Alda Yuan
Professor Alexandratos
MHC 200
Week 5 Response
Despite the probably political and practical unworkability, I believe there should indeed be liability for companies responsible for releasing pollutants. This should be especially true for companies who continued their practices after regulations were instituted but even companies discharging chemicals into rivers for instance, before the laws should be held responsible to some degree. In some cases, they may not have known of the dangers so it could be argued that it is unfair to penalize them. But it is equally unfair for society to bear the whole cost. Presuming the company is still in business, it has derived profit and benefits from the activities related to the pollution. Thus, it is only fair that they be expected to foot a portion of the costs. The fines as such would, ideally, not be crippling but at the very least, give a warning to corporations that they may not flout the law and disregard the health of their fellow “legal persons.” With our judicial system the way it is however, such penalties are unlikely to work as big businesses will fight tooth and nail in order to prevent themselves from paying the fine, and perhaps more importantly, helping to set a precedent for further government involvement. Of course, this is the same judicial system that offers all citizens due process and offers as much of a level playing field as individuals facing off against powerful opponents can hope to get and I’m not sure that the ends would justify the means of disrupting the judicial system.
Personally, I found the New Bedford case study to be fascinating, both in form and context. The study combines two disciplines, environmental science and history, in a way that results in a much more comprehensive and realistic look at the situation. Instead of offering a sort of slice in time, as many environmental studies tend to do, it pinpoints the sources and reasons for the prevalence of pollutants in the ecosystem. A study like this offers a lot of information that can aid the area being studied as well as help to inform remediation and improvement programs in other locales. It identifies the origins of different types of pollutants and the businesses that give rise to them. This gives information on what to expect from other areas that have had similar historical patterns. It also calls attention to the long term effects of human activities over a period of time and through multiple stages of industrialization.
In fact, I think this study should act as a model for others. Of course, not every city or area has as comprehensive of a history as New Bedford. Other polluted areas may not have records as complete as those enabling researchers to detail the types of chemical introduced into the environment at each stage of New Bedford’s development and how each wave of change altered the river shorelines. However, even the slightest bit of information about the industries that flourished in an area will provide scientists with information on how best to counteract the effects.
The issue of global warming has concerned me for a very long time. But in high school, it became very frustrating to care about because of the sheer scope of the problem and the amount of people who so vehemently denied any issue existed, including my high school biology teacher. Going to school in a relatively conservative town on Long Island meant frequent arguments and debates with both teachers and other students who refused to look at the data. Or, as my biology teacher did, asked us to take data on temperatures in our town over the last few years in an effort to have us prove that global temperatures were not in fact increasing. Therefore, it will be refreshing to learn the facts in an unbiased environment.
