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The Bhopal disaster is almost old enough to buy a drink in a bar in California.
People like to invoke the Chernobyl accident as the exemplar of modern industrial disasters, but Bhopal was so much worse -- and there has been no evacuation, no relocation, no remediation of the poisoned land around the factory.
On the night of December 2, 1984, after the release of a toxic gas cloud from the Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal, India, at least 3800 people died (so says Union Carbide: municipal workers who handled the bodies put it at 15,000). Many died withiin the first few minutes. The government of India has not undertaken a massive cleanup of the site, nor a massive relocation of the people who live there. They were all very poor even before the accident -- chemical plants are, after all, much more likely to be located in slums than in gated communities. Union Carbide's response was: 1.to deny responsibility for the event 2.to reorganize themselves into a subsidiary of Dow Chemical so that they had no legal existence 3. to claim that the Indian government lacks the jurisdiction to extradite, charge, and try the senior executives in charge of the Bhopal plant 4. to give the Indian government $470 million as compensation for the victims -- which meant, because of the enormity of the disaster, about $300-500 for those who got compensated (many did not).
Lingering effects -- cancer, birth defects, lingering illnesses, early death. The soil is contaminated. The water is undrinkable, but having no other water, many drink it. The air is unbreathable, but having no other air to breathe, they breathe it. SInce the contamination has not been cleaned up, it spreads. What they call the "plume" of poison grows.
Union Carbide built the plant with no safeguards to maintain a toxic gas leak. The safety procedures in place were: find the leak. Check the wind direction. Move upwind. That's all.
India's efforts to hold Union Carbide and its executives responsible for the disaster are hampered not only by the US Justice Department;s refusal to extradite the executives, but India's own reluctance to irritate international conglomerates like Dow. India's current economic boom is dependent on the investments of these corporations. But while some Indians are sharing in the wealth generated by this investment, poor Indians are not. Every week there's more evidence of it. Valleys being flooded and the inhabitants displaced against their will and without adequate plans for their relocation and employment. Coca-Cola poisoning Indians in multiple ways -- selling byproducts as fertilizer that are contaminated with heavy metals, selling a product contaminated with heavy metals, one which could not be sold in the United States. Children in bonded labor situations -- oh, here we have those sub-contractors for whom the international corporations who buy from them hold no responsibility.
So. Here's the thing. Germany is under pressure to relax its labor laws and drop its corporate taxes. Estonia says their low-tax, free-market model is the one the rest of Europe should adopt. Here in the United States we have an administration devoted to dismantling environmental protection laws and labor laws. And, not coincidentally, pushing increased rights for corporations and diminished responsibilities.
Bhopal was an "accident." But it was, in another way, no accident. It was the inevitable consequence of unleashed capitalism. And if we continue to let the corporations dictate the rules, we can expect more Bhopals. Not because Dow and Coca-Cola intend to kill many thousands of people and to poison the land. Because they don't care enough to keep it from happening: they can't care enough. Because profit is the bottom line.
Okay, some links:
http://www.bhopal.org/index.html
http://www.bhopal.com/ -- Union Carbide's statement
http://www.mad-dow-disease.com/tour/main.htm
http://www.bhopalexpress.com/
http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Library/9175/inquiry1.htm -- child labor in India
People like to invoke the Chernobyl accident as the exemplar of modern industrial disasters, but Bhopal was so much worse -- and there has been no evacuation, no relocation, no remediation of the poisoned land around the factory.
On the night of December 2, 1984, after the release of a toxic gas cloud from the Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal, India, at least 3800 people died (so says Union Carbide: municipal workers who handled the bodies put it at 15,000). Many died withiin the first few minutes. The government of India has not undertaken a massive cleanup of the site, nor a massive relocation of the people who live there. They were all very poor even before the accident -- chemical plants are, after all, much more likely to be located in slums than in gated communities. Union Carbide's response was: 1.to deny responsibility for the event 2.to reorganize themselves into a subsidiary of Dow Chemical so that they had no legal existence 3. to claim that the Indian government lacks the jurisdiction to extradite, charge, and try the senior executives in charge of the Bhopal plant 4. to give the Indian government $470 million as compensation for the victims -- which meant, because of the enormity of the disaster, about $300-500 for those who got compensated (many did not).
Lingering effects -- cancer, birth defects, lingering illnesses, early death. The soil is contaminated. The water is undrinkable, but having no other water, many drink it. The air is unbreathable, but having no other air to breathe, they breathe it. SInce the contamination has not been cleaned up, it spreads. What they call the "plume" of poison grows.
Union Carbide built the plant with no safeguards to maintain a toxic gas leak. The safety procedures in place were: find the leak. Check the wind direction. Move upwind. That's all.
India's efforts to hold Union Carbide and its executives responsible for the disaster are hampered not only by the US Justice Department;s refusal to extradite the executives, but India's own reluctance to irritate international conglomerates like Dow. India's current economic boom is dependent on the investments of these corporations. But while some Indians are sharing in the wealth generated by this investment, poor Indians are not. Every week there's more evidence of it. Valleys being flooded and the inhabitants displaced against their will and without adequate plans for their relocation and employment. Coca-Cola poisoning Indians in multiple ways -- selling byproducts as fertilizer that are contaminated with heavy metals, selling a product contaminated with heavy metals, one which could not be sold in the United States. Children in bonded labor situations -- oh, here we have those sub-contractors for whom the international corporations who buy from them hold no responsibility.
So. Here's the thing. Germany is under pressure to relax its labor laws and drop its corporate taxes. Estonia says their low-tax, free-market model is the one the rest of Europe should adopt. Here in the United States we have an administration devoted to dismantling environmental protection laws and labor laws. And, not coincidentally, pushing increased rights for corporations and diminished responsibilities.
Bhopal was an "accident." But it was, in another way, no accident. It was the inevitable consequence of unleashed capitalism. And if we continue to let the corporations dictate the rules, we can expect more Bhopals. Not because Dow and Coca-Cola intend to kill many thousands of people and to poison the land. Because they don't care enough to keep it from happening: they can't care enough. Because profit is the bottom line.
Okay, some links:
http://www.bhopal.org/index.html
http://www.bhopal.com/ -- Union Carbide's statement
http://www.mad-dow-disease.com/tour/main.htm
http://www.bhopalexpress.com/
http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Library/9175/inquiry1.htm -- child labor in India