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from the somebody-should-invent-a-cleaner-world dept.
Ever more the light seems to be shining in dark spots, and the cockroaches scatter. The Huffington Post reveals today that DuPont has knowingly been poisoning a small farm and community for decades, desperately trying to dump and hide the environmental, social, and medical fallout of their chemical C8. Despite their efforts, the scandal behind C8 cannot be so easily pushed down inside a landfill and forgotten like a painfully produced Atari video game. From the TFA:
That May, a group of DuPont executives gathered at the company's Wilmington headquarters to discuss the C8 issue. According to the minutes, attendees discussed recently adopted plans to cut C8 emissions at Washington Works, such as adding scrubbers to vents that spewed the chemical into the air. But they decided to scrap these initiatives. The additional expense was not "justified," the executives concluded, since it wouldn't substantially reduce the company's liability. "Liability was further defined as the incremental liability from this point on if we do nothing as we are already liable for the past 32 years of operation," the minutes read. "From a broader corporate viewpoint the costs are small."
One might think we would have learned our lessons from poisoning the world with lead, but clearly these executives never got the memo. Quite strange, given they're from the same company. I'm almost speechless at the scope of the harm and damage, knowingly and premeditatively, performed against all of humanity worldwide. The Chinese government announced today the arrests, and more than likely inevitable executions, of a score of executives and officials responsible for the Tianjin port explosions.
At what point does the harm that executives, in companies such as DuPont, meet thresholds high enough to discuss special prosecutions and the death penalty? When even China, who lacks a strong history of supporting human rights and consumer protections, recognizes that some executives and officials need to be "criminally detained" and ultimately dealt with, when can we in the so-called civilized Western societies perform the same? We've yet to even slow DuPont down.
[More after the Break]
DSM-IV Definition. Antisocial personality disorder is characterized by a lack of regard for the moral or legal standards in the local culture. There is a marked inability to get along with others or abide by societal rules. Individuals with this disorder are sometimes called psychopaths or sociopaths.
From the quote in the article (emphasis mine), can any reasonable person conclude that these executives do not need to be handed life sentences in prison at a minimum? It's not hyperbole to say that I could walk into a church, make racists statements, kill a half a dozen people, and receive a much harsher sentence than a group of executives that knowingly caused birth defects, miscarriages, cancers, among a myriad of other serious health conditions, up to and including grisly and pointless deaths. More maddeningly, to be commensurate, I would need to have children and begin a multi-generational attack on my fellow citizens to come close to what DuPont executives have done against a single community, much less the world.
It may be time to seriously, and a civilized manner, begin discussing how to bring these executives up on criminal charges, and even executing them. Especially helpful to remember in these discussions, that it is now TWICE that DuPont has knowingly poisoned the world and harmed MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS of our fellow human beings . Forget about our reputation in the world now; We're the country that has deliberately been destroying the world for profit, and all of the documents and science exist to prove it.
So.... do we need a third time from the same company before we can start talking about preventative measures and justice?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Friday August 28 2015, @05:34PM
China can dispense with such things as statutes and independent trials.
Here we'd probably have to pass new laws, which then wouldn't and couldn't retroactively apply to this set of executives.
Moving from the ethics of the story to the practicalities, here's an unpleasant thought I haven't seen elsewhere.
One widespread use of Teflon is lubricating and sealing threaded connections on water supply pipes. There's Teflon tape all through our drinking water plumbing. Unless it was made with a PFOA-free process ...
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Friday August 28 2015, @06:39PM
Hmm.. you're probably right about the "independent trials" part.
However, I disagree strongly with your "China can dispense with such things as statutes" part.
I don't think they can have a society of 1350 million people without Rule of Law.
Maybe they just have environmental and safety laws that say (paraphrased): "If you fuck up like those managers, corporate oversight people, and environmental inspectors in Tianjin or Shijiazhuang [wikipedia.org], you die. You get hanged in public, shamed(*), and your family can pay for the rope."
(*) maybe this is the worst punishment of the two, I'm not familiar with Han cultural norms.
For psychopaths and sociopaths in leading rôles in Chinese corporations, this means an additional risk cost factor to calculate with, in their decision process to poison villages for profit, or refrain from it.
How else to improve corporate responsibility??
I once read an anecdote of a director of Otis the elevator company, who ordered a public demonstration of their modern elevator's brakes; he and other important people of the company invited the press, boarded a lift, and ordered somebody upstairs to cut the lift cable. Better advertisement for your product there is not.
I bet you'd run a fireworks factory or a sausage factory much more "cleanly", if you were forced to live nextdoor to it. Then, if new scientific facts are discovered pertinent to your factory, like the carcinogenity of asbestos or benzene, it's suddenly your own children's lives on the line.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday August 28 2015, @08:13PM
I believe that proper enforcement of existing laws would find them guilty of murder for gain. Certainly if the records say what the summary says they say.
This doesn't mean I expect proper enforcement, but don't call for new laws when existing laws are already specifically apt.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Friday August 28 2015, @08:17PM
Good point. BUT...
Water pipe seldom uses teflon tape. You would most likely find teflon tape on threaded joints like spigots for garden hoses and washing machines or speedy valves (industry term used in NY), the valves that connect plumbing fixtures like toilets and sinks to the piping using compression fittings. Most copper piping systems use all sweated joints with only a few, if any, threaded joints. Modern homes use either PEX, PVC or copper with sweated joint using lead free solder. Though, there is still plenty of leaded solder joints in copper pipes. And many people still have lead water mains running into their homes. I'd be much more worried about the lead.