Australia's Plastics and Chemicals Industries Association has been warned growth in the use of the Internet poses a threat to industry profits in a climate of growing environmental activism.
United States Chamber of Commerce vice-president William Kovacs was commenting at the association's convention in Port Douglas.
Mr Kovacs told delegates the biggest threat to plastics and chemicals, and perhaps all industry, is the ability for anyone to disseminate incorrect information cheaply to the entire world.
He says the use of the Internet by extreme environmentalists and greater amounts of public disclosure law will create fear and allow the sabotage of industries.
Mr Kovacs warns that when the tide changes against industry, industrialised nations will act like countries dominated by religious fundamentalists.
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