Title: The Avarice Multinational Corporation in Violation the Environment

Introduction

In 21st Century, environment quality has become poor and poorer due to the

greediness and carelessness in safety of the Multinational Corporation (MNC) in

violation our environment and exploit it for their profitability motif. Most of the MNCs

that involved are normally foreign company which invested in third world or

developing countries. Normally the company from developed countries will try to

exploits on the loosen enforcement of environment law by the related country. In this

mater, ethical and social responsibilities are important roles that all MNCs should

practise wherever they are operates. Since environments are very important to all

countries and everybody, the MNC should have an ethical behaviour and social

responsibility in taking cares the environment by ensuring the operations are more to

environmental friendly.

The ethical dilemmas which are situation that will often involve an apparent

conflict between moral imperatives, in order to obey one would result in

transgressing another. Its what lack with the MNC that greedily explore the

environments for own benefits and, less of ssocial responsibility in which it is an

ethical or ideological theory that an entity whether it is a government, corporation,

organization or individual has a responsibility to society but this responsibility can be

"negative." In that it is a responsibility to refrain from acting (resistance stance) or it

can be "positive," meaning there is a responsibility to act (proactive stance).

However some companies, governments, and international organizations have made

progress toward the impact of commercial activities to environment.

Mining is the excavation of useful minerals that come from within the earth,

usually found in ore bodies, veins, or coal seams. Mining can be carried out almost

anywhere, from 4,000 metres above or below sea level. Mining can happen in a lot

of different places, from tropic jungles to the Arctic. Exploring for them, digging out

of the ground and selling them are requires sacrifices on the natural environment,

wildlife and fish that live on it, and from the Aboriginal people who depend on it. Then

it come with water pollution, negative impact to communities, and abandoned mine.

Consistently, the mining industry has been statistically proven to be one of the

most environmentally destructive industries on the planet. For example, in the

Appalachia region, mountaintop coal removal destroyed, in just ten years, 1,208

miles of streams and 380,547 acres of forest. With far-reaching effects that damage

the land, air, and water, in addition to the plants and animals that live there, the

mining industry is an ecological disaster. The many different types of mines harm

the environment in many different ways. In addition to their impact on the

environment, mines are infamous for how hazardous they are.

Since 1940, there have been over 7000 mining related deaths and an

astounding 488,000 injuries on-the-job, in the US alone. Pompous head executives

of mining companies “claim” that they are being as environmentally-friendly as

possible, but most of the time they are still doing things that harm the environment

one way or another. It is impossible to eliminate all effects on the environment, but

mining companies should be paying more attention to reducing the effect, since

mining is so harsh on the environment. They should look at all different aspects (air,

water, land, etc.), and plan a way of reducing for each section. If reduction is

impossible, they should not go on with the mine. They should also keep in mind the

effects of the mine even after operations within it stop. When it is not absolutely

necessary to mine something, it should not be mined. After all, mining is non-

renewable, so once we take out the minerals, they will never be there again.

Diamond Mining by De Beers

De Beers is strong name in jewellery industries. De Beers and the various

companies within the De Beers Family of Companies engage in exploration for

diamonds, diamond mining, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacture.

De Beers is active in every category of industrial diamond mining such as open-pit,

underground, large-scales alluvial, coastal and deep sea. Its mining activities take

place in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Canada. While it retail gallery can be

found at every Capital of countries. In 2008, De Beers’s financial statement shown

sales revenue amounted USD$6.89 billion and profit before tax USD$1.2 billion.

De Beers Exploration, Mining and Sales

The activity by De Beers has impact on land. All stages of the mining process

can result in the disturbance of the land surface and the eco-systems which it

supports, as well as the aquatic eco-systems into which they drain. In the mining

sequence, surface disturbances come not only from the mines themselves

particularly strip mines and open pits, but also from the large areas needed for the

disposal or dumping of mine tailings and waste rock.

In Canada mining area, estimated million hectares have been used for mining

purposes. The mine site should be returned to its “original” condition. Since mine

closure and reclamation is an expensive and lengthy process, mining companies

like De Beers often reclaim the land by constructing pond and wetland by

establishing vegetation over the mine site, while the waste soil remain without any

recovery treatment.

Copper Mining in Zambia

In Zambia, record copper prices of nearly US$8,000 per tonne on the international market

have triggered huge investment in Zambia's copper mines over the last three years, but critics have

said most investors are putting profit above environmental safety. Therefore, mines are coming

under increasing and sustained criticism for repeatedly polluting drinking water

sources in the Copperbelt mining region, the country's economic heartland. Mopani

Copper Mine, which has mining operations in Mufulira town, near the border of the

Democratic Republic of Congo, accidentally discharged polluted water, after a pump

malfunction failed to purify it, into the reticulated water system of a private water

utility company. Nearly 1,000 residents visited local clinics, complaining of abdominal

pains, severe diarrhoea and vomiting. No fatalities were recorded, but the

widespread poisoning prompted residents to take to the streets in protest and police

were called in to calm the demonstrators. Although Mopani Copper Mine - owned

jointly by Canada's First Quantum Minerals, Swiss firm Glencore International and

the Zambian government, through ZCCM Investments Holdings - cited the failure to

purify the water as an accident, others have accused the company of negligence.

The failure of the (mining) company's underground pump to purify the acidic

water should have been avoid able by simply ensuring there was a standby

alternative at all times. But even after it happened, the water utility should have been

able to detect the impurities in the water - it didn't have to take the people to

complain for the two companies to realise the pumped water was polluted.

In 2007, Zambia's biggest mining company, Konkola Copper Mine [KCM],

owned by London-listed Vedanta Resources, caused widespread water pollution

when its acidic effluent entered the Kafue River, the main source of water of about 2

million people in the area. Hundreds of people fell sick after eating fish poisoned by

the polluted water and more than 50 local farmers have taken legal action

demanding compensation from the mining company because their crops withered

and died after being irrigated with water from the river.

Under Zambian law, environmental management is a vital component of

mining and all mining firms are obliged to prepare detailed environmental impact

assessments, indicating how they will mitigate environmental problems such as air

and water pollution. Erring companies face prosecution, fines or the withdrawal of

their operating licenses. KCM had its operating licence suspended for 10 days after

the water pollution episode in 2007, and was instructed to install new environmental

safety measures. The company reportedly lost $26 million during the suspension

period.

Analysts said such actions as closing mines could be counter-productive to

the country's development. Mining contributes up to 80 percent of Zambia's foreign

exchange, although government only charges a 0.6 percent in mineral royalties - the

global norm is 3 percent. Since then, Frederick Bantubonse, director of the Zambia

Chamber of Mines, commented that closing a mine would not be any good to the

Zambia developments. So, the government should just work to ensure such

accidents are minimised. He is also stress that the issue of polluting the water is very

critical and government need to play a role in fighting it. However, they are finding it

extremely difficult to tackle such problems because of lack of funds.

In 2006, according to a survey published by the Blacksmith Institute, a New

York-based organisation monitoring pollution in the developing world, Kabwe, about

150km north of the capital, Lusaka, and home to 300,000 people, is Africa's most

polluted city. It also has the dubious distinction of being ranked as the world's fourth

most polluted site.

Oil Spill in Russia

According to Agence France-Presse (AFP) report on February 26, 2009,

Dmitry Lisitsyn, an environmental activist on Russia's Sakhalin Island, located in the

Pacific Ocean has recalled the day accident happened in January 2009 in Aniva Bay

when over 100 dying birds washed up on this beach, coated in a thick layer of oil and

helplessly flapping their wings. He believes that several thousand birds killed in the

incident. Activists’ fear that the incident happened in January month could be a sign

of things to come on Sakhalin, whose rich oil and gas fields have drawn billions of

dollars' worth of investment in recent years.

The development of Sakhalin's energy industry has brought jobs and

gleaming new business centers to this impoverished piece of Russia that used to be

a prison colony in the 19th century. It also promises to serve energy-hungry Asian

economies, as underlined by the new liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant expected to

send its first cargo to Japan in Mach.

Kim Limanzo, a fisherman from the town of Nogliki in northern Sakhalin,

complains that fish populations have suffered since drilling began at offshore oil and

gas fields nearby, and sometimes the fish tastes like oil.

This situation has worried the locals and environmental activist where oil spill

can be happened from extraction wells, sub-sea pipelines or a major tanker accident

like the Exxon Valdez spill oil in March 1989 in Alaska. In this incident, Exxon

operated tanker hit a reef and released over a quarter of a million barrels of oil into

Alaska’s Prince William Sound. In 2006, the Russian government accused Sakhalin

Energy on built the pipeline of environmental abuses including the endangerment of

salmon spawning area. However, the legal dispute was settled after Russian state-

run energy giant Gasprom bought a majority stake in the consortium which had

previously led by British-Dutch oil major Shell.

Nuclear accident shakes Japan

An irradiated worker is taken to hospital wrapped in a plastic sheet

Japan is facing an unprecedented nuclear emergency after a major uranium

leak. Radiation levels at the Tokaimura nuclear fuel-processing plant in north-east

Japan are 15,000 times higher than normal. The authorities have warned thousands

of residents near the site of the accident to stay indoors and to wash off any rain that

falls on them. "There is a strong possibility that abnormal reactions are continuing

within the facility," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka told an emergency news

conference. "There are concerns about radiation in the surrounding areas." He said

that it was very likely that there had been a "criticality incident" at the plant.

Criticality is the point at which a nuclear chain reaction becomes self-

sustaining. "The situation is one our country has never experienced," Mr Nonaka

said. Three workers from the plant have been taken to hospital and hundreds have

been forced to leave their homes. One of the three workers in hospital is reported to

be in a serious condition, suffering from continuous vomiting.

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi has set up an emergency task force to tackle the

accident. A government request for help from US military forces in Japan for help

was turned down. The US said its forces were not equipped to handle such

accidents.

The cause of the leak - detected at 1035 local time (0135GMT) - was not

immediately known. The state failed to launch neutron-level analysis, and waited for

the results of a village study before realizing criticality was being sustained at around

5:30 p.m., almost seven hours after the accident occurred. The head of the

company's Tokyo office, Makoto Ujihara, said the workers told other staff at the plant

that "they saw a blue flame rising from the fuel" and complained of nausea. "We are

still trying to find what exactly happened but we believe the uranium reached the

critical point", the spokesman for JCO was quoted as saying. Local schools were

ordered to close their windows and keep pupils indoors. The Prime Minister

postponed a cabinet reshuffle planned for Friday because of the accident.

At a distance of two kilometres (1.24 miles) from the accident, radiation was

still 10 times the normal level said Tatsuo Shimada, an official of Ibaraki Prefecture.

Police cordoned off a 6km "forbidden zone" around the uranium processing plant.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that initial reports suggested a

radiation leak in Japan was not a "major incident," although it was waiting for more

data. Early estimates suggested the incident was serious but would not rank above

three on a seven-level scale of nuclear incidents, said an IAEA spokesman in

Vienna. The environmental organisation Greenpeace criticised the accident as a

symptom of a safety "crisis" in Japan's nuclear industry.

"Today's accident at Tokaimura confirms our fears - the entire safety culture in

Japan is in crisis and the use of dangerous plutonium in reactors here will only

increase the probability of a nuclear catastrophe," Greenpeace International activist

Shaun Burnie said. The organisation pointed out that the accident came just one day

before a UK-flagged ship was expected to deliver 225 kilograms (495 pounds) of

mixed plutonium-uranium oxide (MOX) fuel to a plant in Takahama, central Japan.

About 400 farming families in Tokai and a local farm products company have called

on JCO to pay 686 million yen in compensation, the claimants said Tuesday.

The figure is set to increase as more of the 1,000 farming families in Tokai file

claims, village officials said. Representatives from the company and those of families

producing carrots, Chinese cabbage, rice and sweet potatoes presented the

compensation demand Monday during a visit to the local office of JCO. The farmers

said they are especially concerned about future losses in sales of dried sweet

potatoes, a Tokai specialty shipped during winter. Many families have received

cancellations of orders for their dried sweet potatoes since the accident. Ibaraki is

the third-largest sweet potato-producing prefecture. Its 1997 crop was worth 17.7

billion yen. Tokai's agricultural committee, which compiled the claims, is demanding

steps toward payment by year's end.

Tokaimura was the site of Japan's worst nuclear plant incident in 1997, when

35 workers were contaminated by radiation after a fire at a processing plant was not

extinguished properly and caused an explosion. A series of incidents at Japanese

nuclear power stations in recent years has undermined confidence in the safety of

this form of energy production, says BBC Tokyo correspondent Juliet Hindell.

In July, cooling water leaked from a pipe in the building that houses the

reactor at the Tsuruga nuclear power plant in northern Japan. It took Japan Atomic

Power, the company that operates the plant, 14 hours to shut down operations after

the leak was discovered. Executives in charge of the reactor said radiation from the

leak was 11,500 times the safety limit. The earlier figure given was 250 times the

limit, and the change has sparked accusations of a cover-up.

Disadvantages or dangers if the Companies Continue on the Unethical Practise.

Evidently, the current methods of mining are very harsh on the

environment. To justify how bad some types of mining are, think about the fact that

producing a single gold ring generates 20 tones of mine waste. And where does that

waste go? Into the water, air, land, animals, and even into us. The Earth is a

special place in which many metals and other materials co-exist. These materials

are vital to the well-being of the earth itself, but greedy mining companies insist on

mining the hell out of an area to steal away the minerals, even if they are

unnecessary, such as diamonds.

Pollution on Air: Mining has a great effect on the quality of the air. Since

mines need to blast through rock to get to an ore, dust may be produced in the

process. Coal mines release methane, which contributes to environmental issues

because it is a greenhouse gas. The methane is sometimes captured, but only

where it is economically feasible to do so. Some cooling plants may release ozone-

depleting substances, but the amount released is very small. Non-vegetated or

uncapped tailings dams release dust, and when radioactive elements are found in

the ore, radiation is emitted. Heavy metals, such as sulfur dioxide, may be polluted

into the air by unsafe smelter operations with insufficient safeguards. The gold

mining industry is one of the most destructive industries in the world, because of all

of the toxins that are released into the air. Acid rain and smog are also some side-

effects of mining. Every year, 142 million tons of sulfur dioxide is emitted into the

atmosphere because of smelting. That’s 13% of total global emissions.

The nuclear power plant accident is contributed to critical air pollution when

the radioactive are carry by the air and spread to surrounding areas. This pollution is

much higher because it totally depends on the wind and can spread out many miles

of distance if the radioactive level is high. It is shown in the history of Chernobyl

nuclear power plant disaster.

Effect on Water: Mines use a lot of water, though some of the water is

reusable. Sulfide-containing minerals, when oxidized through contact with air, via

mining, form sulfuric acid. This, when combined with trace elements, negatively

impacts groundwater. This happens from both surface and underground mines.

Another way surface and underground water are affected is through tailings dams

and waste rock heaps, because they are a source of acidic drainage water. Leftover

chemical deposits from explosives are usually toxic, and increase the salinity of mine

water, as well as contaminating it. Groundwater can be directly contaminated

through “in situ” mining, in which a solvent seeps into un-mined rock, leaching

minerals. In the extraction of minerals, some toxins (for example cyanide and

mercury) are used that can permanently pollute the water, making it hard for fishers

to find fish. Spills into oceans and lakes add toxic heavy metals and sulfuric acid into

the environment, which can take ages to fix. Also, Acid Mine Drainage lowers the

pH of the water, making it more acidic.

Damages on Land: There are many environmental concerns about the

effects mining has on the land. Trees need to be cut down in order to have a mine

built, and whole forests could be destroyed. Mining involves moving large quantities

of rock, and in surface mining, overburden land impacts are immense. Overburden

is the material that lies overtop of the desirable mineral deposits that must be

removed before the mining process begins. Some mines make an effort to return

the rock and land to its original appearance by returning the rock and overburden to

the pit that they were taken out of. Copper mines sometimes extract ore that has

very little copper actually in it (less than 1%). Almost all of the mined ore of non-

ferrous metals becomes waste. A lot of areas are pock marked by thousands of

small holes by people digging in search of precious minerals. Mining activities also

may lead to erosion, which is dangerous and bad for the land. It destroys river

banks, and changes how the river flows, where it flows, what lives in it, etc. Toxins

used in the extraction of minerals (for example cyanide and by-products like

mercury) can permanently pollute the land, which makes people not able to farm in

certain places. Open-pit mining leaves behind large craters that can be seen from

outer-space.

Destruction of Ecosystem: Mines are highly damaging to the ecosystems

surrounding them. Many different types of mines affect many different types of

ecosystems. For example, deep-sea mines are at high risk of eliminating rare and

potentially valuable organisms. Mining destroys animal habitats and ecosystems.

Pits that mines create could have been home to some animals. Also, the activity that

surrounds the mine, including people movement, explosions, road construction,

transportation of the goods, the sounds made, etc. are harmful to the ecosystems

and will change the way the animals have to live, because they will have to find a

new way to cope with the mine and live around it. An estimated 30% of total mining

exploration site is for road system. Studies have shown that road significantly affect

animal distribution and fragment animal population. For some species roads are

impassable barriers. Road fragment the population and each isolated population

subject to dissolve. In addition, to direct impact of habitat loss, roads also facilitate

the invasion of exotic species by hunters or jungle trackers. Spills of deadly

substances obviously have a very negative effect on animals and ecosystems in

general. Many of the toxins and tailings that are discharged from the mines can

disrupt and disturb the way animals live, and their health. Mining can completely

destroy ecosystems by adding or taking out something from the animals’ everyday

lives, therefore throwing the whole thing out of balance.

On the spilt of oil in Russia has affected the living animals that not only in the

sea but also to the birds which take fish as their diet. This will harmful the bird when

they swim through the spilt oil and cannot fly when its touch the oil. Many birds and

fishes died due to the oil and this affected sea or areas will take few years to

recover.

In the case on waste of the nuclear power plant, it is very sensitive to the

environment because the radioactive are very dangerous when expose to the

atmosphere or any living thing. Therefore the sensitivity of the wastage are very high

if its expose to the air. If leakage happened the impact are very high to the

environment. Exposure to the radioactive will give a life impact on health to the living

thing for generations.

Safety and Health in Operation: Mining can be very safe, but often it is

extremely dangerous. Underground mining is usually more unsafe than surface

because of the poor ventilation and visibility, as well as the rock fall hazards. The

biggest health risks are from dust, which can cause breathing problems. One

example would be silicosis, which is when silica found in the rock gets into your

lungs, and rip them apart. The silica gets you’re your lungs when you blast the rock

away to find the ore inside, and little fragments of silica arise as dust, which you then

breathe in. Another health issue is from exposure to radiation. People below

poverty line in third-world countries are affected by mining. If the mining

contaminates their fresh water supply, they will have to walk for miles to find more

water.

Nuclear power plant is the higher risk to the environment in the case if

accident happened if no safety or precaution taken during operation and disposal of

the nuclear waste. Since the status or risk are very high that taken place for the

disposal, stringent control base on standard operating procedure on safety and

health should be introduce and enforcement are must to ensure the safety. The rate

on releasing the radioactive to environment is strongly recommended to control not

only by body of the operation country itself, but also by International Atomic Energy

Agency (IAEA). Japan has 51 commercial nuclear power reactors that provide one-

third of the country's electricity. With few natural resources of its own, Japan imports

nearly all its fuel oil. Since the oil crisis of 1973, successive governments have made

concerted efforts to become self-sufficient. By the year 2010, Japan wants to

produce 42% of its energy in nuclear plants. In the high number of nuclear power

reactors will have very high impact to environment and moreover the safety is not

takes in seriously as accident happened in Japan. Even though US are recognised

as a leader in nuclear power producer, its still have areas that are lack of preparation

to face the consequence as happened in Japan. This has made the US military

forces to turn down the aid requested by Japan government on the accidents.

Even though the method to keep the waste is quite complicated and tedious,

the leakage possible happened because it takes more than 50 years for it to decay,

after which less than one thousandth of its initial radioactivity remains to make it

much easier to handle. Hence canisters of vitrified waste, or used fuel assemblies,

are stored under water in special ponds, or in dry concrete structures or casks for at

least this length of time. After being buried for about 1000 years most of the

radioactivity will have decayed. The amount of radioactivity then remaining would be

similar to that of the naturally-occurring uranium ore from which it originated, though

it would be more concentrated.

Drainage of Acid Mine: Acid mine drainage (AMD), or acid rock drainage

(ARD), is when the pH of water is lowered and made more acidic. This usually

happens in abandoned subsurface mines. The reason is because subsurface

mines, when operational, have to keep pumping the water out of the mine. Once

abandoned, however, the pumping stops and the mine floods. This flood is the initial

step of AMD. Acidity is generated when metal sulfides are oxidized after being

exposed to air and water. Bacteria and archaea decompose the metal ions faster.

These microbes are found naturally in the rock, but their numbers are usually low

due to limited oxygen and water. However, once they are in an environment with an

abundance of water and oxygen, they flourish. Acidophiles are extremophiles that

favour the low pH levels of abandoned mines (low pH caused by AMD). When the

ore is a sulfide or pyrite, the mine has a better chance of generating highly acidic

discharges. Chalcopyrite (the most commonly mined ore of copper) occurs with a

range of other sulfides, so copper mines are highly susceptible for AMD. The water

gets very acidic, which is unhealthy for the land and all the underwater creatures that

it might come in contact with. Mines try to neutralize the water again by adding

limestone chips, but they sometimes form a layer of calcium sulfate, which blinds the

material and stops any further neutralization. Also, they use a method called

Constructed Wetlands to try to neutralize the pH, but this is time-consuming and not

enough to deal with heavily polluted discharge. Constructed wetlands use the

products of bacterial processes to stabilize the pH, but said products are unstable

when exposed to oxygen. Though mining companies try to counteract AMD, they

aren’t having that much success.

Why, then, should we continue having big mines if they are just going to

cause more AMD? Mining is important for the economic growth and employment for

the related nation to enable them to survive and for their needs. All these are

requires every agencies or companies either private or government should play an

active roles in ensure the environment is taking care by actively implement their

corporate social responsibility, and government must strongly enforce the law on

environmental protection even though it is difficult.

Conclusion

Since mining and nuclear power are important for the economic growth and

employment for the related nation to enable them to survive and for their needs, all

these are requires every agencies or companies either private or government

sectors should play an active roles in ensure the environment is taking care by

corporate (MNC) by actively implement their corporate social responsibility, and

government must strongly enforce the law on environmental protection even though

it is difficult.