Discuss three types of green crime.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Green crime can take many forms and consists of violating rules and laws designed to protect the environment. In illegal dumping, some green-collar criminals want to skirt local, state, and federal restrictions on dumping dangerous substances in the environment. Rather than pay expensive processing fees, they may secretly dispose of hazardous wastes in illegal dump sites. Illegally dumped wastes can be hazardous or nonhazardous materials that are discarded in an effort to avoid disposal fees or the time and effort required for proper disposal. Illegal fishing is also a type of green crime. It involves the unlicensed and illegal fishing practices that can involve large-scale companies and factory ships operating on the high seas that catch thousands of tons of fish on each voyage, to smaller, locally operating ships that confine themselves to national waters. Illegal fishing occurs when these ships sign on to their home nation's rules and then choose to ignore their scope and boundary, or operate in a country's waters without permission, or on the high seas without a flag. Because catches are not reported, illegal fishing can have a detrimental effect on species-stocks can become depleted and the species endangered. A third type of green crime is illegal logging, which involves harvesting, processing, and transporting timber or wood products in violation of existing laws and treaties. Logging violations include taking trees in protected areas, going over prescribed logging quotas, and processing logs without acquiring licenses. Illegal logging exhausts forests, destroys wildlife, and damages habitats. While the scale of illegal logging is difficult to estimate, it is believed that more than half of all logging activities in the most vulnerable forest regions may be conducted illegally.