I’m always an advocate when it comes to preserving the environment. When I read Andrea Banzon’s recent blog post, I was devastated as to how a company could be so socially irresponsible.

Texaco, a company affiliated with Chevron, dumped over 18 billion gallons of waste into the rivers of Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest twice in the past two decades. With massive amounts of toxins in the rivers, communities have been barricaded from one of the natural resources they majorly depend on. The waste resulted in crop failure, water contamination, and birth defects in children.

Many Amazonian tribes brought a lawsuit upon Chevron; the company has claimed that Texaco spent over $40 million on removing the waste.

The idea of ethics was clearly not considered in Texaco’s actions. I agree with Andrea’s statement that “Chevron should be willing to pay the extra buck to avoid pollution.” During our presentation from David Silver, he discusses from Milton Friedman that “the only social responsibility of business is to earn profits while following… basic ethical customs.” Texaco didn’t realize that while destroying nature, they could also destroy many lives as well, lives that should be treated with fairness.

 

Resources:

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/que-pasa/chevron-must-pay-amazon-damage-court

What’s the first thing that pops into your head when you see this infant?

The majority of you will say that he’s extremely cute or you will question whether he’s wearing pants or not.

Question is: Is this baby healthy?

Nestlé has been aggressively promoting infant formula, especially to poor countries. Issues have been brought up because their promotions have increased infant deaths and health problems. When mothers switch from breastfeeding to this substitute…

 

…several problems become apparent.

Since the formula needs water, contamination is a major issue. Because it’s expensive, mothers add more water to make it last longer, which causes malnutrition. Milk powder also doesn’t fulfill the nutrition requirements (e.g. – antibodies) that natural breast milk provides, so babies aren’t being protected from viruses.

Poor ethics come into play because Nestlé marketed to people who were unable to consume the formula in a safe manner. They convinced mothers that this product was more of a need than a want. They promoted the use of the artificial milk to mothers who were fully capable of breastfeeding their own children! There should never be promotions/advertisements for baby formula in third world countries since they cannot provide clean water and sanitary bottles for themselves.

 

Further readings:

http://www.ibfan.org/issue-international_code-code.html

 

Resources:

http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=240

http://info.babymilkaction.org/nestlefree

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestlé_boycott#The_baby_milk_issue