Date published: 2008/10/06
The BBC says:
Businesses must change their attitude to environmental issues if the tide of ecological decline is to be halted.
That was the message from Valli Moosa, president of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, opening the World Conservation Congress.
The former South African minister said all companies should have directors with environmental experience.
...
Mr Moosa spoke frankly about his view that unfettered markets and businesses are largely responsible for the world's current environmental ills."Leading entrepreneurs and markets have certainly contributed to the growth of the global economy; yet while individuals may be moral, markets are not," he told delegates.
"The damage industries and commerce do to people and the environment is real, it is considerable, and it is unacceptable."
But, he added, it was also unnecessary.
Businesses had a short-term interest in saving money through saving energy, and every boss had a different kind of interest in leaving the world an environmentally sound place for their children.
Every business, he said, should include at least one non-executive director with a working knowledge of environmental issues, just as they should include someone with a working knowledge of accountancy.
It's amazing this kind of simplistic babble ever sees the light of day in any international organisation. So let's see, if "individuals may be moral, markets are not" then we can easily make the equally irrelevant comment that "individuals may be immoral, markets are not". It's just mind numbing that anyone can blame corporations for all the evils of the planet. Corporations do not force people to consume goods. Corporations do not force governments to wage war (at least not very often). Corporations do not force people to breed (and the number one problem on the planet is that there are too many people). And if he wants to stick two fingers up to corporations, why should they pay any attention to anything he says, least of all this idea that somehow they "should have directors with environmental experience" (perhaps he is short a few directorships and wants to be offered some more).
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