Just couldn’t let the news of the Bhopal trial results go by without saying something…26 years after the accidental release of toxins into the atmosphere of Bhopal, India–an accident that resulted in the death and illness of thousands of people, those deemed responsible have received, as one Indian commentator put it, “a punishment equivalent to that for a traffic violation.”<\/p>\n
Union Carbide, long since absorbed by Dow Chemical, is no more. There is no one–and no entity–left to assume true liability for this mega-disaster.<\/p>\n
In light of the oil spill still going on in the Gulf, I can only wonder who will take long-term and appropriate responsibility for the BP accident. Will it be 2035 before we see the final legal settlements over this latest mega-disaster?\u00a0 And, will it come so far removed from the actual event that public outcry over insufficient legal outcomes will be defused? Think about it, if you have children who are in college, they probably don’t even know what “Bhopal” meant to us more than two decades ago. Even 30 or 40 year olds may be unfamiliar with that awful accident.<\/p>\n
Doesn’t the public deserve timely judicial response to these acts of violence against our shared environment? While these accidents were certainly not intentional, we are all victims and deserve legal redress before we can no longer remember how to spell “Bhopal” or what the initials “BP” stand for.<\/p>\n
In case you forgot–or were too young or not yet born at the time–<\/p>\n