----- forwarded message ----- Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2001 16:54:40 EDT From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Biologist's Recommendations for Corporations
Biologist David Ehrenfeld of Rutgers University, a former editor of the journal Conservation Biology, had an article in the August issue in which he lists the 8 recommendations shown below. There is a growing appreciation among biologists of the connection between the destruction of the natural world and the culture of multinational corporations. It's sad to reflect on the degree to which those same corporations have their meathooks deeply embedded in our land management agencies. 1. Return to the old idea of corporate charters that have a fixed time period - say 20 years - after which they expire unless renewed (like broadcasting licenses) following a searching review of the corporation's activities. 2. Eliminate, probably by constitutional amendment, the special privileges corporations have gradually gained in courts during the past 150 years. 3. Close the legal loopholes that enable senior executives to disassociate themselves from the misdeeds of the companies they control. 4. Make it much harder for corporations to evade punishment by jettisoning divisions, changing names, merging with other corporations, or otherwise altering their identities. 5. Restrict the ability of multinationals to use world trade regulations to nullify national environmental and human safety laws. 6. Protect communities by limiting the rights of corporations to transfer factory operations and large blocks of capital from country to country or state to state without warning and without evaluation of local impact. 7. Change the laws and regulations that allow the largest corporations to avoid paying their fair share of the taxes needed to support the people and environment of the country. 8. Reflect on our own complicity in corporate violence; avoid purchasing products that we do not need and that are socially and environmentally damaging. ===== Bill Willers Biology Dept., University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh 800 Algoma Blvd. Oshkosh, Wisconsin, U.S.A. 54901 Phone: (920)424-3074 Fax: (920)424-1101 [EMAIL PROTECTED] =====================
