Short Story

by Declan Gao

The modern age is a constant cycle of consuming. Corporations produce everything from the food we eat to the gas we put in our cars and individuals are constantly purchasing more and more goods. The waste and extraction of our consumption has undoubtedly led us in the current environmental crisis. While us individuals certainly play a role in the ongoing crisis, it is through the greed, power and influence of the corporations that has damaged the environment in the worst ways possible.

The key issue is that corporations value profits more than the environment. The hunger for increasing profits has made them ignore the consequences. However, the methods that magnify their profits, are at the expense of the health of our environment. The world’s largest oil and gas companies such as Exxon Mobile and Shell funded decades of research against the link between climate change and burning fossil fuels. They led the opposition of regulated green house gas emissions as more regulations and public disinterest will eventually lead to less profits. The crave for money led these companies to spend billions of dollars of false research, false advertisements, and public denial of climate change. The problem isn’t only the measures corporations take, its also found in the packaging, the sourcing of materials and manufacturing processes where companies maximize profits by employing the least expensive methods. The most common way is by reducing costs on materials which is where plastics, foil, Styrofoam, and other harmful materials made their glory. While these materials are cheap to produce, they have significant environmental consequences. When individuals dispose the products, the plastics, foil, and other materials are sent to landfills where they mix with organic waste and their residue flows into the soil and local waterways. The ones sent to incinerators release tons of toxic fumes, polluting the air.

Another way corporations increase their profits is by purposely designing products with shorter lifespans, so consumers are forced to continue purchasing them. The epicenter is in the electronic industry where modern gadgets are fragile, and more expensive to repair than purchasing a new one. The Apple iPhones are designed with special screws that are impossible to open except in Apple repair stores forcing individuals to give more money to the manufacturers. Printers require a print head to function yet, they are exclusively sold by the manufacturers who set prices so high, it’s cheaper to buy a new one. The trend is almost found in every industry including in toys, which are produced from brittle plastics and soft metals that break easily. All this carefully designed products lead to significantly more waste generated. The toxic chemical from electronic waste pollutes landfills, waterways and cause diseases in both humans and animals. Individuals rely on much of these products for work, learning and leisure yet, when interacting with corporations, it forces them to over-consume much of their everyday products. Which has created more unnecessary waste that litters our landscapes and continues to fuel the environmental crisis for the sole purpose of increasing their corporation profits.

Moreover, individuals rely on corporations to produce just about everything they use so, its no surprise that they control all of individual’s product choices. Individuals are limited to solely what corporations produce which are often packaged as well as composed of harmful materials. These include plastics, aluminum foil and palm oil. Studies show that plastics and foil that take centuries to decompose. If disposed incorrectly, they get ingested by wildlife, litter and pollute landscapes. In 2015, packaging for products accounted for nearly 36% of the total plastics produced and that number has only gotten higher. Even organic produce such as cucumbers, grapes and other fruits and vegetables are already wrapped in single-use plastics. Individuals have no control over the production processes of many of the fashion, electronic and household item industries. The fashion industry is another epicenter of cheap and delicate products that are designed to be worn out quickly, so consumers are forced to purchase these
products again, increasing corporation profits. Products that are a basic necessity have already been altered by corporations and leave no choice for the consumers but to help fuel the environmental crisis.

While it might look as if they are thousands of unique brands, the food, clothing, energy, and media industries are all controlled by just a handful of corporations. They have much more power and influence that can do much more environmental harm than any collection of individuals. These companies have vast amounts of capital which used to progressively control more of the market. The decisions of corporations reverberated through many industries have an immense impact on the environment. The new materials used in manufacturing, new ingredients and methods of extraction carried out on a large scale has the worst environmental damage. Nestle, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola are part of the top 4 leaders of the food and beverage industry. They all rely on palm oil as their key ingredient in every product. The demand for this oil fuels the largest deforestation of natural rainforests, releasing tons of greenhouse gasses and fails to match the precious magnitude of photosynthesis. It has also caused the largest destruction of precious natural habitats and ecosystems. Corporations have the power to affect the environment in much more destructive and critical ways than any collection of individuals can. Individuals litter all the time, yet it is still the oil, gas, food, beverage, and technology industries who permanently destroy ecosystems, landscapes, pollute waterways and the air.

The actions of corporations are responsible for the environmental crisis much more than individuals are, evidenced by the true values of corporations, their power and influence and more damaging impacts than individuals can make. Their hunger for money has produced the leading cause of plastic production, their power and influence has forced individuals to contribute to the environmental crisis and the environmental harm carried out by corporations are significantly worse than those of any collection of individuals.