I was looking through the stories on the website for Dow's "Human Element" campaign. I can't find the one where they killed 20,000 humans in India.

http://www.dow.com/Hu/

Anyone else insulted to see Dow try to portray themselves as this lubby-dubby caring company?

Are you talking about Bhopal?

That wasn't Dow. That was Union Carbide. Dow bought out Union Barbide almost twenty years after the accident.

I still think it's lame that Dow claims to care about anything but money.

No one cares what you think.

While I'm at it, why is the atomic number of the Human Element 8?

Nice save!

Clearly an awful horrible company.

I didn't read much on how Dow was one of the first to pioneer ethanol. Nor that Dow is just about ready to start producing bioldegradable plastics. Nor hosts of other initiatives Dow has taken throughout its history to make the world a little better.

The idea that Dow only cares about money...is absurd.

Why should it care about anything other than money? The profit motive and the pressure to avoid liability are sufficient to drive innovation that limits human suffering, is it not? Perhaps in countries with under developed legal systems the latter inspiration needs something more.

I agree. I did a 10 week co-op with Dow. My aunt and uncle both work there down in Houston. The company has its internal problems, but some of the stuff the company is doing and has done is actually pretty remarkable. Dow has been leading the way in a number of areas that will really truly have a lasting impact on the environment and the forward progression of our world. And some of these initiatives were quite frankly enormously bold and before their time. The people achieving these things are extremely driven and creative. Some of the programs I was introduced to just absolutely blew my mind.

This might not be the BEST company on the face of the earth. But it's hardly an evil monster.

Apparently you didn't get the memo that science and industrial progress are evil because they hurt mother nature.

I didn't say Dow was evil. I said Dow is motivated by money ... and only money. To argue otherwise is ludicrous.

I know the billions they invested in building ethenol plants and biodegradable plastic factories aren't profitable...

For serious. Some people however think that corporations should be lubby-dubby entities that somehow turn a profit while saving the world at the same time. They obviously are trying to improve their PR, as I don't imagine the lion's share of their products are consumer goods, but I guess they do have some.

Can't win 'em all!

Yet.


50 years ago, the legal repercussions were not sufficient to drive chemical companies to avoid liability. Fortunately, class action lawsuits have made it so that liability is much more of an economic consideration than it used to be, but make no mistake, it is still ONLY A CONSIDERATION.

It's like this. Dow has two considerations, cost to be clean and cost to be liable for being dirty. There is a balance, and if the cost to be clean outweighs the risk of suit for being dirty, they will be dirty. That's just how markets work, and everyone makes those calculations in their lives everyday. The factor that a corporation doesn't take into account that many human beings do is what is THE RIGHT THING TO DO. Because if the right thing to do is in conflict with the action that gives the best returns to the shareholders, then the directors and officers who make that decision are in fiduciary violation.

That is why it is essential that government regulate polluting industries. They have to do everything they can to shift the balance of factors to discourage pollution whenever possible. It's still a market driven idea, it's just a tilted playing field in favor of the parties that have no say in the equation but are still affected, namely regular people, and the environment.