The Wholesome Photo of the Month Thu May 09, 2024 11:01 | Anti-Empire
In 3 War Years Russia Will Have Spent $3... Thu May 09, 2024 02:17 | Anti-Empire
UK Sending Missiles to Be Fired Into Rus... Tue May 07, 2024 14:17 | Marko Marjanović
US Gives Weapons to Taiwan for Free, The... Fri May 03, 2024 03:55 | Anti-Empire
Russia Has 17 Percent More Defense Jobs ... Tue Apr 30, 2024 11:56 | Marko Marjanović Anti-Empire >>
Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
Julian Assange is finally free ! Tue Jun 25, 2024 21:11 | indy
Stand With Palestine: Workplace Day of Action on Naksa Day Thu May 30, 2024 21:55 | indy
It is Chemtrails Month and Time to Visit this Topic Thu May 30, 2024 00:01 | indy
Hamburg 14.05. "Rote" Flora Reoccupied By Internationalists Wed May 15, 2024 15:49 | Internationalist left
Eddie Hobbs Breaks the Silence Exposing the Hidden Agenda Behind the WHO Treaty Sat May 11, 2024 22:41 | indy Human Rights in Ireland >>
Labour?s ?Mission-Driven? Government is the Antithesis of Liberty Tue Jul 23, 2024 17:30 | Dr David McGrogan Labour is "mission-driven", says Keir Starmer. But the last thing anyone should want is a Government with a mission, says David McGrogan. That's because a Government with a mission needs conscripts. That's you and me.
The post Labour’s “Mission-Driven” Government is the Antithesis of Liberty appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Victory! Hospitals That Brought Back Mask Mandates Backtrack After Complaints Tue Jul 23, 2024 15:30 | Dr Gary Sidley A victory in the mask wars! Two hospital providers that brought back mask mandates have backtracked and scrapped them following complaints from Daily Sceptic readers and Smile Free supporters.
The post Victory! Hospitals That Brought Back Mask Mandates Backtrack After Complaints appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Read it and Weep: The BBC Journalists Taking Home Six Figure Salaries Courtesy of the Licence Fee Pa... Tue Jul 23, 2024 13:45 | Will Jones Read it and weep: the list of the BBC journalists taking home six figure salaries courtesy of the licence fee payer. Disgraced presenter Huw Edwards came top with £475k despite being off air for nine months of the year.
The post Read it and Weep: The BBC Journalists Taking Home Six Figure Salaries Courtesy of the Licence Fee Payer appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
David Lammy: The Foreign Secretary Who Called Trump ?a Racist KKK and Nazi Sympathiser? and Refuses ... Tue Jul 23, 2024 12:43 | Peter Harris Britain's new Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, is on record calling Donald Trump "a racist KKK and Nazi sympathiser" and has refused to apologise. This is clearly going to be a problem, says Peter Harris.
The post David Lammy: The Foreign Secretary Who Called Trump “a Racist KKK and Nazi Sympathiser” and Refuses to Apologise appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Catching Covid Does Not Lower Your IQ Tue Jul 23, 2024 09:00 | Noah Carl Headlines earlier this year proclaimed that catching Covid may knock up to 6 points off your IQ. A new study punctures this claim: there was no decline in cognitive test scores after Covid infection.
The post Catching Covid Does Not Lower Your IQ appeared first on The Daily Sceptic. Lockdown Skeptics >>
Voltaire, international edition
Netanyahu soon to appear before the US Congress? It will be decisive for the suc... Thu Jul 04, 2024 04:44 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N°93 Fri Jun 28, 2024 14:49 | en
Will Israel succeed in attacking Lebanon and pushing the United States to nuke I... Fri Jun 28, 2024 14:40 | en
Will Netanyahu launch tactical nuclear bombs (sic) against Hezbollah, with US su... Thu Jun 27, 2024 12:09 | en
Will Israel provoke a cataclysm?, by Thierry Meyssan Tue Jun 25, 2024 06:59 | en Voltaire Network >>
|
Today is the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal catastrophe
international |
anti-capitalism |
opinion/analysis
Thursday December 03, 2009 15:20 by Feudal castrato
![Report this post to the editors Report this post to the editors](../graphics/report.gif)
Today is the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster . At the Union Carbide pesticide plant in the Indian city of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh on December 3, 1984. Around 12 AM, methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas and other toxins were released, resulting in the exposure of over 500,000 people. Estimates vary on the death toll - the official immediate death toll was 2,259, which rose greatly over time.
![Click on image to see full-sized version This is how they dress in the (western) factories when handling half the stuff you keep in your kitchen press or garden shed](../cache/imagecache/local/attachments/dec2009/460_0___30_0_0_0_0_0_pesticide.jpg) This is how they dress in the (western) factories when handling half the stuff you keep in your kitchen press or garden shed Today is the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal catastrophe.
Wikipedia has this to say:
"The Union Carbide (now Dow Chemical) disaster - also known as the Bhopal disaster or the Bhopal gas tragedy - was an industrial catastrophe that took place at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in the Indian city of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh on December 3, 1984. Around 12 AM, the plant released methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas and other toxins, resulting in the exposure of over 500,000 people. Estimates vary on the death toll - the official immediate death toll was 2,259, which rose greatly over time. The government of Madhya Pradesh has confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths related to the gas release.[1] Another source says that a few days later the death toll had doubled. Over the next few years, the lingering effects of the poison nearly doubled the toll again, to about 15,000, according to government estimates. Local activists say the real numbers are almost twice that.Others estimate 8,000-10,000 died within 72 hours and 25,000 have since died from gas-related diseases.
Some 25 years after the gas leak, 390 tonnes of toxic chemicals abandoned at the Union Carbide plant continue to leak and pollute the ground water in the region and affect thousands of Bhopal residents who depend on it, though there is some dispute as to whether the chemicals still stored at the site pose any continuing health hazard. There are currently civil and criminal cases related to the disaster ongoing in the United States District Court, Manhattan and the District Court of Bhopal, India against Union Carbide, now owned by Dow Chemical Company, with arrest warrants pending against Warren Anderson, CEO of Union Carbide at the time of the disaster. No one has yet been prosecuted."
The incident highlights the cavalier attitude of corporations to the welfare of their workers and to polluting the environment. Also it highlights in no uncertain terms the way such large corporations manage to wriggle out of their responsibilities time and time again, leaving a legacy of environmental degradation and human suffering.
Bhopal and the exxon valdez spill stand as stark reminders of how we cannot trust transnational corporations to behave themselves if left to their own devices. (recently, exxon mobil got off paying most of their paltry fine.) They also highlight the powerlessness of small communities or even whole countries to rein them in when they operate across national borders and play one country off against another when they don't get their way.
If we are to move towards a more humane and sustainable way of living then we need to address the nature of transnational corporations and find a workable mechanism to control their more sociopathic behaviour patterns. Of course the ability to dissolve a corporation is enshrined in US law but to my knowledge it has rarely ever been used. I wonder why?
Spare a thought for the long suffering people of Bhopal, many of whom have still yet to receive a penny of compensation after 25 years. And next time you are shopping, don't buy anything from corporate sources if they have a dubious ethical record. Of course that truly limits the amount of useless and poisonous crap that you can buy. But is that really such a bad thing?
Some links to get you started:
Exxon valdez:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon_valdez
Bhopal:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster
Guardian article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/03/bhopal-anni...e-gas
NDTV report:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uzmXeyJDCI
The corporation (a must watch!)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=320325380405504...l=en#
EXXON VALDEZ settlement info:
In 1994, a jury awarded plaintiffs $287 million in compensatory damages and $5 billion in punitive damages. Exxon appealed and the Ninth Circuit court reduced the punitive damages to $2.5 billion. Exxon then appealed the punitive damages to the Supreme Court which capped the damages to $507.5 million in June, 2008. On August 27, 2008, Exxon Mobil agreed to pay 75% of the $507.5 million damages ruling to settle the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska
|
View Full Comment Text
save preference
Comments (1 of 1)