly are usually from Third World Countries where the distribution of risk and costs are not even (Low and Gleeson 1999). This is where Environmental Justice comes in. Environmental Justice mainly concerns the welfare of human beings (Low and Gleeson 1999). Talking about cities where capitalism surges from, it has been argued that these cities are ‘unfairly structured’ (Low and Gleeson 1999). Basically, what this is saying is that the wealthier you are, the better or cleaner the environment. On the other hand, if you are poor, then the environment around you will have more health risks. This kind of injustice or disparity is what adds fuel to the fire of environmental justice. In

Environmental damage that is caused by just one individual is exclusively minor which causes it to be unnoticed, whereas a major group of people, such as a large corporation harming the environment at once causes major harm to society. More than a century of industrial development has caused negative environmental impacts such as global warming, ozone depletion, and air and water pollution. These are recognized as global environmental problems that need immediate solutions. Climate change, as an international environmental issue, is getting a great deal of attention as it has become a global issue. In the last few decades, there has been a heightened awareness of environmental issues by governments, policy makers, advocacy groups, business firms, and the public all over the world. The corporate role in this, the potentially most severe and all-encompassing of environmental disasters, is quite clear as business activities are effecting climate change negatively. This paper will argue that in order to minimize the negative effect of environmental harm and climate change, the undertakings of corporations should be structured and encouraged to perform in a socially responsible manner. This will be examined through the discussion on the legal structure of corporations and the desire of regulators and victims looking to hold them accountable for their environmental harm. It will be followed with a description of the importance of corporate social responsibility. This

Nowadays it is common to hear on the news about recent health and environmental scares especially with the increasing research done about the causes and effects of global warming. However, life just a century ago was very different. During the early twentieth century, people trusted industries. Therefore, they did not fight for government regulation of industries or the need for it to inform them about possible harmful practices done by industries. It took the deaths and emergence of illnesses of many workers and citizens for the public to start worrying. Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner discussed this time period with a focus on the lead and chemical industries in their book Deceit and Denial: the Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution.