A report from the pressure group Transparency International today says
corruption is destroying the environment, as well as people's lives.
Green campaigners have long seen corruption as one of the main enemies in
the battle to stop illegal logging of rainforests. But today's Global
Corruption Report says the problem goes much further. The report juxtaposes a world league table of pollution with a table of environmental problems. The same nations find themselves at the bottom of each list.
The author of the section on the environment, Marc Levy from Colombia
University in the USA, says that by knowing the level of corruption in a
country you could make an informed estimate of the level of air pollution,
or water quality, or the likelihood of dying from an environmentally-related disease. This, he says, comes as something of a surprise, as corruption is hardly ever mentioned as one of the main drivers of environmental problems.
Dr Levy says on a local level people know very well how much corruption
affects their daily lives and their immediate environment. But he says the
issue hasn't made it on to the agenda of the great global debates on the
environment.
The report says that the world is at last beginning to take notice of the
scale of the problems caused by corruption, but urges governments and firms
to act much more quickly on the issue.
