Katherine Elliot

Professor Stephens
Environmental Policy and Ethics
2 March 2018

Big Business and Environmental Justice: Can anything be done?

In our modern age, the concept of Environmental Justice is at the forefront of

environmental discussions. Environmental Justice is “the fair treatment and meaningful

involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the

development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and

policies” (EPA). Many of the issues regarding environmental justice have to do with the unfair

treatment of marginalized communities at the hand of big business.

While corporations propel the vast engine of consumer satisfaction, many are also

responsible for significant environmental destruction (VanDeVeer and Pierce 546). Since

business always aim to increase revenue at minimal costs, they often end up creating incredibly

negative environmental impacts in low-income, predominantly minority-based communities.

This is because areas of land in these communities are often easy for large companies to acquire

due to their inexpensive price and minimal pushback from community members. Community

members do not not fight against these large corporations due to lack of interest, but often

because of a lack of time, funds, or effective representations in government. According to

Deeohn Ferris, an attorney for the National Wildlife Federation, “minorities bear a greater

burden from lead positioning, airborne toxins and contaminated drinking water” (546). This

condition is environmental racism. An example that demonstrates how big businesses often

create environmental injustices is the disaster that occured in Bhopal, India at the hands of Union

Carbide chemicals.
 In December 1984, in the middle of the night, a Union Carbide pesticide plant located in

Bhopal, India leaked toxic gas to unsuspecting citizens. Over 500,00 people dealt with exposure

to methyl isocyanate gas and other chemicals (Varma and Daya). This gas caused blindness,

internal bleeding, and death to many citizens living in the shantytowns located next to the

chemical plant. The American company, Union Carbide, originally placed the plant in this

location in India because of the cheap land. The already settled community members of Bhopal

were not going to move after the plant the establishment of the plant and thus, were vulnerable to

one of the worst industrial disasters of all time. In the time since the Bhopal incident in 1984, the

citizens of Bhopal are still facing grave effects of the chemical spill. Union Carbide never made

any substantial efforts to help clean up the toxic waste released into the environment that night.

Instead, the company abandoned the plant, with toxic radiation still present. People still live very

close to the now deserted factory. These people face impacts of the spill in the form of cancers,

birth defects, asthma, genetic mutations and much more. Despite all of this, there are no real

efforts from Union Carbide to help the survivors and prevent any increased damage. Further,

representatives of the Indian government are not enacting any policy to help the survivors, or

holding the American company liable. This horrid environmental injustice still impacts many

people today.

In light of the Bhopal disaster and other incidents of big business creating environmental

injustices, it is easy to see why many would assume that in the fight to mediate environmental

justice issues, we must dismantle and attack these big business. However, I think that this

approach is unrealistic for our modern times. I propose that instead of working to dismantle these

incredibly powerful systems of big business, we instead rework the system and create businesses

that are environmentally-conscious from the start. This can occur at first by creating incentives
for businesses to have locations and practices that do not create environmental injustices. Such as

giving subsidies to those companies that do not ship waste to lower income areas or who

minimize what they release into the environment. By doing this, business must reflect on who

they are impacting and how they can change the problem. Then, in the future, new businesses

will start adhering to these guidelines, changing the way the relationship between business and

the environment.

Word Count: 673

Question: Is there anyway to address environmental justice issues holistically? Or are solutions

bound to be negative towards one industry or a certain group of people?

Works Cited

"Environmental Justice." EPA. March 06, 2018. Accessed March 08, 2018.

https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice.
VanDeVeer, Donald, and Christine Pierce. The Environmental Ethics & Policy Book:

Philosophy, Ecology, Economics. 3rd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning,

2014.

Varma, Roli; Daya R. Varma (2005). "The Bhopal Disaster of 1984". Bulletin of Science,

Technology and Society)