ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that one common feature united the system of failures, errors in judgment, and regulatory laxness, and that was their impact on the public detection of the hazards at Bhopal. From the very start in Bhopal, possibilities for detection became increasingly constricted by the economic and political expediencies of producing chemicals for consumption by the Third World. Political tradeoffs to enhance legitimacy and global economic demands generated by the capitalist imperative of accumulation narrowed the chances for detecting the dangers at Bhopal. Uncertainty, irreversibility, catastrophic potential and dependency must first be recognized for their value as benchmarks in making choices about whether to adopt certain technologies, and only secondarily as taken-for-granted conditions of implementation. The chapter examines several criteria— uncertainty, irreversibility, catastrophic potential, and dependency— against which assessments of these technologies can be made to decrease the chance an accident like the one in Bhopal will repeat itself.
