Hazardous to Your Health - Environmental Dangers of Tort Reform and Free Market Arguments against regulations

More than four decades ago, the Ad Council partnered with Keep America Beautiful to create a powerful visual image that dramatized how litter and other forms of pollution were hurting the environment, and how every individual has the responsibility to help protect it. The ad, which featured Native American actor Iron Eyes Cody, "The Crying Indian," first aired on Earth Day in 1971. Created by ad agency Marstellar, Inc., the campaign used the line, "People Start Pollution. People can stop it." The ad became one of the most memorable and successful campaigns in advertising history and was named one of the top 100 advertising campaigns of the 20th Century by Ad Age Magazine.

I remember this video from when I was young. It always brought tears to my eyes. It was a powerful indictment against people who put corporate interests ahead of public safety. Today, there is a new assault on the public safety. All the reforms that were passed years ago to protect us are in danger.

The argument that conservative reformers are making is that we don't need regulations. Remember the speech last week? "Take your foot off the neck of the job creators" or some such rhetoric as that? Problem is, they are using that argument to roll back reforms that we need. We need to have protections in place against big business polluting the environment. China is where we were fifty to seventy five years ago. In their cities, you can cut the air with a knife. Things will be no different here if the conservative agenda is successful. I had a friend of mine who lived in New York City in the 70's who used to hate going out of the City. His joke was - I don't like to breathe anything I can't see!

I remember the acid rain problems. I remember when Lake Erie was a fire hazard. I remember in NJ when parts of the Passaic River were a fire hazard. Now, people fish in that river.

We still have awful problems with the environment. We are slowly killing the planet. Go online and google information about honeybees and see how they are dying out. We need them for proper crop production. Look at the plumes at the mouth of each major river where it empties into the ocean. Food sources are dying out. Others are so contaminated they are unsafe to eat. I could go on and on.

Please, look a this video and realize that it is still relevant today. God gave us this planet not to exploit but to care for - to be good stewards of His beautiful gift. I, for one, am ready and willing to fight the good fight. If you are looking for an attorney to review a possible hazardous or toxic claim - call Attorney Bob Vogel at 865-357-1949, The Vogel Law Firm or email rlvogel@robertvogellaw.com

Justice System Holds Corporate Polluters Accountable

In 1989, the Exxon Valdez struck a reef off the Alaskan coast and spilled more than 10 million gallons of oil over 1,000 miles of remote coastline. Exxon’s immediate response to what would become one of the most devastating environmental disasters ever to occur was to embark on a campaign to avoid responsibility that would last decades. Now, 20 years later, another tragic oil spill threatens long-term devastation on the environment. If history is any judge, BP will likely fight efforts to hold it accountable for years, if not decades.

Corporations have consistently responded to the environmental disasters they have caused by passing the buck for as long as possible. As time passes they know initial outrage will dim, media scrutiny will move on, political administrations will change, and the regulators will go through the revolving door to join the industry they once watched.

Laws passed in the 1960s and 1970s were supposed to protect the environment, but lax enforcement left corporations with little incentive to comply. Ultimately, trial attorneys were the ones who sought justice for communities destroyed by corporate polluters. Without the civil justice system, many corporate polluters would never have been held accountable for the disaster they caused.