Green Crime Flashcards
Green Crime
Crimes against the environment/damages to the environment.
Green criminology
The study of environmental harm as crimes and using criminological techniques to prevent green crime.
Green criminology debate
Some sociologists believe green crime is just illegal acts against nature, some believe all acts that harm the environment is green crime.
Greta Thumburg
Protesting ‘crime’ of climate change emergency.
Green crime and globalisation
Globalisation has enabled us to become aware of risks that we wouldn’t have known about in the past; issues that affect multiple countries. A lot of these worries are of our own making. Climate actions/disasters in one part of the country affecting another country across the globe. There is an increased global risk conciousness about green crime.
Ulrich Beck - Global risk society - example
Globalisation of green crime.
Acid rain - sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide (chemicals produced by the industry), react with water in the air to produce acid rain. This damages plants and wildlife and can travel thousands of miles and can affect other countries (Scandanavia has high risk of acid rain).
Global consequences - example
Chernobyl.
South - Primary and Secondary Green Crime
Primary green crime - crimes that deliberately harm the environment and by extension, the people. Environmental crimes are deliberately being broken.
Secondary - harm is done to the environment by bypassing existing environmental regulations/laws through loopholes (no laws directly broken).
South - contempary examples
Primary green crime: poaching animals
Secondary green crime: dumping of waste by businesses - 25 million people drink polluted water.
Wolf - The Groups who commit green crime
There are 4 groups of people who commit green crimes:
- Individuals (littering)
- Private businesses (dumping waste)
- States and the Government (nuclear waste and bombs)
- Organised crime (mafia and organised deforestation in the South of USA)
Massari and Mozini - private waste mafia
Mafia style organisations carried out illegal waste disposal by colluding with the Government.
Deepwater Horizon, 20th April 2010, Gulf of Mexico
4.9 million barells of oil leaked. An oil drilling rig exploded; largest oil spill in history of marine oil spilling. 11 people died, thousands of birds, mammals, sea turtles were plastered with leaked oil. The company was running weeks behind inspections, were tens of millions of $ over budget and took many shortcuts, resulting in the disaster.
Extinction Rebellion
Aims:
- Gov must tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency, working with other institions to communicate the urgency of change
- Gov must act now to half biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2025
- Gov must create and be led by decisions of a citizens’ assembly on climate and ecological justice.
Has a decentrilised structure - as long as there is respect for the principles and values, every local group can organise events and actions independantly.
Extinction Rebellion - 31st October 2018
An assembly of more than 1000 people took place at Parliament Square to hear the Decleration of the Rebellion and occupy the road in front of the Houses of Parliament.
Extinction Rebellion - November
In November, activists blockaded the UK’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, unveiled a banner over Westminster Bridge, glued themselves to the gates of Downing Street and closed an access road to Trafalgar Square.
Extinction Rebellion - Rebellion Day
On Rebellion Day, about 6000 people blocked the 5 main bridges over the River Thames in London for several hours. It was described as the ‘biggest act of peaceful civil disobediance in the UK in decades’ - The Guardian.
On Rebellion Day 2, the roads around Parliament Square were blocked and a mock funeral march travelled to Downing Street and Buckingham Palace.
Globalisation and Green crime - contempary examples
- Bhopal, India 1984: 20,000 injured and 10,000 died from the leaking chemicals
- Protected species: animal poaching, however different countries have different laws on killing alligators and elephants
- Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, 1980s: governments resorted to terrorist methods when confronting environmental campaign groups. The French secret service sunk the Greenpeace ship because it disrupted nuclear testing
- Disposal of toxic waste: increase of dumping waste out at sea due to tightening regulations, or selling to less developed countries to dispose of it. It usually ends up being dumped because they cannot safely dispose of it, destroying the environment.
Green Crime - illegal waste dumping
Because of high costs of legal, safe disposal, businesses may seek to dispose waste illegally. Much of it is dumped at sea. The ocean floor is radioactive dump - 28,500 rusting barrels of radioactive waste lie on the seabed off the Chanel Islands, reportedly dumped by the UK authorities and companies in the 1950s. In 2004, hundereds of barrels of radioactive waste illegally dumped by European authroities washed up on the shores of Somalia. Transporting waste to poorer countries to deal with highlights the issues with law enforcement in a globalised world. The existence of laws on waste disposal pushes up the costs leading to dumping or transporting. In some cases, it isn’t even illegal since less developed countries may lack the necessary legislation outlawing it.
Gary Potter - What is green criminology
- Ulrich Beck claimed smog is democratic: traditional social divisions are unimportant in the effects of pollution. Everyone is affected and equally vulnerable.
- Environmental racism show who the perpetrators of pollution are and who suffers the worst effects of it.
- It’s difficult to know whether ‘green crime’ is really a crime at all; after all, green crime comes from legal, economic activity.
Green Crime Globalisation - criticisms
- Disagreements between countries in Africa (reopening of illegal ivory trade) demonstrates the difficulty in international agreements on what green crime is.
- Definitions of harm is highly subjective and is socially contructed by different Governments.
- Everyone has different views on what should be classified as green crime and consistent law enforcement is very challenging.
Rob White - green criminology criticisms
Whether green crime is crime depends on government policy. Some governments take an anthropocentric view which sees economic growth as priority over the environment.
Rob White - green criminology criticisms - examples
Donald Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Pact in 2017 - making the point that sometimes environment must suffer in ‘making America great again’.
Denmark is one of the most sustainable countries - leading in wind power (it’s half the country’s power source). Eopenhagen is considered the world’s largest green city.
