The Night of the Gas: Why Bhopal Matters. Prof. Denise Scheberle

Transcription

1 The Night of the Gas: Why Bhopal Matters Prof. Denise Scheberle

2 Asked to cover 1. area of research and why it is important 2. approach used in the research 3. theoretical and practical lessons learned to date 4. unanswered questions and future directions

3 Area of research and approach Exploring environmental events that have transformed the way we think about processes, policies, regulation and corporate actors Union Carbide and Bhopal Massey Energy and the Upper Branch mine explosion/mtr WR Grace and asbestos exposure at Libby MT BP Oil Spill

4 Industrial crises (not natural disasters) Prompt major systemic disruption and harm triggered by hazardous events Caused by organizations engaged in high-risk activities Significant enough to bring about the restructuring of technological, organizational and/or societal systems Require urgent strategic decisions within the organization and affected communities, spawning new policies, regulations and corporate strategies (adapted from Shrivastava,1994) Also see WOPPR workshop on all types of crises (June 2011)

5 causes of industrial crises Technological systems and processes normal accidents (Perrow1984) Organizational context Normalization of deviance (Vaughan1996, 1999) Societal environment External economic, social, political and cultural factors (Shrivastava1994)

6 villainous behavior Evidence that villains (top-level executives) create an organizational culture of complacency regarding potential environmental harm or human safety and/or believe in the invulnerability of the enterprise Are powerful, influential, and possess resources sufficient to act Obfuscate the truth and have below-board agendas that ultimately put the environment and/or human health at risk Have a history of safety/environmental issues or previous accidents Seek to avoid responsibility

7 Why the research matters: Bhopal as the first case Bhopal is a tragedy of unspeakable proportions World s worst industrial crisis 3,787 officially recorded deaths within a few days 30,000 deaths to date 575,000+ people affected The disaster is unending Abandoned site continues to contaminate water/soil

8 What happened on December stm BBC clip

9 Technical system Poor design shift to backwards integration Unproven manufacturing technologies Storage tank too big and too full Workers new, untrained, unable to read safety manuals 3 of 4 safety systems not working

10 Organizational context Cost-cutting and closing the plant Chose the large tank for efficiency in production Personnel reductions; eliminated maintenance supervisor Union objections led to firing/reprimands No attention paid to audit History of dangerous leaks; disabled alarm system

11 Societal environment Green Revolution Promise of industrial development Poorest residents lived near the plant Willing to bypass zoning restrictions No Right-to-Know law After the accident, slow to provide aid, slow to pursue criminal cases, slow to clean-up site

12 Was Union Carbide an environmental villain, or just a normal accident? Cascade of events that could not have been anticipated saboteur UCIL to blame

13 Long road to justice

14 The legacy of Bhopal: the good and the bad

15 How long will the legacy last?

16 Lessons learned to date Lasting effects of industrial crises interplay among factors Resilience of people Union Carbide Factor Perrow (1999)

17 Unanswered questions and future directions How does this framework apply to other situations? (BP Oil Spill; Massey Coal and the Upper Branch Mine explosion; W.R. Grace and the vermiculite mine in Libby, MT) Is there a bright line demarking villains and normal operations? What are the legacy effects of industrial disasters and how does this fit into policy research? What does this tell us about community mobilization and citizen engagement?