Crime In The Contempary World- Green Crime Flashcards
What is green grime- Wolf?
Green crime was used in traditional criminology to describe actions that break the laws protecting the environment
Issue with approach of green crime?
The same harmful environmental action may be defined as illegal in some countries but not in others
Laws change overtime and actions that harm the environment may be regarded as breaches of health and safety regulations rather than criminal offenders
Lynch and Strestsky- how to overcome legal and illegality of green crime?
Environmental crime should adopt a transgressive approach that goes beyond defining environmental crime simply as law breaking
Whites view on green crime?
Environmental crime is any human action that causes environmental harm, illegal or not
Believes there are 2 types of harm
White- 2 types of harm?
Anthroprocentric- adopted by TNC’s and state
Humans have the right to dominate nature for their own ends, economic growth before the environment
Ecocentric- Humans and their environment as independent, what hurts environment and humans
Sees both human and earth as exploitaed by global capatalism
Examples of green crime?
-Deforestation like logging in Amazon rainforest
-Air/water/land pollution could be caused by toxic substances e.g. burning of fossil fuels or from farming and transportation
-Illegal disposing of waste
-Illegal trafficking of animals and plants
-Unregulated fishing such as whaling
The Bopal disaster- what happened?
On Dec 3rd 1984, 45 tons of the dangerous gas methyl isocyante escaped MF from an insecticide plants owned by the Indian subsidiary of the American Firm Union Carbaid Corporation
The gas drifted over densely population neighborhood around the plant killing thousands of people immediately and creating a panic as tens of thousands of others attempted to flee Bhopal
Final death toll estimated between 15,000 and 20,000
Half a million survivors suffered respiratory problems, eye irritation and blindness
Other maladies resulting from exposure to the toxic gas, many awarded compensation of a few hundred dollars
Investigation later established that subsurdise operation and saftey procedures at the understaffed plant led to disatser
Punishment for Bhopal disaster?
7 former employees convicted of death by negligence 25 yrs after incident
Consequence of Bhopal disaster?
Chronic health issues, 3 gen birth defects, economic consequences and ongoing groundwater contamination from unsafe disposal of poisnious wastes at the pesticide plant
What happened at the Chernobyl disaster?
A nuclear accident on the 26th April 1986
Explosion of the no4 in Chernobyl nuclear power plant
Maximum severity if intertenational nuclear event scale costing $6.8 billion
Victims of Chernobyl?
These living in Chernobyl
31 deaths, 28 radiation sickness, 15 thyroid cancer, 237 hospitalization
Punishment for Chernobyl?
The director of Chernobyl site was sentenced to 10 yrs in prison
Consequence of Chernobyl?
100,000 kilometers of lands contaminated
What does Beck mean by global risk society?
Many environmental disasters of the past were largely natural and out of control
Application of science and technology now allow humans to create new risks
Risks don’t impact local areas, but the world e.g. contributions to global warming,king
White on green crime?
Caused by Globalisation e..g transnational corporations more manufacturing operations to the global south avoiding pollution laws
What’s primary green crime and an example?
Crimes result directly from the destruction and degrading of the earths recourses
E..g burning fossil fuels adds 3 mill tons of carbon to the atmosphere per year contributes to global warming
What’s secondary green crime and example?
Crimes that are generated by ignoring rules aimed at preventing or regulating environmental disaster
E.g. 1/5 of tropical rainforest felled 1960-1990s, in Amazon to rear beef cattle to export
