Revenues of Chevron Corporation in 2022 were one-third of a trillion Canadian dollars and the company’s comprehensive income was C$50 billion. Chief Executive Officer Mike Wirth’s 2022 compensation was C$32 million. So it is not surprising that Chevron’s CEO recently defended his company, saying “We are not selling a product that is evil. We’re selling a product that’s good.”

Experts disagree. According to scientists from Cornell University and The Alliance for Science, there is greater than 99% consensus on human caused climate change in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. According to the U.N., fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas – are by far the largest contributor to global climate change, The results:

• Hotter temperatures,
• More severe storms,
• Increased drought,
• Warming, rising oceans,
• Loss of species,
• Food shortages,
• Health risks,
• Human poverty and displacement.

If that isn’t evil, what is?

People might say that arms dealing equals or surpasses fossil fuel production when they assess evil. Tens of thousand die each year in armed conflicts. Canada’s southern neighbour is the world leader in ranking profits above human lives. Companies like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Raytheon dominate the arms industry.

Although Philips harms fewer people than companies like Raytheon, the multinational conglomerate demonstrated that it prioritizes profit over human health and safety. The company sold millions of machines intended to help people breathe. When Philips became aware its machines were dangerous, it hid that information from regulators and customers.

Years later, Philips is dragging its feet on replacing defective machines and offers no compensation to affected patients. I am one of those people since I have have used a BiPap machine for a dozen years to resolve sleep apnea. One of the machines was by Philips.

ProPublica reports the company knew about a dangerous breakdown inside its widely used ventilators and sleep apnea machines but kept selling the machines and waited years before notifying users.

The complaints targeted some of the company’s most celebrated devices built in two factories near Pittsburgh, including ventilators for the sick and dying and the popular DreamStation for patients who suffer from sleep apnea, a chronic disorder that causes breathing to stop and start through the night.

Yet Philips withheld the vast majority of the warnings from the Food and Drug Administration, even as their numbers grew from dozens to hundreds to thousands and became more alarming each year.

[Philips] sought to protect its marquee products as stock prices soared to the highest levels in decades. Again and again, previously undisclosed records and interviews with company insiders show, Philips suppressed mounting evidence that its profitable breathing machines threatened the health of the people relying on them, in some cases to stay alive.

As the complaints continued to pile up in company files, Philips waged aggressive global marketing campaigns to sell more machines, including new models fitted with the hazardous foam.

The sales pitch worked: The devices went to infants, the elderly and at least 700,000 veterans. The company also promoted machines meant for some of the sickest people in the country.

Mahatma Gandhi had it right when he said, “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.”