Critical Criminology

, Volume 18, Issue 4, pp 307–323 | Cite as

Toxic Atmospheres Air Pollution, Trade and the Politics of Regulation

Article
First Online:

Abstract

Air is an essential ingredient for all living things and its properties influence the quality and longevity of life. When polluted, it is estimated that it causes the annual premature death of millions of people and the world-wide damage and destruction of wildlife and natural habitats. This article examines human-made air pollution within a framework of ‘eco-crime’ and Green Criminology. Using original data on air pollution infringements, it critically examines the shortcomings with existing mechanisms of air pollution control, regulation and enforcement in the UK. In doing so, it identifies how Criminology must continue to push new boundaries and engage with emerging harmful acts of both local and global concern.

Keywords

Restorative Justice Environmental Justice Transnational Corporation Environmental Harm Environmental Crime 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

References

  1. Alier, J. (2000). Retrospective environmentalism and environmental justice movements today. Capitalism, Nature, Socialism, 11(4), 45–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  2. Bachrach, P., & Baratz, M. (1970). Power and poverty: Theory and practice. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  3. Barry, J. (1999). Marxism and ecology. In A. Gamble, D. Marsh, & T. Tant (Eds.), Marxism and social science (pp. 259–279). London: McMillan Press.Google Scholar
  4. BBC. (2010). India suspends first GM food crop on safety grounds. BBC News. 9 February 2010. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8506047.stm.
  5. Beirne, P., & South, N. (Eds.). (2007). Issues in Green Criminology. Confronting harms against environments, humanity and other animals. Devon: Willan.Google Scholar
  6. Bellamy-Foster, J. (2000). Marx’s ecology. Materialism and nature. New York: Monthly Review Press.Google Scholar
  7. Bodansky, D., Brunnee, J., & Hey, E. (Eds.). (2007). The Oxford handbook of international environmental Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  8. Bookchin, M. (2004). Toward an ecological society. London: Black Rose.Google Scholar
  9. Booth, R. (2008). Environment criminals build $10bn empire on ivory, timber and skins. The Guardian, 13 October 2008.Google Scholar
  10. BP. (1995). BY Wytch farm field wins queen’s environmental award. http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=2001682.
  11. BP. (2009). Operating at the Energy Frontiers. How a revitalized BP is driving innovative, efficient and responsible operations. http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/STAGING/global_assets/e_s_assets/e_s_assets_2009/downloads_pdfs/bp_sustainability_review_2009.pdf.
  12. Bradshaw, C., Giam, X., & Sodhi, N. (2010). Evaluating the relative environmental impact of countries. PLoS One 5(5). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2862718/.
  13. Braithwaite, J. (2010). Restorative justice for banks through negative licensing. The British Journal of Criminology, 49, 439–450.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. Brook, D. (1998). Environmental genocide: Native Americans and toxic waste. American Journal of Economic and Sociology, 57(1), 105–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  15. Brown, P. (2003) Global warming kills 150,000 a year. The Guardian, 12 December 2003.Google Scholar
  16. Budds, J. (2009). Urbanisation: Social and environmental inequalities in cities. In W. Brown, C. Aradau, & J. Budds (Eds.), Environmental issues and responses (pp. 99–139). Walton Hall: The Open University.Google Scholar
  17. Bullard, R. (Ed.). (2005). The quest for environmental justice. Human rights and the politics of pollution. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.Google Scholar
  18. Carrabine, E., Iganski, P., Lee, M., Plummer, K., & South, N. (2004). Criminology. A sociological introduction. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
  19. Cartledge, J. (2010). Biofuel producer hit with $176,000 fine for pollution offences. Bioenergy News, 13 April 2010.Google Scholar
  20. Cohen, S. (2001). States of denial: Knowing about atrocities and suffering. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
  21. Cohen, A., Ross, A., Ostro, B., Pandey, K., Krzyanowski, M., Knzli, N., et al. (2005). The global burden of disease due to outdoor air pollution. Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, 68(13–14), 9–23.Google Scholar
  22. COMEAP. (2009). Long-term exposure to air pollution. http://www.advisorybodies.doh.gov.uk/comeap/pdfs/finallongtermeffectsmort2009report.pdf. Accessed 30 June 2009.
  23. Defra. (2009). Pollution prevention and control. http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/ppc/index.htm.
  24. Di Zerega, G. (1996). Deep ecology and liberalism: The Greener implications of evolutionary liberal theory. The Review of Politics, 4(58), 699–734.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  25. Dobson, A. (1990). Green political thought. London: Unwin.Google Scholar
  26. Doherty, J. (2009). Written correspondence in response to FOI request. 2 June 2009, reference number EA09C68. Northern Ireland Environment Agency.Google Scholar
  27. Doornbos, M., Saith, A., & White, B. (Eds.). (2000). Forests, nature, people power. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
  28. Doran, T. (2009), Air pollution incidents for 2006 and 2007. Email communication from the United Kingdom Environment Agency, 17 February 2009.Google Scholar
  30. Foreman, C. (1998). The promise and peril of environmental justice. Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
  31. Ghio, A., & Devlin, R. (2001). Inflammatory Lung injury after bronchial instillation of air pollution particles. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 164(4), 704–708.Google Scholar
  32. Greenpeace. (2009). Climate change. http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/climate.
  33. Halsey, M. (2006). Deleuze and environmental damage. Violence of the text. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
  34. Hauck, M. (2007). Non-compliance in small-scale fisheries: A threat to security? In P. Beirne & N. South (Eds.), Issues in Green Criminology. Confronting harms against environments, humanity and other animals. Devon: Willan.Google Scholar
  35. Hayman, G., & Brack, D. (2002). International environmental. The nature and control of environmental black markets. London: Royal Institute of International Affairs.Google Scholar
  36. Hillyard, P., Pantazis, C., Tombs, S., & Gordon, D. (Eds.). (2004). Beyond criminology—Taking harm seriously. London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
  37. Hoban, T., & Brooks, R. (1996). Green justice—The environment and the courts (2nd ed.). Boulder: Westview Press.Google Scholar
  38. Interpol. (2009a). Pollution crime. http://www.interpol.int/Public/EnvironmentalCrime/Pollution/Default.asp accessed 26 January 2009.
  39. Interpol. (2009b). The Interpol pollution control working group. http://www.interpol.int/Public/EnvironmentalCrime/Pollution/WorkingGroup.asp.
  40. Jacobs, M. (1991). The Green economy: Environment, sustainable development and the politics of the future. Concord, MA: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
  41. James, B. (2002) International judges: Environmental laws not enforced. International Herald Tribune, 28 August 2002.Google Scholar
  42. Jerrett, M., Burnett, R., Ma, R., Pope, C., Newbold, B., Finkelstein, N., et al. (2005). Spatial analysis of air pollution and mortality in Los Angeles. Epidemiology, 16, 726–736.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  43. Jowit, J. (2010) World’s top firms cause $US 2.2 tn in environmental damage, report estimates. The Guardian, 18 February 2010. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/18/worlds-top-firms-environmental-damage.
  44. Kibert, N. (2001). Green justice: A holistic approach to environmental injustice. Journal of Land Use and Environmental Law, 17(1), 169–182.Google Scholar
  45. Likosky, M. (Ed.). (2002). Transnational legal processes—Globalisation and power disparities. London: Butterworths.Google Scholar
  46. London Assembly Environment Committee. (2009). Every breathe you take—An investigation into air quality in London. May 2009. http://www.london.gov.uk/assembly/reports/environment/air-quality-report-200904.rtf.
  47. Lukes, S. (2005). Power–A radical view (2nd ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave.Google Scholar
  48. Mehta, M. (2005). Risky business, nuclear power and public protest in Canada. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
  49. Michalowski, R., & Kramer, R. (1987). The space between laws: The problem of corporate crime in a transnational context. Social Problems, 34(1), 34–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  50. Ministry of Justice. (2007). Judicial and court statistics report 2007, http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/6012.htm.
  51. Muncie, J., Talbot, D., & Walters, R. (Eds.). (2009). Crime: Local and global. Devon: Willan Publishing.Google Scholar
  52. New York Times. (2001). Company news; Koch Petroleum fined $20 million in pollution case. New York Times, 10 April 2001.Google Scholar
  53. O’Malley, C. (2008). Prosecution of environmental crimes dies. Indianapolis Business Journal, 3 March, 2008. http://www.allbusiness.com/government/government-bodies-offices/10592185-1.html.
  54. Parmar, I., & Cox, M. (Eds.). (2010). Soft power and US foreign policy. Theoretical, historical and contemporary perspectives. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
  55. Pavlich, G. (2000). Critique and radical discourses on crime. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
  56. Pearce, F. (2008). The great green swindle. The Guardian, g2, 23 October 2008, p. 5.Google Scholar
  57. Pearce, F., & Tombs, S. (1998). Toxic capitalism. Corporate crime and the chemical industry. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
  58. Pirro, D. (2002). Project for an international court of the environment—Origins and development. www.biopolitics.gr/HTML/PUBS/VOL8/html/Pirro.htm.
  59. Pope, C., Burnett, R., Thun, M., Calle, E., Krewski, D., Ito, K., et al. (2002). Lung cancer cardiopulmonary mortality and long-term exposure to fine particulate air pollution. JAMA, 287, 1132–1141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  60. PWCCC. (2010). World people’s conference on climate change and the rights of mother earth April 22nd, Cochabamba, Bolivia People’s Agreement. http://pwccc.wordpress.com/2010/04/24/peoples-agreement/#more-1584.
  61. Reichel, P. (Ed.). (2005). Handbook of transnational crime and justice. London: Sage.Google Scholar
  62. Sands, P. (2003). Principles of international environmental law (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
  63. Siegal, N. (1998). ‘If I believed in hell, this could be no worse.’ Louisiana-Pacific Corp. sued over environmental crimes. The Progressive. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1295/is_1998_Dec/ai_53281653.
  64. South, N. (1998a). A green field for criminology? A proposal for a perspective, pp. 211–234 in N. South and P. Beirne, special issue of Theoretical Criminology, Vol. 2, 2.Google Scholar
  65. South, N. (1998b). Corporate and state crimes against the environment: Foundations for a Green perspective in European criminology. In V. Ruggiero, N. South, & I. Taylor (Eds.), The new European criminology. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
  66. South, N. (2010). The Ecocidal tendencies of late modernity: Trans-national crime, social exclusion, victims and rights. In R. White (Ed.), Global environmental Harm: Criminological perspectives. Willan: Cullompton.Google Scholar
  67. Sukhedev, P. (2010). Can economics really save wild nature? Earthwatch Oxford Lecture, 10 February 2010, http://www.earthwatch.org/europe/newsroom/news_events/news-5-sukhdev.html.
  68. Thornton, J., & Beckwith, S. (2004). Environmental law (2nd ed.). London: Sweet and Maxwell.Google Scholar
  69. Tombs, S., & Whyte, D. (2009). Crime, harm and corporate power. In J. Muncie, D. Talbot, & R. Walters (Eds.), Crime: Local and global (pp. 137–172). Devon: Willan Publishing.Google Scholar
  70. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). (2008). Disaster Risk Reduction. http://portal.unesco.org/science/en/ev.php-URL_ID=6003&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html.
  71. United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR). (2008). Disaster Figures for 2007. Asia Continues to Be Hit Hardest by Disasters, UN/ISDR 2008/01. www.unisdr/org/eng/media-room/press-release/2008/pr-2000-01-disaster-figures-2007.pdf.
  72. United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2008). October 2008 enforcement action summaries. http://www.epa.gov/reg5oorc/enfactions/enfactions2009/week-200810.htm accessed 26 January 2008.
  73. United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2009). EPA fugitives. http://www.epa.gov/fugitives/. Accessed 28 January 2009.
  74. Vidal, J. (2009). UK faces court case over air pollution breaches. The Guardian, 2 January 2009. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/02/air-pollution-laws-britain-eu.
  75. Walsh, L. (2009). Scottish industries fall short of environmental targets. Environmental Data Interactive Exchange. http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=16603.
  76. Walters, R. (2007). Food crime, regulation and the bio-tech harvest. The European Journal of Criminology, 4(2), 223–251.Google Scholar
  77. Walters, R. (2009a). Crime is in the air. Air pollution control and regulation in the UK. London: CCJS.Google Scholar
  78. Walters, R. (2009b). Eco-Crime. In J. Muncie, D. Talbot, & R. Walters (Eds.), Crime—Local and global. Devon: Willan.Google Scholar
  79. Walters, R. (2010a). Eco crime and genetically modified food. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
  80. Walters, R. (2010b). Eco crime and air pollution. In H. Pierpoint (Ed.), The handbook of crime. Devon: Willan.Google Scholar
  81. Watkiss, P., Holland, M., Hurley, F., & Pye, S. (2006). Damage costs for air pollution. Final report to Defra. Didicot: AEA Technology Environment.Google Scholar
  82. Westra, L. (2004). Ecoviolence and the law—Supranational normative foundations of ecocrime. Ardsley, NY: Transnational Publishers Inc.Google Scholar
  83. White, R. (2008). Crimes against nature, environmental criminology and ecological justice. Devon: Willan Publishing.Google Scholar
  84. World Health Organisation. (2009). Air quality and health. www.who.int/mediacentre/factshhets/fs313/en/index.html. Accessed 22 January 2009.

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.The Open UniversityMilton KeynesUK

Personalised recommendations