Ecocide

Polly will be presenting her UN proposal for implementation of the international Crime of Ecocide at The Haldane Society Lecture, College of Law, 14 Store Street, London WC1E 7DE on Thursday 22nd April 2010. Admission free.

Full information at: thisisecocide.com

Raphael Lemkin was the person who came up with the word ‘genocide’ to describe the horrors of the haulocaust in World War 2. 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity and we need a word to describe the extensive destruction, damage or loss of ecosystems of a given territory, whether by human agency or by other causes.

That word is ecocide

Ecocide

is the extensive destruction, damage to or loss of ecosystem(s) of a given territory, whether by human agency or by other causes, to such an extent that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants of that territory has been severely diminished.

ecocide

Although ecocide as a word already exists, there has been no formal legal definition of it. We want to get this word out into the public consciousness so that we can call for the restoration of ecocide territories and protection of those territories at risk of ecocide. Help us transmit this word as a meme and start using ecocide, posting it out there on blogs, writing about it, calling on those who can help stop the ecocide of the planet…let us know where it is turning up around the world and we will post it up. For full definition and examples of ecocide see below.

Ecocide

is the extensive destruction, damage to or loss of ecosystem(s) of a given territory, whether by human agency or by other causes, to such an extent that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants of that territory has been severely diminished.

Non-ascertainable ecocide describes the outcome, or potential outcome, where there is destruction, damage or loss to the territory per se, but without specific identification of the cause by human agency.

Ascertainable ecocide describes the outcome, or potential outcome, where there is destruction, damage or loss to the territory, and determination can be made of the instigator(s) of cause (or omission) of action directly or indirectly resulting in ecocide. In such cases, ascertainable ecocide applies to strict/absolute, reckless and vicarious liability.

Extract taken from: P. Higgins, ‘Towards a Garden of Eden’ in Wild Law: A Reader in Earth Jurisprudence, ed P. Burdon, Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 2010. To read more see thisisecocide.com

Non-ascertainable ecocide

Where ecocide is established but causation is in doubt or the perpetrators are not determinable (for instance, due to a naturally occurring event such as an earthquake), this need not prevent application of immediate remedy. The threatened/damaged territory must be afforded emergency remedy for the ecosystems and species (including human) therein.

Examples of non-specific ecocide territories:
  • the threatened existence of the low lying Maldives due to rising sea levels;
  • the shrinking of the Greenland ice sheet;
  • the melting of the Himalayan Glaciers;
  • the pacific gyre, the ‘island of garbage twice the size of Texas’, slowly spinning in the ocean.

Ascertainable ecocide

Cause is due to identifiable human related activity (or the failure to act). Prosecution of the legal person(s), with whom responsibility lies for the causing of the resultant damage is thus possible.

Human agency liability can be deliberate or reckless. The destruction, damage or loss of large areas of the environment and ecosystems can be caused directly or indirectly by various activities, such as nuclear testing, exploitation of resources, extractive practices, dumping of harmful chemicals, use of defoliants, emission of pollutants or war.

Examples of ascertainable ecocide territories:
  • deforestation of the Amazonian rainforest;
  • the proposed expansion of the Athabasca Oil Sands, Peace River and Cold Lake deposits reservoirs located in northeastern Alberta, Canada, which will culminate in destruction of boreal forest and muskeg (peat bogs) covering an area the size of England;
  • the Bingham Canyon Mine, an open-pit mine extraction of copper deposit southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah, in the Oquirrh Mountains;
  • coal mining in Appalachia.

Note: Ecocide as a word actually already exists, however it is not as yet recogniseable in law. To do so would open the door to the creation of international legal governance of territories at risk or subjected to ecocide, and create laws to prevent those who, as a result of their commercial activities, are damaging and destroying vasts tracts of the planet.

Read more about ecocide: 5th International Crime Against Peace at thisisecocide.com