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I was lent a copy of The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power (Film website) by a friend who works for Citigroup, an irony that I’m sure is not lost on my friend either.

This book expands on the premise that the basis of business, that of the incorporation of companies to a legal “person” entity of a corporation, is legally obliged to ruthlessly pursue the process of building profit for it’s shareholders.

From the very inception of corporations in the 18th century, through the changes in law since then, it paints a ruthless picture of businesses lying, stealing and killing without moral compunction, only - in fact - obeying laws when it is profitable to do so, ie. the cost of crime exceeds the profits it could make from non-adherence. Consequently, the corporation as a “psychopath” is entirely believable: A ‘person’ with no moral compunction or remorse for it’s actions beyond how it best serves itself. It’s a depressing picture it paints, backed up with a raft of examples, for example quoting the chairman of BP - for example - as a man who seemingly strives to improve the image of the oil giant through caring for the environment, who at the same time is obliged to pursue controversial contracts to drill oil in environmentally sensitive locations such as Alaska.

With political reform over the last twenty years having further reduced regulatory constraints on corporations, the book argues that only a return to proper regulation (with enforcement agencies properly staffed and funded), backed up with fines and possible liquidation of continually abusive companies is the only way to constrain the monster that has been created.

Anybody with anything other than a left-leaning political outlook will probably find this book frustrating in the extreme. Yet it’s compulsive reading, for it leaves the reader asking if corporations have been allowed too much liberty? Have we allowed the pendulum to swing too far in their favour, at the expense of the people and the environment?

It was therefore with some interest I settled down to watch The end of the world as we know it on Channel 4 last night as part of it’s “War on Terra” series. Marcel Theroux (Louis Theroux’s brother it would seem) researched the basis for the widely shared belief in the scientific community that global warming is active now; what it’s affects will be; and what the options open to us (and the timescales required) to avert any disasters.

It was a depressing picture, with some very tough conclusions, namely Nuclear power is the only realistic option for producing the energy we require without producing carbon. In relation to The Corporation, it was another case of another oil executive (this time the chairman of Shell) speaking of eco-friendliness approaches and technological change, but seemingly out of touch with his own companies PR brief. Further proof, it seems that until corporations are obliged to behave responsibly - be it ecologically or otherwise - they will continue to pursue their own agenda, namely profit accumulation.

And in both the case of the book, and the programme, I was left feeling how utterly powerless an individual’s decisions and actions can be (although worth pursuing, as best we can, to work to reduce our impact on the environment). What’s required is a huge change, and even if Britain is ahead of the curve with it’s policies for environmental change, poverty reduction and debt relief, until a wider consensus is reached, particularly involving America, we really are rather screwed.