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Polluters' PBS Penance
By Peter Dykstra
Has your firm lost its corporate luster due to a few evacuated neighborhoods,
the odd near-meltdown, or a few hundred deaths? Is some environmentalist
giving you a bad name because of one or two little setbacks?
Some of America's most enterprising businesses have found a solution:
Sponsor a show on public television, particularly one with a green theme.
The following are a few of the companies who have used the PBS penance to
say "I'm sorry" to those who are touchy about the environment.
This table lists the company, the crime, and the pennance.
- BASF
- One of Western Europe's most energetic toxic dumpers
Adventure
- Chevron
- California's largest petrochemical polluter
National Geographic Special
- Du Pont
- Major chemical polluter; largest producer of ozone-eating CFCs
Discoveries Underwater
- Georgia-Pacific
- Clear-cut timberer and paper mill polluter
Forever Wild
- Goodyear
- Petrochemical polluter; operates problem-plagued uranium enrichment plants
Audubon Society's "California Condor"
- W.R. Grace
- Operates a landfill linked to high cancer and leukemia rates in Woburn, Massachusetts
Victory Garden
- Hoffman-LaRoche
- Showered Seveso, Italy with dioxin-tainted chemicals in 1976
The Health Century
- IBM
- Major user of CFCs; responsible for ground-water contamination of Silicon Valley and elsewhere
Planet Earth
- Mobil
- Major petrochemical polluter; industry leader in making phony "degradable" claims for garbage bags
The Living Planet
- Siemens
- Major German-based polluter
Nature
- Waste Management, Inc.
- Most frequently fined company in EPA history
Conserving America; Only One Earth
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