Timber companies cut down forests vital to the survival of rural communities. Mining companies displace people and force is sometimes used during resettlement. Oil companies may hire security companies with a dubious human rights record. Pipeline companies may use state-supplied laborers who are working against their will, without adequate protection of their rights. But that is only part of the story.
Many companies generate revenues greater than the gross domestic product of many countries.
From emerging economies in the South to economic superpowers in the North, governments are lowering environmental standards to increase global trade and are allowing their foreign policies to be driven and directed by corporate, instead of democratic, values. In many parts of the world, corporations and governments are colluding to violate the rights of environmental activists in the name of profit and economic development. Millions of dollars are on the line and environmental activists who protest are being persecuted and punished. The oil industry is one of the worst polluters of the environment. Flaring gas lines.