Environmental Affairs

Lesson 4: Linkages between environment and economy –

International Players

Transnational companies control some 80 percent of the land worldwide cultivated for export crops and dominate production of almost all major toxic chemicals.

At the time, just twenty companies control 90 per cent of pesticide sales. Global fishery corporations roam the seas, their high-tech, large-scale factory fleets making a hefty contribution to a growing crisis in which 70 percent of the world's conventional fish stocks were are either fully exploited, severely overtaxed, declining or recovering.

And while a number of factors contribute to the rapid deforestation of both tropical and temperate zones, timber transnationals (also from developing countries like from Malaysia) play a major role as commercial timber harvests have increased by 50 percent between 1965 and 1990.

These companies have always argued that they merely are serving government and consumer needs. It is true that governments and consumers are complicit in the irresponsible consumption of fossil fuels and other environmentally damaging goods. Yet global corporations are not mere observers. They are both producers and consumers of these products. They choose which technologies and products to develop and they use their political power to prevent technological transformation and to protect their industries economically. They influence and even buy scientific and public opinion through marketing and public relations. Notwithstanding the role of the individual consumer and small businesses, global corporations are at the very heart of the unsustainable practices that shape our economies.

Environmental managers within firms can have truly tantalizing tasks to accomplish, often torn between remedial actions and damage control and a commitment to eliminate and prevent waste, pollution and other negative environmental impact.

Public sector and non-governmental managers can find themselves on both sides of a divide, here trying to keep corporations in check and accountable for their environmental actions but also, dependent on economic spin-offs or benefits. The need for compromise can be a tightrope to walk; so far, the environment seems to be losing out most of the time.

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