The Legality of Corporate Actions

I’ve decided to make my final blog an informative message on corporations in general. I want to make sure people understand how they gained power and influence and why they are a driving force in our society and societies across the globe.

Corporations are a legal entity under the law. This has many implications that make incorporation of your business an attractive option for entrepreneurs. It allows people to engage in profit making while facing very few consequences. A corporation is owned by shareholders and operated by the appointed directors. Shareholders invest in the business but play a passive role in the workings of the company. Decisions are made by the directors who are theoretically held accountable by the shareholders. The priority of a corporation is to make money; in fact, this is their legal obligation. Supervisors have to use the methods that will increase their profits. Since shareholders can be a incredibly diverse group of people, profit is the one thing they all have in common.

Since the owners of a corporation are completely uninvolved in the process of the business, they have what is called limited liability. This means that they cannot be held responsible for any actions taken by the company. Who is? The "corporation" itself! It’s a person under the law so it can be sued just like a person can. It can also sue other people, which happens most often in cases where their "right" to make money is infringed upon. What happens in this system is that the moral and ethical issues surrounding an action are thrown out the door. Once again, profits are the top priority.

When corporations have limited liability they can cut all sorts of corners and take advantage of all sorts of people. This principle is at the root of all the situations I have previously discussed. Companies get away with atrocities because the people making the decisions behind it don’t think they can be held accountable. The only time this changes is when a company realizes that is it in their best interest to behave themselves. A recent trend in marketing is "greenwashing", where corporations (and businesses in general) advertise "organic" or "eco-friendly" products. This isn’t because doing so makes them feel all warm and fuzzy. It’s because it will increase their profits. Without a legal definition for some of these terms people’s goodwill can easily be exploited.

Many corporate crimes have escalated in nature with the globalization of our world. Globalization has been a long time coming. The Silk Road was a trade route in ancient times that brought cultures and ideas together. Making the world smaller presents opportunities and encourages diversity. It also gives transnational corporations a vast market of people to capitalize on. We get products imported from across the globe and think nothing of it.

Our world is not so small that importing and exporting cheap goods doesn’t have vast implications. Our environment is compromised and we can maintain a sense of detachment to people across the world. We MUST remember that each thing we buy is a vote. Think of every product in your purchases. Think of every product that went into making that product. Think of all energy that was taken to create it. Think of the people who made it. Think of their lives and how you have the power to make them better.

          Here are some resources that I have found helpful in the making of this blog. There's a ton of information to be found if you just go looking.
http://www.corporations.org/
http://www.stopcorporateabuse.org/

The Toxicity of our Beauty Industry

We often hear about all the harmful chemicals that can be found in cosmetics. Women are the main targets but men should aware that it’s not just makeup that can have harmful effects on your system. Shampoos, lotions, deodorants and sunscreens can have harmful implications as well. When I refer to cosmetics in this post it is used loosely for all products that are used to have some sort of effect on our appearances.

          For starters I will direct you to an excellent website called SkinDeep Cosmetics Database. It’s a cosmetics database that has ratings for thousands and thousands of products. It gives us consumers an easy way to tell what is safe for us to use. On a side note there is a similar website for a broader range of products called Goodguide.com. Back to cosmetics! David Suzuki has got on board with the cause. He recently published a list of the “Dirty Dozen” cosmetic chemicals to avoid. It makes it easy for people to keep an eye out for the particularly harmful chemicals.

          Many people claim that all these ingredients in our cosmetics will undoubtedly kill us. While it is true that a lot of these chemicals are harmful in certain situations, gross exaggerations can easily be made. In a lot of instances the chemicals are harmful, they are only harmful in large doses. We may be surprised to find out how many toxins we consume that our body can handle. I’m also assuming that the people reading this aren’t using things like skin whiteners. There are many cosmetics that are simply a bad idea. This being said, it is good to have awareness and be careful about what we rub all over our skin.

          Cosmetics are not regulated the same way that food is, it wasn’t very long ago that Canada made it law to list all the ingredients in cosmetics. Europe is much further along than North America when it comes to testing the effects of and regulating certain substances. If you’re really interested in what’s in your cosmetics that information is out there. Since cosmetics are not regulated the companies are free to use chemicals as they please.

          A fair amount of carcinogens go into things we consume and it’s important that we begin to isolate them. Did you know that some sunscreens contain photocarcinogens? That means that they cause cancer when expose to light. Yes, some sunscreens do the very opposite of what you are trying to do by using them. It’s completely absurd that companies can get away with this stuff. For this reason we have to make conscious choices and cannot let ourselves fall victim to the risks taken by cosmetic companies. Lucky for us there are many resources available for us. Campaigns to encourage companies to share their ingredients are underway at this very moment. People across North America are choosing to but cosmetics they can trust, some are even making their own! Whatever your choice may be, make it an informed one. 

The Fate of Our Clothing

Did you know that to get that used and comfy look on a new pair of jeans there is an underpaid worker somewhere in a developing country that is literally sanding the dye off those jeans? Somewhere nearby their fellow worker is tearing holes so that you can get the look you want. The tearers may consider themselves lucky; the dust from the jeans is an irritant to the lungs and that poor sander has to wear a mask all day long. It’s hard to thing about all the atrocities that are committed in the name of fashion.

The reason that sweatshops and underpaid/dangerous labour has become a problem is because of globalization. As some corporations look to find cheaper means of production they find it where people are most desperate. In developing countries many people are happy to have a job at all. It’s the only way for them to survive and care for their families. Buying clothes made by people in these situations may sound good in theory but really we are contributing to their misfortune.



Garment Workers



 In North America we have a very large price range when it comes to clothes. Unfortunately when we splurge and go the higher-end stuff, we are paying for the brand. That $50 shirt from Guess probably cost the same to produce as the $5 shirt from Wal-mart. This is because many of these companies use foreign labourers to do the dirty work and pay them very little for it. Good thing it’s easy for us to know whether or not our clothing was made by a 9-year-old girl working 10-hour days! We can check the label. If it says that the clothing was made in an underdeveloped country you can bet that it was made by someone who putting themselves in danger to produce that item for you.

Sweatshops may support a local economy to an extent, but the corporations have the money to be paying people properly! If they don’t then they shouldn’t be in business. Many of us will shell out the big bucks to get the brand we want. I like to think that we would do the same if the company could guarantee that the item of clothing was made sustainably and by treating their workers fairly. A lot of these workers may be happy for a job, but that’s because they don’t have a choice. Our consumerist nature is exploiting them as well as their resources. In a previous blog I mentioned a company called Monsanto. They are a perfect example of this principle as they make it hard for local farmers to find a place in the market. The garment industry works the same way.  Local producers can’t get a proper footing in the market if a transnational corporation is producing clothes more cheaply.

Going beyond the means of production I’ll now tell you about the means of disposal. There’s a detailed powerpoint here. Clothing does get recycled on a large scale. I think as a society we are pretty good about donating what we no longer “need”. Don’t be fooled though, those donation chains have found their own way to make some money. They can actually sell what they have leftover to other companies who will transport it and resell it in other areas of the world. With the way clothing is produced it is not at all hard to get, soon even the poorest of the poor will expect new clothes. Then what will we do with our cast-offs?  The world does not need any more clothes! We’ve already grown all the cotton and made all the fabric we will ever need. The media drives our need for the latest styles and it’s creating a ridiculous surplus of garments.

Changing how our clothing is made is not enough. Sure bamboo is more sustainably produced than cotton. Of course we want to buy from brands who guarantee they are sweatshop free. However the industry will soon be at a tipping point. We have to consider that soon may be the time to look very closely at recycled clothing being the main player in the clothing industry.

Bottled Water - Smarten Up North America!



CartoonStock.com

 Within the past couple of years a significant change has been made in the North American beverage industry. It 2008 bottled water sales saw their first decline. This is good news for those concerned about the wasteful habit however there is still work to be done. Bottled water is still the best-selling beverage in North America. This is alarming to think about and it says a lot about our culture. Many may think that bottled water is better than pop and other sugary drinks but I’m not so sure.
The reason that this statistic is so alarming to me is because in North America we have access to FREE water! Right from our very own taps. In almost all instances it is just as safe, if not safer, than the water we buy. Some of the big bottled water companies just bottle our tap water and sell it right back to us. Quite frankly the fact that these companies found any success in our markets makes us look a bit stupid.
The key to their success is not the product, it’s the advertising. Bottled water companies use a few key strategies to trick us into buying. First of all they tell us that tap water is unsafe, and then they tell us their water taste better. Both of these ideas are proven to be false. Good thing we’re finally catching on.



 Retrieved from CyclingNews Forum



As we become more concerned with the treatment of our environment bottle water companies have come under scrutiny. They are so blatantly disrespectful of our world that even those who drink bottled water cannot deny it. To understand the process of how bottled water comes to be in your hand you can watch this video.

Bottled water is a ridiculous concept. So why do we still put up with it? Here are some statistics from the Wellington Water Watchers website.
It takes three times as much water to make a bottle than it does to fill one.
It’s one of the most polluting and least regulated industries on the planet.
Bottled water has less regulation than tap water does. I guess people just don’t think that much harm can come from a little bottle of water. In some respect they are right. The water is relatively harmless. Until it sits in a plastic bottle for a week and absorbs chemicals leaking from the plastic. I think it’s a good thing that bottles water has not only gone out of style but people are judged harshly for drinking it. As they should be. It’s downright irresponsible.
Now that the bottled water companies are sensing that the market is turning on them they’re trying out some new strategies. They advertise their corporate responsibility and general goodwill in efforts to bring back the customers. Making their bottles from less plastic, donating to NGOs, etc. They have made it into a competition and allowed people to forget the best option, water from their own taps.

Misguided Adventures



Main Street U.S.A., Magic Kingdom

           When I go on a vacation I know the last thing I want to be thinking about is the repercussions of every little thing I choose to do. I want to relax, and for me that means forgetting about the things that are hard to think about. Is it too much to ask that for one week I can forget about wars and melting glaciers? As tempting as playing pretend can be, living in luxury for a week may in fact be too much to ask. As I get older it’s been harder to ignore the excess. The last time I walked down the main street of Magic Kingdom in Disney World I couldn’t stop thinking about how all those stores were providing air conditioning for the entire street. Unfortunately few people feel this way when they are on vacation.

          Modern tourism is having many negative effects on the environment. Mostly because it allows people to live in the most wasteful way possible without feeling like they are the ones being wasteful. Hotels are bad for this. By the very nature of their service they have to launder things that may not be dirty and throw out things that may not have been used. Lucky for us the tides are turning. It really is not in a hotels best interest to waste in this way; it costs them money. So now that they have a reason to, they can but measures in place to conserve energy and materials, all in the name of the environment. This makes everyone happier because travellers can feel like they’re doing a good deed when they sort their towels after use and hotels can save on water. We just have to make sure we take advantage of these measures when we are travelling.

          Cruise ships have become another burden to our Earth. They expel waste into the ocean and guzzle massive amounts of fuel.  All that waste will affect coral reefs and shorelines in other areas!  Golf courses are another ridiculously wasteful pastime. These forms of entertainment and relaxation have become so wasteful and we still find ways to excuse ourselves from the guilt. We tell ourselves this is something we need when really it’s completely non-essential. Many of our attempts to become closer to the Earth are misguided and we end up doing more harm than good. Few scenery based tourist attractions are better off now that they have people streaming through them and development around them.

          Many people see tourism as means to support small populations in developing countries. This is true in some cases but in others the “support” is not as appreciated as one may think. Indigenous populations are often not the ones seeing the money you spent on your vacation. It’s the corporation you bought it from. Indigenous people often feel exploited by the tourism industry and their culture is rarely improved by foreign investment and activity. A good example is the indigenous people of Hawaii and their troubles with the tourism that consumes their home.

Here is a video of an astonishing endeavour to create the ultimate tourist location. Fantastically luxurious, excitingly furturistic and astonishingly wasteful; this is the new Dubai.

Gold Mining

We should all be familiar by now with the controversy surrounding diamonds. Blood diamonds brought the abhorrent activities taking place in Sierra Leone to the world’s attention. I’m now going to bring your attention to the issues creating by gold mines. It is not quite as extreme a case as diamond mining in Sierra Leone but it is an issue nonetheless. Gold has always been the ultimate symbol of wealth and success. It fuels our greed even more than things that are necessary for our survival. This greed has a distinct tendency to make people disregard consequences that are not immediately relevant.

The environment feels many of the consequences of mining first and foremost. Mining practices are not sustainable and involve water pollution, deforestation and cyanide and mercury contamination. Both mercury and cyanide are chemicals used to separate gold from the ore and the waste is often left to runoff into our water systems. You can read about the effects of cyanide here and the effects of mercury here. Deforestation is an obvious detriment to our planet’s health so instead of explaining I will supply you with a link to learn more about it.

Recently Argentina has been working to pass a bill that would protect glaciers in the area around the country. Opposing this bill is Canadian company Barrick Gold. They have plans to relocate three glaciers in the Andes in order to gain access to gold and other minerals that lay beneath them. This is an undeniably harmful act that will threaten global ecosystems and it is a demonstration of the lengths these companies will go to for some mining privileges.

Many of these companies hope to exploit the labour in South America but the indigenous people are putting up a fight. Protestors are making a difference and shutting down mines all over the continent. Governments are doing what they can to support the people but the Central America Free Trade Agreement is making it hard. A portion of the agreement allows corporations to sue these governments for lost economic opportunities. How can developing countries fight for what they want when these transnational corporations can sue them for all they’re worth?

There are many reasons that mining practices are unsound for the environment but for those who need more convincing there is the fact that mines are just not safe. There’s the infamous incident in Chile last year where 33 miners were trapped underground and the mining company could not even afford to get them out. If they can’t afford to save the people they are endangering they shouldn’t be allowed to mine at all. This kind of thing occurs across the globe.

Here are some statistics for mining casualties in the United States- a country with all the latest technology and resources required for keeping people safe in the workplace.

All Mine Safety and Health

                                                                     

	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010*
Number of mines	14,478	14,666	14,885	14,871	14,907	14,631	14,264
Number of miners	329,008	344,837	363,497	378,123	392,746	355,720	360,563
Fatalities	55	58	73	67	53	34	71
Fatal injury rate1	.0184	.0183	.0220	.0199	.0156	.0115	.0234
All Injury rate1	4.05	3.92	3.64	3.43	3.25	3.01	2.81
Total mining area inspection hours/mine2	51	45	43	44	56	59	63
Citations and orders issued3	120,588	127,766	140,082	144,192	173,932	174,354	172,035
S&S citations and orders (%)	33%	32%	32%	30%	29%	32%	35%
Dollar amount assessed (Millions)4	24.8	28.1	42.8	129.4	142.4	137.0	146.4

We have to start asking ourselves why it is that we risk so many lives and so much of our planet –which is essential to our well being – for something that is so trivial to our existence?

Why the Consumers Are to Blame for Extraction in Alberta's Oil Sands



When you Google “billion-dollar companies” you can quickly see a theme in your findings. Oil and gas companies dominate the lists of top-earning companies worldwide. They have an astonishing influence on the world economy because they quite literally fuel all other industries and everyday people depend on oil and gas to get things done. When gas prices increase it puts a strain on everyone because in most cases you have no choice but to pay for it.



Canada's Energy Supply



Over half of Canada’s energy supply comes from oil and gas and we are always looking for more ways to get it. We are all hyper aware of the fact that oil is a finite resource and are becoming desperate in our bid to secure some. We are so desperate that we are pursuing oil in Alberta in a manner that is unsafe and possibly not even worth the effort.

The extraction of oil in Alberta has become a huge political issue. It will impact the country in a variety of negative ways. The only way that the extraction will be worth our time is if it brings in money. Since it takes large amounts of water and fuel to extract this oil, the net profits will not be that substantial. The citizens are left to deal with the mess. The negative impact is undeniable because the simple fact that it takes up space makes it a hazard to the environment. It is destroying ecosystems in it’s deforestation process and it’s using vast amounts of water and contributing staggering amounts of CO₂ into the atmosphere. It may be creating jobs but this is a project based on a finite resource. The people around it are unhappy because it’s ugly and it’s spreading it’s ugliness into surrounding areas.

Recently a pipeline located within 100km of the Peace River sprung a leak. 4.5 million litres escaped before it could be plugged. The aboriginal communities in the area were issued an apology but we all know that an apology is not enough. This process threatens our environment and it’s our dependency on these finite fuels that is the root of this problem.

Usually our consumption is driven by corporations, through their advertising and influence. This time it is different. Oil companies don’t have to advertise their products, we depend on them. So this is a change we need to make. We consume energy less consciously than we consume other things. Every thing that we watch, own or eat was produced using energy. The consumers only have themselves to blame for what's happening in the Alberta oil sands. We need to stay conscious of our energy consumption and the actions we take to encourage these companies. We need to demand a change in how we fuel our world.



Oil Comsumption Worldwide - BP