Credit: ERIC LAFFORGUE/ART/CORBIS/GETTY
Powerful individuals behind the most devastating assaults on the environment could be put in the dock under a new legal definition of “ecocide” that a heavyweight panel of international lawyers and hardened campaigners hope will revolutionise the fight against the climate crisis.
The aim is to treat ecocide – the mass destruction of the environment – like genocide, crimes against humanity and other atrocities of international standing, holding world leaders and corporate chiefs criminally responsible for ecological disasters. With the world teetering on the brink of climate catastrophe, the expert panel is poised to publish its core text defining the draft law on Tuesday, following months of debate and deliberation.
While the panel’s members have kept details of the proposed, highly-anticipated law under wraps, a leader of the ecocide campaign has given the strongest hint yet of its text and the bold principle that underpins it: “200 words to protect the future of life on Earth”.
“The idea is for it to be a no-brainer,” Jojo Mehta, chair of the Stop Ecocide […]
Degradation and destruction of our one and only home is beyond stupid and maybe at the current level of consciousness making it a crime will help. Excepting that there is far too much crime and punishment inflicted on we humans and I am not sure that is making us better or more aware. Don’t we have to first accept that we the masses have for some long time benefitted from this system providing more and cheap food, jobs and so on until the limits of the biosphere remind us of what is important. Punishing “others” feels right except there are no others.
The wealthy are delighted to instill an “accountability culture” on the poor. It would be a breath of fresh air to have some accountability of the wealthy. As the article stated: “We want key decision-makers to sit there and think, ‘My personal freedom is on the line if I make the wrong decision’,” said Mehta. It cannot come too soon.
I agree with you, Albus. I would add that our form of Capitalism is a crime in itself: sending most of our capital to the top few is not Democracy at all.