The precise figures for the death toll that resulted when a Union Carbide pesticide manufacturing plant leaked enough chemicals at once to expose half a million people is still up for grabs. The most conservative body-count is on par with the 9/11 death toll, and may well be much higher. And the abandoned plant continues to poison the landscape and the groundwater to this day.
Not a single representative of Union Carbide--an American corporation--has had to stand trial for the ongoing pattern of negligence that resulted in what amounts to mass murder--not to mention the legacy of its malfeasance. In the end, it all came down to a financial settlement, a settlement as botched as anything you can imagine when an arrogant multi-national corporation and a corrupt government haggle.
But, as Pogo famously observed, "We have met the enemy and he is us." After a bit of diverging and merging, Dow Chemicals ended up with all but the Indian subsidiary of Union Carbide, and denied all responsibility for outstanding liabilities. Significantly, The Yes Men activist-pranksters highlighted how well stock market capitalism rewards corporate responsibility:
On December 3, 2004, the twentieth anniversary of the disaster, a man claiming to be a Dow representative named Jude Finisterra was interviewed on the BBC. He claimed that the company had agreed to clean up the site and compensate those harmed in the incident. Immediately afterward, Dow's share price fell 4.2% in 23 minutes, for a loss of $2 billion in market value.Now, I'm all for making a fair profit--don't get me wrong. But murdering thousands and walking away from a health and environmental nightmare from which whole generations will not wake is not capitalism. It's colonialism. The East India Company might as well come back to hoist the Union Jack in India and trash its economy (again) for old times' sake.
Considering that we live in a country that will gleefully invade two sovereign nations to avenge fewer than 4,000 deaths, explain to me how we can consider the Bhopals of this world merely the cost of doing business. And, moreover, how we can possibly wonder why the 9/11s happen.
