International Firms Should Be Held Accountable for Ecological Disaster
Natural disasters are different from environmental disasters. Natural disasters mainly are
floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tsunamis. In contrast, environmental disaster is
caused by human activity or the industry. The environmental disasters included Bhopal Chemical
Spill Disaster, Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, and the Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill. We all know
natural disasters are cause by nature; therefore, no one should be held liable. On the other hand,
environmental disasters are caused by human being, so the firm should be held accountable.
Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) was asked to build a plant for pesticide in the 1970s.
The Indian government had 22 percent in UCC’s subsidiary, Union Carbide India Limited
(UCIL). According to Broughton (2005), due to the decrease profitability and no buyer in 1984,
the facility of UCC continued to operate with safety equipment and procedures beyond the
standards. On December 3, 1984, water leaked into a tank that contains 40 tons of methyl
isocyanate (MIC) and caused the MIC to heat up. The MIC was spread across the city of Bhopal,
India, when residents are sleeping. It was too late when people started to notice what had happen.
It killed at least 3,800 people immediately and about 10,000 people died from the incident within
few days. Between 15,000 and 20,000 people are reported with premature deaths in the
following two decades after the gas leaked.
UCC began to deny itself from responsibility for the gas leak and shift all the blame to
UCIL, stating the plant was built and operated by the Indian subsidiary. UCC accepted moral
responsibility and paid $470 million in compensation, and each family received approximately
$2,200 (Broughton, 2005). The compensation is not enough for a long term health consequences
of gas leaked exposure. I believe UCC should be held liable for this occurrence because they
know something bad is going on with the plant before the leak, and they did not tell the residents
to evacuate. If they tell the public before things went wrong, maybe there would not be
tremendous deaths and the company would not need to pay the compensation.
According to Dorsett (2010), the Alaskan Oil Spill, or the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill was the
worst environmental disasters in history prior the BP Oil Disaster. On March 24, 1989, the tanker
ran into the Bligh Reef in the Prince William Sound of Alaska. There are different versions of
how it hit into the reef. Some said because of a drunken mate failed to control the ship properly
while the captain provided poor navigation. Some argued that the radar was broken and disabled
before the incident. Regardless of the reasons, it caused about 11 million gallons of crude oil
leaked into Prince William Sound. According to Researchers Track Crude’s Wandering Trail (as
cited in Dorsett, 2010) , “The oil had many reactions after being spilled, some evaporated, some
dissolved, some dispersed, some sank, some was broken down by bacteria and digested by sea
life, and some washed up on the beaches of the Alaskan shore.” It is bad for Alaskan’s health
when the oil evaporated in air.
Exxon had to pay at least one billion dollars to cover the loss of fishing industry and the
cleanup (Dorsett, 2010). If Exxon has known the radar is broken and has done nothing because
it was expensive to fix it, Exxon should be held liable for what had happened. If Exxon would
know what will happen, I bet they want to fix the radar instead of causing an environmental
disaster. If it was the drunken mate fault, Exxon still need to be held liable. Exxon should have a
policy for employees not to get drunk while working.
If the Alaskan Oil Spill sounded bad for the environment, the Gulf Oil Bp Disaster is the
worst in history as now. This spill happened on April 20, 2010, and it lasted over 87 days. It
leaked about 4.9 million barrels of oil in the Gulf of Mexico (Michel et al., 2013). According to
Mullins (2010), this incident was caused by eight different safety systems: cement, valve failures,
pressure test misinterpreted, leak was not spotted soon, no gas alarm, no battery for blowout
preventer, and overwhelmed separator. As the result, 11 people were killed in the explosion. The
reason why this oil spill is the worst in history is because it killed people and it leaked for 87
days. It can be leaked into the states which is the border of Gulf of Mexico. This is a corporate’s
fault for not noticing the safety procedure went wrong and not perceiving the oil spill soon
enough to minimized the damage and danger.
References
Broughton, E. (2005, May 10). The Bhopal Disaster and Its Aftermath. National Center for
Biotechnology Information. Retrieved April 27, 2014, from
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1142333/. doi: 10.1186/1476-069X-4-6
Dorsett, M. (2010, October 20). Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Continued Effects On The Alaskan
Economy. Scholar Works. Retrieved April 28, 2014, from
http://scholarworks.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1020&context=caaurj
Michel, J., & Owens, E. (2013, June 12). Extent and Degree of Shoreline Oiling: Deepwater
Horizon Oil Spill, Gulf of Mexico, USA. PLOS ONE. Retrieved April 28, 2014, from
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0065087. doi:
10.1371/journal.pone.0065087
Mullins, J. (2010, September 08). The Eight Failures That Caused the Gulf Oil Spill. New
Scientist. Retrieved April 28, 2014, from http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19425the-eight-failures-that-caused-the-gulf-oil-spill.html#.U14Db_ldVcg