GEOGRAPHICAL GENOCIDE - Genocide is linked to Eugenics and Discrimination, in its most extreme form. Examples range from local authorities persecuting poorer members of society, where they only want wealthy residents who pay higher taxes, etc. To full on and systematic industrial scale annihilation, such as the Holocaust. Cases could be tried by the International Criminal Court on their own merits, using common sense analogy. For example, where gassing of people during the Holocaust was systematic industrial scale annihilation. That is far worse in concept, than pumping CO2 into the atmosphere in total disregard for the consequences of global warming. As it is known to cause sea level rise, that would ultimately result in the drowning of islanders, displacement, and loss of natural habitat. Hence, the level of inhumanity may be less, but the resultant loss of life and mental torture, is on a scale that it classes as Genocide.

Located in the Chesapeake Bay, Tangier Island is a small atoll off the coast of mainland Virginia, facing into the Atlantic ocean. This island has lost 65% of its landmass since 1850, and some of the roughly 700 residents are being displaced as their homes flood with seawater. Many islands in the Chesapeake Bay have already started disappearing as sea levels in the Chesapeake Bay rise at an average rate of 0.16 inches annually. Coastal regions of the Bay and tiny islands like Tangier don't have long before they are likely to be underwater; scientists believe Tangier may drown by 2050.

The island is at risk of disappearing due to erosion and rising sea levels caused by climate change; since 1850, the island's landmass has been reduced by 67%. Under a mid-range sea level rise scenario, much of the remaining landmass is expected to be lost in the next 50 years and the town will likely need to be abandoned.

Many residents believe that erosion is the cause of the increasing incidence and severity of flooding. A 2015 study by Davide M. Schulte, Karin M. Dridge and Mark H. Hudgins, all members of the Army Corps of Engineers, concluded that Tangier has 25–50 years of habitability remaining and that the subsidence of the ridges is ongoing since at least the mid-19th century. The authors also conclude that the primary causes of the subsidence in the southern Chesapeake Bay region are sea-level rise due to the melting of the Laurentide ice sheet, groundwater extraction on mainland Virginia, and the remaining effects of the Chesapeake Bay impact crater near Cape Charles, Virginia, 35.5 million years ago.

The town has been talking with political representatives for decades to get protection for the island in the form of jetties or sea walls. The Town, the History Museum, and townspeople continue to raise money for their sea wall fund. In 2017, CNN aired a story about Tangier that featured the town's mayor, James W. Eskridge. President Donald Trump called the mayor personally to assure him that the town would survive but offered no concrete form of relief or financial aid.

Tangier is a town in Accomack County, Virginia, United States, on Tangier Island in Chesapeake Bay. The population was 727 at the 2010 census. Since 1850, the island's landmass has been reduced by 67%. Under the mid-range sea level rise scenario, much of the remaining landmass is expected to be lost in the next 50 years and the town will likely need to be abandoned.

The people who came to permanently settle the island arrived in the 1770s, and were farmers. In the late 19th century, the islanders began to become more dependent on harvesting crabs and oysters from the Chesapeake Bay. As the waterman livelihood became more important and more lucrative, there were often conflicts among the oyster dredgers and oyster tongers in the bay, and between those living in Maryland and those living in Virginia.

Many people who live on Tangier speak a distinctive dialect of American English. Scholars have disputed how much of the dialect is derived from British English lexicon and phonetics. Linguist David Shores has argued that, while it may sound like a British variety of English, the dialect is a distinct creation of its own time and place off the eastern shore of Virginia. The persistence of this dialectal variety is often attributed to the geographic isolation of the population from the mainland. Tangier Island is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Today, the inhabitants of Tangier rely on crabbing to make a living. Tangier is often referred to as the "soft-shell crab capital of the world". Most fishermen catch and sell crabs and oysters. North of the island are many free-standing docks not connected to land which fishermen use to hold crabs while they moult. Once a major industry on the island, oystering has returned in recent years as a supplement to the more prominent crabbing business. In 2014, a new oyster-farming company, called Tangier Island Oyster Company, was founded by a group that includes a former attorney general of Virginia, Ken Cuccinelli. The island also has a long history of graduates joining the military or being called to become pastors.

The primary industry on the island besides fishing is tourism. During the summer, several cruise ships come to the island each day, allowing passengers to explore and buy goods from the islanders. Two bed-and-breakfast inns can accommodate a limited number of overnight guests. There are several restaurants and gift shops for the tourist trade. 

IS IT A CRIME FOR THE G20 TO FLOOD REMOTE ISLANDS ?

Global sea levels are rising and the world’s ice mass at the poles is disappearing. The global sea level between 1992 and 2018 rose about six to eight inches in total, with 0.7 inches caused by the melting of Antarctica and Greenland ice sheets alone. By the year 2100, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that sea levels will rise between 11.4 and 23.2 inches if the world is able to drastically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions between now and then. If not, these figures could be almost double.

The Genocide Convention was conceived largely in response to World War II, which saw atrocities such as the Holocaust that lacked an adequate description or legal definition.

According to the Genocide Convention, genocide is a crime that can take place both in time of war as well as in time of peace. The definition of the crime of genocide, as set out in the Convention, has been widely adopted at both national and international levels, including in the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

It appears to us that the G20, and any other nation, that increases CO2, and/or fails to make the reductions as per the Paris Agreement, could become the subject of investigation by the ICC on a charge of 'Geographical Genocide.' Specifically relating to sea level rise and desertification. Both of which cause massive human suffering.

The heads of these nations can be prosecuted for failing to provide an effective administration, or an effective remedy - if they lobby to get elected and then as duly elected officials fail to protect life in regions remote from themselves. Thus amalgamating the tenets of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with the requirement to protect life, and prevent small island nations from being wiped out.

The essential requirement of proof as to being guilty of Genocide, can be public admission as to policies that will increase the use of coal or oil, hence the fossil fuel emissions that are melting our ice caps.

Guilt, can also be in connection with the lopping of rainforests, without a suitable re-planting scheme, or the clearing of forests to grow cash crops, in the full knowledge that such activity reduces the ability of the planet to absorb CO2. 

Distance, or distancing oneself, is no protection is such cases, because it is common knowledge that convection currents distribute your own country's emissions globally, no matter how much climate denial and greenwashing, blah, blah, blah, is employed. Actions and inaction speaks louder than words.

Another method of obtaining a conviction, might be the measured output, or estimated atmospheric pollution calculated from the number of ICE vehicles and coal/gas fired electricity generating stations in operation.

A legitimate Defence to such charges, might be carbon mitigation, that is demonstrably (quantitive rather than estimates) effective, and outweighs the greenhouse gas emissions associated with economic growth agendas, that is not sustainable blue growth.

It is clear from the scientific data, that the rise in sea level is as a result of the uncurbed emissions of the signatories to COP 21 agreements, thus they are operating in the "full knowledge" that their actions are causing (and will cause) citizens of vulnerable Island Nations to suffer mental distress (torture) and potential death, as their homes literally sink beneath the waves.

ISLAND NATIONS UNDER THREAT - A TO Z

1.  Cabo Verde, Republic of

2.  Carteret Islands

3.  Fiji, Republic of

4.  Ireland

5.  Hawaii
6.  Japan

7.  Kiribati

8.  Maldives

9.  Marshall Islands, Republic of the

10. Micronesia, Federated States of

11. Palau

12. Sarichef Island

13. Seychelles
14. Solomon Islands

15.Tangier Island

16. Torres Strait Islands

17. Tuvalu

18. United Kingdom

GREENHOUSE DROWNINGS - The mean global sea level has risen by 4-8 inches over the past century with the annual rate doubling in the past 20 years. This has been attributed mainly to three factors: thermal expansion, melting glaciers (or polar ice caps), and ice loss from Greenland and Antarctica. In general, island countries are the most affected by the rising sea levels, although countries who sit at a low elevation are also very much at risk. In this article, we will discuss some of the countries most prone to the serious problem of rising sea levels.

GLOBAL WARMING - The cause of much famine is man-made. As our climate warms, the artic ice melts causing ocean levels to rise and agricultural land to become deserts. The most influential world leaders, of the G7 and G20 are fully aware of the consequences of failing to act in sufficient time to prevent Geographical Genocide. According to the 1948 Convention, Genocide is a crime. Any person or state advocating policies that do not seek to reduce climate warming, are therefore criminals. The excuse that their economy might suffer, is no excuse when it comes to (in effect) murdering another human being. It is the insatiable lust for economic growth that has caused the deaths of millions of displaced persons and those who died of lung cancer.

LINKS & REFERENCE

https://islandsbusiness.com/
https://islandinnovation.co/

https://www.treehugger.com/island-nations-threatened-by-climate-change-4869275

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/15-countries-most-prone-to-rising-sea-levels.html

https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide-convention.shtml

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