green crime

• Example of 'global risk society': global warming triggered a heatwave in Russia, causing wildfires that destroyed parts of the countries grain. This resulting shortage lead to russia to increase the world price of grain. This had a knock on effect in Mozambique as their bread price rose 30%. This sparked rioting and looting of food stores, which resulted in numerous dead.
• In late modern society, adequate resources can be provided to all. However, the massive increase in technology has created new manufactured risks. Many of these risks involve harm to the environment and in turn humanity, such as global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions from industries. Like climate change, many of these risks are global in nature. Beck coins this as 'global risk society'.
• its hard to define what constitutes as 'green crime' as many green crimes are legal yet have harmful impacts on the enviroment. Criminologists strictly limit green crime to illegal activities. However, individuals and small organisations are likely to be more regulated than governments and large organisations, this is because (as Marxists point out) law is socially constructed and favours some over others. EG chernobyl was legal. Therefore sociologists use a transgressive approach by looking to measure green crime based on harm to the enviroment rather than breaking laws - green criminonolgy.
• South: 2 forms of green crime, primary & secondary.

  Primary: a direct result of destruction of the earths resources. EG extracting oil in nigeria pipes exploded. Lead to deaths, water pollution, species decline, & desertification

  Secondary: Deliberate breaches of laws that look to prevent green crime. EG organised crime (eg illegal dumping of chemicals) & corporate crime (eg outsoucring disposal of hazardous waste to third parties who dump this illegally
• Whyte argues that green crime is caused by the dominance of capitalist ideology, which prioristises economic growth over the wellbeing of the enviroment.

  There are 2 views of enviromental harm:

  1. anthropocentric: assumes humans have a right to dominate nature for their own needs, putting economic growth before the enviroment. This is the view adopted by nation states & TNCs
  2. Ecocentric: Seeing humans and the enviroment as interdependent, so that enviromental harm hurts humans also. View is adopted by green criminolgy
• Whyte uses Marxism to explain green crime. Often in order to achieve profits, there has to be damage to the enviroment due to consumer and capitalist greed. However, green crime is not limited to capitalist societies. Production in communist China makes them the worst polluters. Rather, industrialisation as a whole traps us in a cycle of production.
• solutions:

  • COPs. International agreements to help reduce climate change. For example, there will be no new diesel cars sold in the UK as of 2030.
  • Making it popular for capitalists to be green by applying consumer pressure
• Green crimes are socially constructed, and thus difficult to control bc theres no internationally agreed definiton about what counts as green crime. For exmaple, Kenya dumps toxic waste in a river which flows to Tanzania and damages their ecosytem & makes people sick. ALthough dumping toxic waste is illegal in Tanzania, its difficult for them to control the green crimes being commited in Kenya bc they have no laws agaisnt dumping waste.
• Green crime is difficult to control is bc the rich and powerful often benefit from it, while its the poor who suffer the harms. Marxists: the powerful establish laws that are in their favour, so if they benefit from harming the enviroment, they are unlikely in making it a criminal act. Exploitation of hte natural enviroment has long been part of making a profit in the capitalist system (extracting oil & minerals, deforestation - pollution) eg shell in nigeria. Now companies have to pay fines if they pollute, however companies choose to carry on polluting & just pay the fines.