[jackstraw14]

Does it matter who knew, at this point? Industry boomed because of the output and also because the worst consequences would come long after. As a society we usually do it the messy way first and refine it later, right? Maybe they thought it was fine, we'll fix it later.

Maybe there was an odd company here and there that "did the right thing" but we're talking about Industries here. They knew they were shitting into the atmosphere and decided it was worth it.