This thread is for discussing Ch. 15 - Big Business and the Environment: Different Conditions, Different Outcomes.

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Edited by: misterpessimistic  at: 6/16/05 4:33 pm

This chapter provides some hope for the logging and fishing industries. The Forest Stewardship Council(FSC) and Marine Stewardship Council(MSC) seem to have the right idea. I am hoping that third party accreditation systems can be implemented in the mining and oil industries in the near future too.

Do you think that the self interest of corporations will be more successful in solving these problems than the self interest of national governments??

I worry about their dedication to the environmental goals when it appears the result will be losses to stockholders for the next generation or two for some given change that is required to save the natural resource.

You have seen how widespread and implacable is the corporate resistance to controlling greenhouse gases and to the idea of trying to reverse, or neutralize global warming.

I do like the fact that JD is able to find an exception or two in the industrial world, and has begun to articulate where long term environmental protection makes long term corporate success, and bigger profits.

Will that always be the case in the tough situations??

I sure like the optimism of JD, even if I do think it is pie in the sky, in my heart of hearts.

WW

I was heartened to read about how Chevron handles it's operations in New Guinea. Diamond states that the populations of indigenous fauna are MORE abundant throughout the range of the company's operations than outside of that sphere. This is because no hunting or fishing is allowed on the site.

The company realized that environmental concern would be more beneficial and cost effective than say to clean up a hugh (NOT hugh, huge) oil spill or other disaster.

Diamond explains that while there is environmental concern at the corporate level, it is in the interest of Chevron to respect the local people and their wishes, or they will simply close the operations down, as they happened to a mining operation that paid little attention to the environment and concerns of the citizens.

Even so, it was nice to read about how it business and conservation CAN co-exist and be profitable.

Mr .P.

The one thing of which I am positive is that there is much of which to be negative - Mr. P.

The pain in hell has two sides. The kind you can touch with your hand; the kind you can feel in your heart...Scorsese's "Mean Streets"

I came to kick ass and chew Bubble Gum...and I am all out of Bubble Gum - They Live, Roddy Piper