A lot of these companies are fined because they do things that are illegal. It's just that people are never held personally accountable. Shell, and maybe some other fossil fuel giants, in the 60's/70's/80's, hid documents that said they were destroying the world and published documents that said the opposite instead. Unfortuantely, I believe their attempt at mass extinction has expired, so as far as I know they're not even fined. Facebook massively sold their user's data even though they said they weren't. They were fined for a record amount. Same for Tata Steel over here in The Netherlands. Said they were very careful with toxic waste and fumes. Turned out they weren't and people who live in close viccinity to the factory have, on average, a shorter lifespan and more cancer than the average Dutch person. I mean, back then we didn't know about the health risks (although I'm pretty sure they did), but when we learned and asked them to lessen their output, they simply didn't. As far as I'm concerned ignorance turns into mass murder right there. I don't care whether it's technically legal. There's such a thing as "good faith". Telling your mom you didn't eat the last cookie even though you did isn't punishable (by law, at least). Telling the world you're not warming up the earth by multiple degrees ultimately causing mass extinction could, maybe, if we try a litte, not be in "good faith" and therefore, punishable. Of course you could argue we need fuel, we use Facebook and we need steel, and we keep on buying it and using it, so we are to blame (as well). Unfortunately, it's not like we have a lot of alternatives and we're often kept in the dark. The solution? I don't have one, I'll be honest. Strict government regulation and supervision and personal accountability. As long as no one is personally accountable there will be very few incentive to change, as long as the money keeps rolling in. And in that sense, the government has failed us as well, and is often even an accomplice.
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