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Canceled
By Michael Hanlon
Last updated at 8:35 AM on 11th June 2010
America's hands are far from clean when it comes to environmental disasters, as the list of examples here shows. Whenever U.S. firms have caused death and mayhem around the world, the response from their executives has been to call their lawyers and to deny any liability. And Washington's priority has usually been to protect its citizens and, especially, its shareholders at all costs.
Bhopal Tragedy: The chemical explosion blinded thousands, including this young mother seen here with her baby
• BHOPAL TRAGEDY
On the night of December 2 and 3, 1984, a 40-ton leak of methyl isocyanate gas from the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, caused the immediate deaths of at least 3,787 people, as a pale mist settled over the town. Thousands more were blinded and crippled by the disaster.
In the intervening years at least 20,000 have died prematurely from the leak, and 150,000 have suffered permanent health problems.
More...
Immediately after the disaster the CEO of Union Carbide, Warren Anderson, was arrested by Indian police when he visited Bhopal. He was released on bail and left the country.
Since then Anderson, who lives in comfortable retirement in the U.S., has avoided an international arrest warrant, and India has no extradition treaty with the U.S.
Indeed the U.S. government and American courts have repeatedly blocked attempts by survivors' groups and the Indian government to bring Anderson and other American executives to account, and very little of the $450million compensation package paid by Union Carbide has gone to the survivors (money that came not from the company but from its insurers).
This week, seven former Union Carbide managers, some in their seventies, were found guilty by an Indian court of causing death by negligence and sentenced to two years in prison. All were Indian nationals.
Not a single U.S. citizen has been punished for the disaster despite evidence emerging that the plant's owners were aware, before the tragedy took place, that faults existed in the Indian plant.
Exxon Valdez: The oil spill ravaged the Alaskan coast
• EXXON VALDEZ
When a quarter of a million barrels of oil leaked from the stricken supertanker Exxon Valdez in March 1989, it was considered the worst maritime environmental disaster in history.
The affected area lay wholly in U.S. territory, Prince William Sound in Alaska, and the ship was owned and operated by a U.S. firm.
Despite the impact on seals, birds, fish and other wildlife, Exxon fought hard to avoid paying the massive compensation decreed by the American courts, reducing an original penalty of $5billion to just $500million on appeal.
As usual, the American legal system acted fast to defend the interests of American corporations, even when their victims were American citizens (and sea creatures).
• TORREY CANYON
The worst oil spill in British history (and the world's first major maritime environmental incident) polluted miles of Cornish coastline, and cost the local tourist industry tens of millions of pounds.
The 1967 disaster involved an American supertanker, the Torrey Canyon, which had been chartered by British Petroleum. It ran aground on a reef off the Scilly Isles, and broke up; the subsequent clean-up operation cost the UK and French governments tens of millions of pounds.
Attempts to recover any cash from the tanker's owners proved almost impossible. At one point, a young British lawyer, Anthony O'Connor, served a writ against the owners by sneaking aboard the Torrey Canyon's sister ship, the Lake Palourde, when she was moored in Singapore. He got aboard by pretending to be a whisky salesman and stuck his writ to the mast.
French naval speedboats chased the Lake Palourde but were unable to board her and serve their writ on behalf of Paris.
Sir Elwyn Jones, the Attorney General, told Parliament, seven months after the disaster that the Barracuda Tanker Corporation was trying to limit its liability in the U.S. courts to just $50.
In the end, compensation of £3million was paid, a small fraction of the clean-up costs and costs to the tourism industry.
Torrey Canyon: The worst spill in UK history
• PIPER ALPHA
On July 6, 1988, 167 people were killed when the North Sea oil rig Piper Alpha exploded in a sheet of flame.
The rig lay about 120 miles northeast of Aberdeen, in the British North Sea Sector. It was wholly owned by Occidental Petroleum, based in Los Angeles, California.
An inquiry found Occidental Petroleum partially liable, on the grounds of inadequate safety and maintenance procedures, but no prosecutions followed.
Despite the catastrophic loss of life (more than 15 times as many were killed as by Deepwater Horizon) and the devastating economic consequences of losing some 10 per cent of total North Sea production, there was no anti-American rhetoric at the time from the Thatcher government.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ter-strikes-US-NEVER-blame.html#ixzz0qY1Nze64
Last updated at 8:35 AM on 11th June 2010
America's hands are far from clean when it comes to environmental disasters, as the list of examples here shows. Whenever U.S. firms have caused death and mayhem around the world, the response from their executives has been to call their lawyers and to deny any liability. And Washington's priority has usually been to protect its citizens and, especially, its shareholders at all costs.
Bhopal Tragedy: The chemical explosion blinded thousands, including this young mother seen here with her baby
• BHOPAL TRAGEDY
On the night of December 2 and 3, 1984, a 40-ton leak of methyl isocyanate gas from the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, caused the immediate deaths of at least 3,787 people, as a pale mist settled over the town. Thousands more were blinded and crippled by the disaster.
In the intervening years at least 20,000 have died prematurely from the leak, and 150,000 have suffered permanent health problems.
More...
- GEOFFREY WHEATCROFT: America's ALWAYS tried to do down Britain
- ALEX BRUMMER: This great British company faces death by a thousand cuts
- MARY ELLEN SYNON: Why is Cameron surprised at Obama's views on 'British Petroleum'?
- MAIL COMMENT: Time for Mr Cameron to speak up for BP
- Stand up for your country, Mr Cameron: PM ducks chance to speak up for BP after cynical attacks from Obama
- Predators circle BP, the stricken British giant
- CHRIS LEADBEATER: Don't let compassion fatigue disguise how much stands to be lost to this oil
Immediately after the disaster the CEO of Union Carbide, Warren Anderson, was arrested by Indian police when he visited Bhopal. He was released on bail and left the country.
Since then Anderson, who lives in comfortable retirement in the U.S., has avoided an international arrest warrant, and India has no extradition treaty with the U.S.
Indeed the U.S. government and American courts have repeatedly blocked attempts by survivors' groups and the Indian government to bring Anderson and other American executives to account, and very little of the $450million compensation package paid by Union Carbide has gone to the survivors (money that came not from the company but from its insurers).
This week, seven former Union Carbide managers, some in their seventies, were found guilty by an Indian court of causing death by negligence and sentenced to two years in prison. All were Indian nationals.
Not a single U.S. citizen has been punished for the disaster despite evidence emerging that the plant's owners were aware, before the tragedy took place, that faults existed in the Indian plant.
Exxon Valdez: The oil spill ravaged the Alaskan coast
• EXXON VALDEZ
When a quarter of a million barrels of oil leaked from the stricken supertanker Exxon Valdez in March 1989, it was considered the worst maritime environmental disaster in history.
The affected area lay wholly in U.S. territory, Prince William Sound in Alaska, and the ship was owned and operated by a U.S. firm.
Despite the impact on seals, birds, fish and other wildlife, Exxon fought hard to avoid paying the massive compensation decreed by the American courts, reducing an original penalty of $5billion to just $500million on appeal.
As usual, the American legal system acted fast to defend the interests of American corporations, even when their victims were American citizens (and sea creatures).
• TORREY CANYON
The worst oil spill in British history (and the world's first major maritime environmental incident) polluted miles of Cornish coastline, and cost the local tourist industry tens of millions of pounds.
The 1967 disaster involved an American supertanker, the Torrey Canyon, which had been chartered by British Petroleum. It ran aground on a reef off the Scilly Isles, and broke up; the subsequent clean-up operation cost the UK and French governments tens of millions of pounds.
Attempts to recover any cash from the tanker's owners proved almost impossible. At one point, a young British lawyer, Anthony O'Connor, served a writ against the owners by sneaking aboard the Torrey Canyon's sister ship, the Lake Palourde, when she was moored in Singapore. He got aboard by pretending to be a whisky salesman and stuck his writ to the mast.
French naval speedboats chased the Lake Palourde but were unable to board her and serve their writ on behalf of Paris.
Sir Elwyn Jones, the Attorney General, told Parliament, seven months after the disaster that the Barracuda Tanker Corporation was trying to limit its liability in the U.S. courts to just $50.
In the end, compensation of £3million was paid, a small fraction of the clean-up costs and costs to the tourism industry.
Torrey Canyon: The worst spill in UK history
• PIPER ALPHA
On July 6, 1988, 167 people were killed when the North Sea oil rig Piper Alpha exploded in a sheet of flame.
The rig lay about 120 miles northeast of Aberdeen, in the British North Sea Sector. It was wholly owned by Occidental Petroleum, based in Los Angeles, California.
An inquiry found Occidental Petroleum partially liable, on the grounds of inadequate safety and maintenance procedures, but no prosecutions followed.
Despite the catastrophic loss of life (more than 15 times as many were killed as by Deepwater Horizon) and the devastating economic consequences of losing some 10 per cent of total North Sea production, there was no anti-American rhetoric at the time from the Thatcher government.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ter-strikes-US-NEVER-blame.html#ixzz0qY1Nze64
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