Corporate Polluters Have No Incentive To Change

All corporate polluters have one thing in common, and that’s true whether we’re talking about plastics, CO2 emissions, or toxic waste: our society gives them permission to use our skies and waterways as their own private sewers.

I’m sure that Coca-Cola isn’t proud of the fact that they’re ruining our planet and our children’s future, but they made $8.9 billion last year on $37.2 billion in revenues.  That’s a lot of incentive to continue business as usual, and zero incentive to look for alternatives.  In fact, given corporate law in the United States, the executive team has a fiduciary responsibility to Coke’s shareholders to maximize profits, and would expose itself to great liability if it did otherwise.  As a civilization, we get what we reward.

Want this tragedy to cease?  It’s as simple as a stroke of the pen.  Just force corporate polluters to pay the costs of cleaning up the mess they’re making.  All this would be gone by tomorrow morning.