A Taiwanese company polluted Vietnamese waters, seriously harming the fishing industry, for the sake of its profits

Many developing countries will invite foreign companies to set up operations in order to help the government create jobs and generate tax revenue. Vietnam is such a developing country and many foreign companies have invested in Vietnam and have set up production facilities there.

The Formosa Ha Tinh Corporation of Taiwan, however, created a huge scandal by pouring lots and lots of pollutants into surrounding Vietnamese waters, destroying the fishing industry in FOUR Vietnamese districts. Formosa killed about 100 tons (!!!) of fish and damaged the environment to the point that it may never recover. When a Formosa spokesman was asked about this horrific environmental damage, he said, basically, "Well, the Vietnamese people have to choose between factories and fish." 

Apparently Formosa will have to pay $500,000,000 to help clean up the pollution and to help the fishermen.

The article is below:

http://thediplomat.com/2016/07/its-official-formosa-subsidiary-caused-mass-fish-deaths-in-vietnam/

Vocabulary to help you understand the article:

It's official - this means an investigation has happened and now the truth can be told. It's official - it's certain.

subsidiary - a branch of a larger company, a smaller section of a larger company

mass death - many dead

the blame - the responsibility for something bad happening

compensation - to provide compensation is to offer something to make up for something bad that happened

unprecedented - never seen before; if something is unprecedented it has never happened before

labeled the crisis - called the crisis

from the outset - from the beginning

a steel plant - a factory making steel (the material tall buildings and bridges are made of)

discharged - poured, spewed, sent, forced

industrial waste - pollution that is created when products are made at a factory

to blame - to accuse, to claim that someone/some group has done something wrong

to mitigate the consequences - the soften or make less severe the consequences

pledged - promised

rare mass protests - rare means it does not happen often, mass protests means many Vietnamese people took to the streets and openly complained and demanded that something should be done

protests were marred by - to mar something is to make it less clean or to make something look worse; so the protests were made worse by the fact that people were arrested by the police and that there was violence

to implement - to put a plan into action

investment kept rolling in - to make sure other companies from other countries would continue to invest in Vietnam

to shoulder responsibility - to accept responsibility, as if you are carrying it on your shoulder

to mediate a situation - someone who mediates tries to reach an agreement that both sides find acceptable