Whether a class action is the right approach seems debatable to me. If parties possibly damaged by the externality are entitled to shares of any profit derived

Whether a class action is the right approach seems debatable to me. If parties possibly damaged by the externality are entitled to shares of any profit derived from that externality, it acts as an incentive for the company to derive profits in others ways. Rather than a class action that, as you correctly point out, merely gives victims compensation for damage done, it could be better to give potential victims some form of corporate governance. This is all very hypothetical. The chances that an organization couldn't find some political maneuvers to dodge really paying for damages they cause are low. It would be like whack-a-mole. If you incentivize the company to steer away from ocean-raising pollution by letting potential coastal victims have some control, well then they'll just find some other group to extract profits from via unnoticed or unpunished victimization. I'm not sure society wins by engaging in this game of whack-a-mole. The company keeps everyone distracted, the barriers for establishing class action results are high, it's inefficient for us to spend that much time and money on legal routes, and in the meantime, many bad actors simply get away with it and continue to extract profits and consumption opportunities at the expense of others. This is one reason why I prefer to think about direct actions I can do that demonstrably help. Giving to Against Malaria definitely helps someone. Getting all wrapped up in long-term political advocacy for changing the entire framework in which publicly traded companies operate, so as to prevent them from extracting profits via unfair victimization ... that seems like a politics-is-the-mindkiller situation, which will probably do nothing but burn me out and prevent me from doing other things that actually could have helped. Don't get me wrong. It's depressing that it's like this and doesn't bode well for moving towards a more egalitarian society (which I think would be better). But nonetheless it's just the world we live in, litany of Gendlin, yada yada yada.