Green and Environmental Crime

What is Green Crime?

Refers to illegal activities that cause harm to the environment

• illegal dumping of toxic waste into rivers. causing pollution and ecosystem damage

How does Whyte define Green Crime?

‘any action that harms the physical environment and any creature that live within it, even if no law has technically been broken’

What are the three ways of defining green crimes?

• Situated

• Transgressive

• Global

What is the Situated definition of green crimes?

Focuses on what specific countries or nation consider to be crimes

• crimes are simply ‘acts against the law’

• green crime therefore refers to acts that violate local laws and norms

• what counts as green crime depends on the time and place it is committed - different places have different laws

What is the Transgressive definition of green crimes?

Defines green crimes as acts that cause harm rather than acts that violate laws

• Should go beyond legal definitions of crime

• Green criminologists should study what causes harm of what violates the law

• Dumping waste in a river might not break a local law but it is still a crime because it harms ecosystems

What is the Global definition of green crimes?

View environmental harm through a worldwide, interconnected perspective

• should study harms that have global consequences

• green crime is transitional and collective

• carbon emissions from one country contribute to global climate change e.g. burning fossil fuels in the global north has consequences for those living in the global south

What was the Bhopal Disaster?

Gas leak at Union Carbide pesticide plant in December 1984

• released approximately 40 tonnes of toxic gas causing immediate deaths of thousands

Long-term health issues for hundreds of thousands

What events led up to the Bhopal Disaster?

Pesticides production using highly toxic MIC

• cost-cutting measures included inactive safety systems, inadequate training and reduced staff

Water entered MIC storage tank, causing a runaway chemical reaction and gas release

What was the impact of the Bhopal Disaster?

• Immediate deaths: 3,000 - 5,000; over 20,000 long-term

• health effects: respiratory issues, neurological disorders, birth defects

• over 500,000 exposed

• soil and groundwater contaminated

• poverty, job losses, inadequate healthcare for survivors

How is the Bhopal Disaster an example of Corporate Negligence?

Lower safety standards at Bhopal plant than in U.S. operations

• critical safety systems were internationally shut down

• weak regulations in India enabled hazardous conditions

• lack of accountability highlights systematic inequalities

• plant abandoned without clean-up, leaving long-term damage

Who came up with the idea of Risk Society?

Beck

What is Risk Society - Beck?

The worlds biggest dangers are manufactured (man-made, pollution, climate change)

These risks are global (cross-borders) and unevenly distributed

Example of Risk Society?

• Russia - major industrialised power that has contributed to global emissions and climate change

• Mozambique - contributes very little to climate change but faces very severe consequences such as flooding and food insecurity

Who came up with the idea of Anthropocentric?

White

What is Anthropocentric - White?

Human-centred - uses the environment: how it benefits humans

• nature is a resource

• humans separate & superior

Example of Anthropocentric?

Government allows logging in a rainforest because it creates jobs & boosts the economy

• even though it destroys habitats

Who came up with the idea of Ecocentric?

White

What is Ecocentric - White?

Earth-centred

• sees humans as apart of a wider ecological system

• nature how intrinsic value - deserves protection despite usefulness to benefit humans

Example of Ecocentric?

Restricted zones where cars can’t go because they pollute the earth

Who came up with the idea of Primary Green Crime?

South

What is Primary Green Crime - South?

Direct, immediate harms done to the environment

• involve: destruction and degradation of the Earth’s resources

Example of Primary Green Crime?

• deforestation

• air pollution

• water pollution

e.g. a company illegally dumps toxic waste into a river killing fish and contaminating drinking water - directly harms the nature environment

Who came up with the idea of Secondary Green Crime?

South

What is Secondary Green Crime - South?

When rules, laws or regulations designed to protect the environment are broken

• often involve state-corporate crime, corruption, or attempts to cover up environmental harm

Example of Secondary Green Crime?

• illegal waste disposal

• bribery to avoid environmental regulations

• violation of health and safety laws

e.g. a government allows a factory to operate without proper pollution controls because officials accept bribes

Who came up with the idea of Environmental Racism?

White

What is Environmental Racism - White?

Refers to the way environmental harm, pollution, and ecological risks are disproportionately imposed on racialised or minority communities

• because of structural inequality and unequal power

Example of Environmental Racism?

e.g. Bhopal Disaster

• polluting: industries placed in or near communities of colour

• minority of groups face greater exposure to air pollution, contaminated water, or hazardous land

• government policies and corporate decisions prioritise interests of powerful groups whilst ignoring or harming marginalised populations

• environmental protection is applied unequally: some communities receive clean, safe environments

What is a Contemporary Example of Green Crime?

Amazon Deforestation for Beef

• contributes to biodiversity loss, displacement of indigenous communities, CO2 emissions, and illegal land grabbing

Much of the beef and soy produced in deforested regions enter global supply chains