The business of public corporations is pretty much concentrated upon the making of profits, and the continual growth of that company’s business. When it comes to the making of money, bonuses, stock appreciation, and earnings, there is always going to be a temptation for many a corporation, to do only what is necessary to keep the “dogs at bay.” This so signifies that those that visit upper management with ideas that will increase the bottom line are going to be listened to; whereas, those that come to management in order to remind them of the important responsibilities that the corporation has to the environment, and to society, are typically going to be unwelcomed, if not actively ignored.
There are all sorts of businesses that create some degree of pollution; of which the responsibility of those that are polluting is to mitigate the extent of such per the applicable governing laws; of which, these businesses should then never make it their point to shirk responsibility to such, or to utilize subterfuge, distortion, or outright lying, to evade their corporate responsibility of being a good steward to society. In point of fact, many a corporation, does everything possible that they can conceive to do to obfuscate, delay, negotiate, buy, or manipulate their owning up to their responsibility to the pollutants so caused by them, especially when such will both negatively impact their bottom line and would necessitate that the company comply with the intent and purpose of the law at their expense.
People that live within a capitalistic society, should intuitively know that those that are in the business of making profit and have immense pressure placed upon them to do so, along with also having immense incentives to make that profit; must surely recognize that the greed of making that money for those corporate personages is going to often tempt those of weak character to do what they believe they can essentially get away with, in regards to pollutants so caused by their corporation, and thereby they are prone to doing exactly that.
We live in an advanced age of wonderful creature comforts that have come forth from the inventions and corresponding innovations so made, of which, a great deal of what we interact with on a daily material basis we see as being necessary for the obtainment of a good life. That, in of itself, does not mean that society has therefore the attitude, of “whatever it takes;” but rather the typical attitude of society is one of desiring to see that the processes so involved for that good life, are always responsible and that they do not then advertently or inadvertently have ill effects upon that same society and its people.
This thus indicates, that though there is little that can be done about environmental pollutants of the past, that ail us and therefore has been left to the government and hence the general public to cleanup; that it is vital that government enforcement of environmental laws of today be properly enforced, and further that specifically those corporation entities that are in industries that are known for or are prone to pollutants, must be aggressively monitored and dealt with responsibly, so that we do so not have corporate profits being continually funneled into private hands, while the aftereffects of their pollution is left at the public’s expense and hurt.