🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1994Jun05.134117.29637@rose.com>, gary.hammell@rose.com (gary
hammell) writes:
|> Why doesn't someone sue an oil company or a car manufacturer for the 
|> environmental damage they cause through the promotion/production of 
|> their products.  Couldn't GreenPeace, or some other organization, 
|> afford to do this.  The organization could act on behalf of both 
|> humanity and every other species on earth.  What a precedent this 
|> would set--if a company knowingly produces and promotes a substance or 
|> product which is in anyway harmful to the biosphere, it would be 
|> punished for putting all living organisms, including the owners of 
|> whatever company it is, at risk of damage and/or extinction.

Actually, in a related case, a surfer group called Waverider Foundation
has
successfully sued two paper manufacturers (Georgia Pacific and one other
that
escapes memory) in Northern California to cease toxic releases into the
ocean in violation of EPA regulations.  The case was decided approximately
two
years ago.  

|> 
|> Maybe if the case is won by the environmental group, that group could 
|> demand that the company it won against release any suppressed patents 
|> it had and pour money into research and development for clean fuel.
|> 
|> One thing I don't understand is why oil companies haven't 
|> themselves exploited the environmental movement yet.  If they, right 
|> now, offered the public a clean burning fuel, they'd corner the market 
|> and make tons of money.

Is there a truly clean burning fuel borne from petroleum?  Natural gas,
maybe..
And that is in use for heating and whatnot, but not as a prime-mover fuel.

|> 
|> What do you all think about the "sue an oil company today" idea?
|> 

Sounds great, except that any oil company would have economic and
political
resources that you and I (and most other groups of a nature simpathetic to
this
cause) could not even imagine..  quite a daunting proposition.


|> ---
|>    RoseReader 2.10  P006395
|>           
|> 
|> 
|> ---
|>    RoseReader 2.10  P006395 Entered at [ROSE]
|>    RoseMail 2.50 : RoseNet<=>Usenet Gateway : Rose Media 416-733-2285


Eric N. Valor
paladin@darkside.com