I recently inherited some stock- the "usual portfolio" of stuff. I am
looking for a socially relevant investment company, but I really don't
know what I am doing. see for example
http://www.domini.com/
http://www.calvertgroup.com/
http://www.paxworld.com/?rt=REF_gaw2
http://www.socialfunds.com/
http://www.coopamerica.org/socialinvesting/
Does anybody have recommendations among these type of funds?
Mike Weaver wrote:
I tried that, but then I embezzled the money and now Eliot Spitzer is
after me!
Appal Energy wrote:
Invest in yourself. The rate of return is much higher.
Todd Swearingen
Mike Weaver wrote:
I did sell all my stock in UC after that - as a matter of fact I am
having a hard time trying to invest responsibly. Anyone have
suggestions?
Keith Addison wrote:
Hello Mike
How was the Bhopal case handled?
It wasn't handled at all, it was grossly mishandled and is still
being grossly mishandled. It's not a "case", it's an atrocity. It's
a whole bunch of atrocities.
From a previous message :
In a message dated 2/23/2004 7:30:44 AM Central Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
such as Union Carbide's metamorphosis into Dow Chemicals after its
corporate terrorism in Bhopal (1984). As I understood it, there
was terrorism, but not by Union Carbide. Someone sabotaged the
plant. Can you clue us in on what really happened? Please? I'd
really like to know what happened and how and who was at fault.
Damn... Sorry - same problem, a bulging file of info, 5.6Mb of it,
129 documents, have to pare it down. Yeah, well, okay...
Bhopal was and still is today an appalling atrocity, still ongoing
after 20 years, a major crime against humanity and something we all
should know about. And be outraged about. So pardon my mumblings,
I'm glad that you ask. You'll have to spend some time doing some
research, but all the information is ready to hand, you just have
to read it. The bald, bare facts are quite bad enough, but the full
picture in all its sickening detail is far worse, and it's
important to get the full picture. I hope your stomach is strong.
It's not at all what you think - the "sabotage" story is just a
part of the considerable amount of disinfo and evasion generated by
UC/Dow, and even were it true, what the saboteur is alleged to have
done should not have had those results, it should have been 100%
impossible. Instead, it was just waiting to happen, and the company
knew it.
- Though the design of the methyl isocyanate (MIC) unit at Bhopal
was based on Union Carbide's West Virginia plant, grossly lower
standards were employed in the selection of construction material,
monitoring devices and safety systems.
- Union Carbide wanted to save money. Accidental leaks from all the
Bhopal units were frequent, and operators and workers were
regularly exposed to different substances. The factory was running
at a loss. In November 1984 the most important safety systems were
either closed down or not functioning.
- Between 1980 and 1984 the work crew of the MIC unit was halved
from 12 to six workers, the maintenance crew from six to two
workers. On December 26, 1981 a plant operator was killed by a
phosgene gas leak. Another phosgene leak in January 1982 severely
injured 28 workers and in October the same year MIC escaped from a
broken valve and four workers were exposed to the chemical. The
senior officials of the corporation, privy to a "business
confidential" safety audit in May 1982, were well aware of 61
hazards, 30 of them major and 11 in the dangerous phosgene/MIC
units. Remedial measures were then taken at Union Carbide's
identical MIC plant in West Virginia but not in Bhopal. In Bhopal,
prior to the disaster, environmental safety concerns by private
citizens were responded to by legal threats from the company and
repressive managerial measures were employed against workers who
raised occupational health concerns.
- Secret Union Carbide documents obtained by "discovery" during a
class action suit brought by survivors against the company in New
York, reveal that the technology used at the fatal Bhopal factory -
including the crucial units manufacturing carbon monoxide and
methyl isocyanate (MIC) - was unproven, and that the company knew
it would pose unknown risks. The corporation knew the danger, but
regarded it as an acceptable "business risk".
- Senior Carbide officials, including ex-CEO Warren Anderson, not
only knew about design defects and potential safety issues with the
Bhopal factory, they actually authorised them.
- On the night of the disaster, water (that was being used for
washing the lines) entered the tank containing MIC through leaking
valves. The refrigeration unit, which should have kept the MIC
close to zero degrees centigrade, had been shut off by the company
officials to save on electricity bills. The entrance of water in
the tank, full of MIC at ambient temperature triggered off an
exothermic runaway reaction an consequently the release of 27 tons
of the lethal gas mixture. The safety systems, which in any case
were not designed for such a runaway situation, were
non-functioning and under repair. Lest the neighborhood community
be "unduly alarmed", the siren in the factory had been switched
off. Poison clouds from the Union Carbide factory enveloped an arc
of over 20 square kilometers before the residents could run away
from its deadly hold.
- People woke up coughing, gasping for breath, their eyes burning.
Many fell dead as they ran. Others succumbed at the hospitals where
doctors were overwhelmed by the numbers and lacked information on
the nature of the poisoning. By the third day of the disaster, an
estimated 8,000 people had died from direct exposure to the gases
and a further 500,000 were injured. Today, the number of deaths
stands at 20,000. Of the approximately 520,000 people exposed to
the poisonous gases, an estimated 120,000 remain chronically ill.
- UC/Dow has ever since refused to provide the technical
information required to treat the injured, claiming it is a "trade
secret".
- You'd think that by now the survivors would have received proper
medical care, that they'd have been adequately compensated for
their loss and their suffering, that somebody would have had to
answer in court for what was done to them. On all counts, you'd be
wrong. UC/Dow's "compensation" amounted to 7¢ a day, for 18 years
of suffering. On 7¢ a day they've had to struggle against pain,
breathlessness, giddiness, numb limbs, aching bodies, fevers,
nausea, brain damage, cancers, anxiety attacks, menstrual chaos,
depression and mental illness. Thirty people still die every month
from the effects of the gas.
- Meanwhile the drinking water of the same communities that were
hit in 1984 is being poisoned by cancer- and birth-defect causing
chemicals that lie in the open in the derelict factory, or were
dumped on waste ground by the company for up to ten years after the
disaster. Greenpeace found mercury at levels up to 6 million times
what could have been predicted.
- "As early as 1972, Carbide's American managers talked about the
danger of ground-water pollution from that terrible factory", said
Rashida Bi, leader of a Bhopal survivors organisation which is a
plaintiff in the case. "They made their own proposals to stop it
happening - and then ignored them. Instead, knowing the dangers,
they set about dumping thousands of tonnes of solid and liquid
chemical wastes into and outside the factory. They knew it would
poison our water and our daily lives and they did it anyway."
- In May 2002, faced with a demand by a delegation of Bhopal
activists that Dow assume responsibility for cleaning up Carbide's
deadly mess in Bhopal, Dow CEO Michael Parker suggested that a
portion of the pitiful compensation Carbide paid to its Bhopal
victims should be used to clean up the factory contamination.
Dow-Carbide wants its victims to pay for cleaning up its mess.
- The Journal of the American Medical Association published a
ground-breaking study carried out by the Sambhavna Trust Clinic
which conclusively proves that the poison gases released by Union
Carbide's factory in Bhopal on December 3rd 1984 have had a severe
medical impact on a generation unborn at the time of the disaster.
The findings relate to physical abnormalities of male children born
to women who breathed Carbide's gases. Unbelievably, the Indian tax
payer has been left to pick up the costs of health care, economic
support and social rehabilitation schemes.
- The UC Bhopal factory is still a time-bomb, with tons of highly
toxic chemicals and wastes simply dumped there without any
precaution or maintenance. UC/Dow refuses to acknowledge this,
saying it is India's responsibility.
While we're at the subject of corporate crimes, consider the City
of New York, which prohibited the use of asbestos insulation in the
World Trade Center when they had only insulated the structure,
against fire, up to the 44 th floor.
At that time, long before 9-11, the architect said, "If there's
ever a fire above the 44th floor, that building is coming down."
Whose fault was it that the buildings did not withstand an unusual
fire above the 44th floor?
Six times as many people were killed at Bhopal, and that's just the
tip of the iceberg. Have a look at a comparison of the
compensation. This will give you some idea:
American child brain-damaged by Dow-Carbide pesticide (Dursban):
$10,000,000 Indian child brain-damaged by Dow-Carbide pesticide: $500
When asked if this was not a blatant example of double standards,
Dow Public Affairs Leader Kathy Hunt said: "$500 is plenty good for
an Indian."
(Dursban has now been withdrawn from household use in the US, but
Dow still markets it as "safe" in India.)
For what sum did Carbide find it worth risking the life of a whole
Indian city? Union Carbide stored liquid MIC in Bhopal in huge
tanks, far in excess of what ever would have been permitted in the
US. MIC is a dangerously volatile chemical and these tanks were
supposed to be kept cooled to 0 deg C. It is known that for some
months prior to the huge and fatal gas leak of December 1984, the
refrigeration system had been switched off to save the cost of
freon gas. For the last 18 years, survivors have wondered just how
much the company must have been saving, to make it worth risking
the lives of an entire Indian city. Now we know. The figure was
$37.68 per day. http://www.bhopal.net/oldsite/unproventechnology.html
----------
The details of environmental pollution at the Dow-Carbide Bhopal
plant are appalling -- reading the 5,000-word report is chilling.
It's impossible to imagine how anybody could behave this way: the
charges of "carelessness", "ruthless disregard of safety",
"criminal neglect", "environmental vandalism" are far too mild.
Chernobyl might arguably be in worse shape, but Chernobyl was an
accident. The atrocious mess at Bhopal was deliberate. And it's
still poisoning people all the time.
More than 20,000 people live close to the factory site.
From the opening of the factory in 1969, toxic wastes were
routinely dumped inside the site, both above and below ground. Huge
amounts of waste were simply buried; hundreds of tonnes were not
even buried. Much is "stored" in unidentified sacks. Storage tanks
have burst, spilling tons of lethal chemicals. random sacks of
waste, waste drums, chemical bottles and sundry hazardous items lie
strewn in the open air around the surface of the three chief site
disposal areas, where chemicals were routinely dumped into pits.
According to former workers of the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal,
from December 1969 to December 1984 a massive amount of chemical
substances formulated in the factory - including pesticides,
solvents used in production, catalysts, and other substances as
well as by- products - were routinely dumped in and around the
factory grounds. These were in the form of solid, liquid and gas
and caused pollution in the soil, water and air.
Dumping of toxic materials continued even after the disaster in
1984. In 1995 the company poured Ortho-dichlorobenzenes directly
into the ground by the north perimeter wall. Nearby residents
attested that within weeks drinking water from the community
tubewells became yellow and foul tasting.
In 1977, Union Carbide built 14 hectares of Solar Evaporation Ponds
400 metres north of the factory and dumped chemical toxic wastes
and by-products at these sites. Every year during the rainy season
the ponds overflowed and contaminated large areas of farmland. Two
nearby tubewells had to be abandoned because of the obnoxious smell
and taste of the water.
Also, toxic effluents were routinely discharged into an open sewage
drain flowing past Jai Prakash Nagar, a community on the South side
of the factory that was badly affected by the 1984 tragedy.
In 1995 fountains of chemical wastewater were being pumped into the
ponds. In 1996 management tried to cover up the environmental
damage caused by the ponds: the toxic sludge was all dumped into
one pond and covered over with farm soil, layers of polythene, and
finally a concrete cover. The two other ponds were levelled (during
which their black polythene liners were ruptured). Now, soil has
eroded around the concrete covers allowing the surrounding water to
become contaminated with toxic material.
Following a 1996 study the Bhopal Municipal Corporation declared
over 100 wells in the vicinity of the plant to be 'unfit for
drinking'. No alternative provision was made.
In 1999 Greenpeace International undertook the collection of 33
samples of soil and 22 samples of groundwater from in and around
the factory site. After analysis of the samples, Greenpeace
declared the site a "global toxic hotspot" (The Bhopal Legacy,
Greenpeace Research Laboratories, University of Exeter, Nov. '99).
They found heavy concentrations of carcinogenic chemicals and heavy
metals like mercury. Mercury was found at between 20,000 to 6
million times the expected levels: and elemental mercury was
discovered to be widely distributed across the plant premises.
Twelve volatile organic compounds, most greatly exceeding EPA
standard limits, were found to have seeped and continue to seep
into the water supplies of an estimated 20, 000 people in the local
area.
A leaked government report in 1996 said this: "Water from tubewells
in other parts of Bhopal were examined at this laboratory. However,
chemical contamination was found only in these areas. The tubewells
in these areas were tested five years back and at that time too the
results showed chemical contamination. Hence, it is established
that this pollution is due to chemicals used in the Union Carbide
factory that have proven to be extremely harmful for health.
Therefore the use of this water for drinking must be stopped
immediately."
Independent analysis in Boston and other studies all concur in a
nightmarish picture of large amounts of lethal pollutants out of
control in the local environment - and the local communities.
Greenpeace concluded: "As a result of the ubiquitous presence of
contaminants, the exposure of the communities surrounding the
plants to complex mixtures of hazardous chemicals continues on a
daily basis... long-term chronic exposure to mixtures of toxic
synthetic chemicals and heavy metals is also likely to have serious
consequences for the health and survival of the local population."
The local communities suffer routine poisoning, and many of the
chemicals involved have a bio-accumulative and carcinogenic nature.
Local people suffer abdominal pain, skin lesions, dizziness,
vomiting, constipation, indigestion, and burning sensations in the
chest and stomach. Most of the children are born seriously
underweight, weak, with discolored skin, suffering from
multi-systemic health problems. Women complain of suppression of
lactation and some stop lactating within one month of giving birth.
Union Carbide, and now Dow, simply deny it all. Replying to
Greenpeace's allegations in 1999, Union Carbide said it has had no
information regarding the Bhopal plant site since it sold its stock
in Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) more than five years before -
neatly avoiding the fact that it had plenty of information up until
1994. And so on.
Meanwhile, after taking over Union Carbide, Dow accepted Carbide's
asbestos-related liabilities in the US (paying multi-million dollar
damages) but refuses to accept Carbide's Indian responsibilities.
-----
#1 corporate criminal, ex-UC CEO Warren Anderson, an international
fugitive from charges of culpable homicide and an extradition order
from the government of India for the past 12 years after jumping
bail there, was unearthed in 2002 by a UK newspaper and Greenpeace
living a life of luxury in New York State. American authorities had
always insisted they did not know his whereabouts. "If a team of
journalists and Greenpeace managed to track down India's most
wanted man in a matter of days, how seriously have the U.S.
authorities tried to find him all these years?" asked Greenpeace
campaigner Casey Harrell in the U.S. Greenpeace videotaped Anderson
and handed him a warrant for his arrest. He denied who he was and
then ran inside the house. The journalists discovered that
Anderson's local golf club subscription costs $2700 a year, more
than five times what Union Carbide's victims in Bhopal got for a
lifetime of illness and suffering.
-----
Resources:
http://www.bhopal.net/index.php
The International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal
http://www.bhopal.net/oldsite/intro2.html Quick fact tour:
The disaster
How could it happen?
Medical consequences
Today in Bhopal
Union Carbide's response
Union Carbide's toxic legacy
Long-term issues
http://www.bhopal.net/oldsite/poisonpapers.html Carbide's Poison
Papers
Internal documents Union Carbide was forced to disclose during the
ongoing Class action filed by Bhopal survivors in the Federal
Southern District court of New York, which alleges that the company
demonstrated reckless and depraved indifference to human life
through its Bhopal operations.
http://www.bhopal.org/welcome2.html
Bhopal.Org
Search for "Bhopal" here:
http://www.panna.org/index.html?searchMode Pesticide Action Network
North America (PANNA)
A history of Union Carbide:
http://www.rachel.org/bulletin/index.cfm?issue_ID=967 #170 - From
Bhopal With Love, February 28, 1990
A history of Dow:
https://www.corpwatch.org/news/PND.jsp?articleid=10008 Dow's
Knowledge Factory
http://www.greenpeace.org/features/details?features%5fid=81509
Bhopal disaster has no parallel in human history Tue 03 December 2002
INDIA/Bhopal
http://www.greenpeace.org/international_en/news/details?campaign%5fid
=3991&item%5fid=95486 Dow sues penniless Bhopal survivors
Mon 23 December 2002
http://www.greenpeace.org/features/details?item_id=22039 Exposure:
Portrait of a Corporate Crime
Tue 13 August 2002
INDIA/Bhopal
Slide shows:
Part One - Immediate aftermath and the tragic effects of an
avoidable disaster. Part Two - Devastating effects on local people
still suffering almost 18 years later. Part Three - Suffering but
not in silence- Will Dow listen to calls to clean up Bhopal?
http://www.greenpeace.org/international_en/extra/?forward%5fdestinati
on%5fanchor=%2finternational%5fen%2fcampaigns%2fintro%3fcampaign%255fi
d%3d3991&campaign%5fid=3991&forward%5fsource%5fanchor=Toxic%20hotspots
%20Introduction&item%5fid=157595 Bhopal Timeline
You can also access "Bhopal Timeline" via the "Toxic hotspots"
page:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international_en/campaigns/intro?campaign_id
=3991
Well, you did ask.
Best
Keith
Keith Addison wrote:
http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2005/07/ATCA.html
Pirates of the Corporation
News: Holding American companies responsible for high crimes
committed overseas.
By Joshua Kurlantzick
July/August 2005 Issue
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"Science is what we have learned about how to keep
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