Environmental Devastation - Essay Example

Even the farthest points on the planet are not immune. The business has lobbied to roll back the current environmental laws and it is time for businesses to take responsibility and be held financially liable for the destruction of an environment that belongs to everyone.

The air, the water, and the health of the planet are the right of all men, and the purpose of government is precisely to protect these human rights. Yet, the current administration's policy has been called a "Christmas tree for oil interests, a license for industry profiteering, or a wide-ranging assault on the environment" (Cohen). The current policy gives businesses no incentive to save energy or seek alternate sources. Man did not inherit the planet, mankind did and free enterprise does not mean the freedom to destroy or deplete these scarce and vital resources to cater to a business's bottom line.

The clearest and most effective way to coerce a business into taking responsibility for the environment is to make it financially beneficial. Public awareness, boycotts, and political activism can be effective. During four days of protests at the 1999 WTO meeting, businesses lacking a favorable social responsibility reputation had declined by 2.36%, while those having a positive reputation were down by less than half that amount (Schnietz & Epstein, 2004). A good reputation, even in the absence of direct linkage to specific areas, is an overwhelming value to the company and shareholders when it is identified by the public as desirable.

Environmental law needs to be enforced and companies held accountable for their actions. Fines need to be of a sufficient magnitude to render it more valuable to the company to obey the law than violate it. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the government watchdog, penalties may "not be large enough to offset the economic benefits on noncompliance and are not documented consistently" ("Further Improvements Needed"). The typical slap on the wrist is no longer acceptable and we need leaders with the courage to confront what may be their largest political contributors.