This ad ran many, many years ago. That doesn’t make it any less condescending or unfortunate. It unknowingly foreshadows one of the worst disasters of the industrial age.
The Bhopal disaster. . .in the city of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, [resulted] in the immediate deaths of [at least] 3,000 people. . . . A more probable figure is that 8,000 died within two weeks, and it is estimated that the same number have since died from gas related diseases. However, testimonies from doctors who provided medical assistance during the tragedy claim over 15,000 were dead in the first month and approximately 20,000 in total.
The incident took place in the early hours of the morning of December 3, 1984, in the heart of the city of Bhopal in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. A Union Carbide subsidiary pesticide plant released 40 tons of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas, killing approximately 3,800 people instantly. The Bhopal disaster is frequently cited as the world’s worst industrial disaster . . . . Two decades later, more than 100,000 people have permanent injuries, light or severe. The groundwater around the plant area remains contaminated, and the question of cleaning up the area is still unresolved.
The ad also offers what, I am sure, was an unintentional allegory for the dangers of globalization. The Bhopal disaster demonstrates what can happen when unregulated and unrestrained globalization intersects with weak local government. Corporations take advantage of lax regulations, get lazy, and people die. Despite what the right wants us to believe, we can’t count on the “invisible hand” of free market capitalism to regulate corporate behavior. All too often, that hand, instead of regulating its own behavior, releases toxic chemicals into the ground, air, or water.