Taking Action, Saving Lives opens up with another infuriatingly frustrating problem to the environmental justice movement. As shown by the first couple of chapters, companies are given a ridiculous amount of freedoms by both the governing system and the public. As shown in the first chapter there are endless examples, studies, stories, and cases that show how harmful pollution is to the human race. However, there are not nearly as many cases of people being able to take control of their lives due to corporate power and persuasion. One of the problems with the current system governing the business world is that the business are in control of the majority of tools that regulate them. There are numerous examples in this book about CEOs of a company becoming government regulators of that same industry. What incentive is there for these people to actually regulate and more importantly, how the hell do we alllow this to happen? Another example of corporations having control over the governing system is the case studies provided on peoplel who have blown the whistle on bad company policies and practices. Shrader-Frechette presents examples where companies were able to actually kill a former employee in efforts to prevent information from getting out about their bad business. Another problem with the current regulation system, is that government officials are frequently considered to be underpaid for their work. This makes them open to extortion by companies and makes them a liability in their ability to actually do their jobs properly. There seems something inherently wrong with leaving the oversight of businesses in such a vulnerable position.
Another problem presented in this book is the battle between ethics/morality and personal interests. What has been shown by these first chapters is the continual battle employees face between being immoral for not blowing the whistle on their company for violations or poor practices, and the employee’s keeping their jobs. When companies are given the ability to fire and blacklist a person for blowing the whistle, they control the regulation. When they are able to prevent information from getting out, they control the regulation. When companies are able to avoid scrutiny by suppressing attempts at working towards justice, they control the regulation. When companies can pay to have problems overlooked, they control the system. Finally, when companies are able to control media through funding or lack of funding, they control the regulation. There is seemingly only so much we have left in our power anymore. In all of this i see a huge imbalance of power. Why are companies given so much control over the regulation that should govern how they are acting? What in our system has made us think that this is a good thing? Why isn’t there anything being done to correct this problem? Is it that the system is beyond repair?
So far it seems like the best course of action is the one in which the public create pressure on businesses to release correct information. In order to do this new regulations and regulatory methods need to be developed and implemented by the government. There needs to be an overhaul in the oversight of companies and a call to make them responsible for their actions.
