EXTREME ETHNIC & POLITICAL CLEANSING - Genocide is linked to Eugenics and Discrimination, in its most extreme form. Examples range from local authorities persecuting members of a group, in proportion to being caught out at planning appeals, etc., also being supported by the state, in failing to provide such victims with an effective remedy. To full on and systematic industrial scale annihilation, such as the Holocaust.

Cases could be tried by the International Criminal Court. It is against the law to steal from or hurt other people, and it is against the law to kill another person. However, it is not currently against the law to willfully harm the environment for human gain. The capacity for exploitive gain is demonstrated in the ability of the Nazis in WWII, to systematically and deliberately attempt to wipe a whole race from the face of the planet. Such traits, we find in lesser measure, in those who rape the planet, and give nothing back. These are the billionaires with lesser morals that our society applauds and hold up as icons to be emulated. When in fact, if the truth be known, some extremely wealthy individuals and corporations are a scourge to be condemned and contained. For like any career criminal, they will not contain themselves, and suddenly develop a conscience.

There is no Ecocide Convention. But there should be. 

'Ecocide' literally means ‘to kill the environment’. 

The word ecocide is made by combining 'eco', which has its roots in the ancient Greek word 'oikos', meaning house or the Latin word 'oeco' meaning 'household' and which over the years has come to mean 'habitat' or 'environment'; ' -cide' comes from the Latin verb 'caedere', meaning 'to cut down' or 'to kill'. 

A more familiar word - 'homicide' - means the killing of a human being, with 'homo' in Latin meaning 'a human'. Mass killing of humans is - genocide, again more familiar, but only coined after World War Two.

Ecocide, therefore, is a crime against ecosystems. It could be used to refer to any human activity that substantially damages or destroys the environment.

At the moment there is no law criminalising such harm, though many environmental experts are calling for change. And we agree that the law should evolve to encompass new crimes as they are realised.

The law is an ever changing and evolving animal, based on recognition of crimes and criminal behaviour that had not been recognised or defined previously.

Humans are intelligent and exploitative in the extreme, incentivised by greediness, money and materialism. They will take advantage of any niche, just like life in nature. But unlike nature, there is no natural balance, or predator above humans. So, we need to quell extreme exploitation, to emulate a predatory natural balance, with the law.

In human terms, that means imprisonment and most effective of all, punitive confiscation of assets and/or restoration orders.

Some destruction is deliberate, in spite of knowing the consequences to the environment, akin to rape of the land or oceans. Such perpetrators transcend from mere Eco Criminals to Eco Nazis.

Coming under this rather unsavory heading, is any country or corporation that enters plans to build nuclear power stations, without and effective and bonded (bullet proof) radioactive waste disposal and long term management & monitoring plan, spanning several hundred decades. In other words unattainable.

MAP OF RATIFICATION - The civilised world has come together to combat Genocide. Presumably, those countries abstaining either have the intention of conducting ethnic cleansing programmes in the future, or don't much care for the protection of people in their own or other lands. Where one might expect some African states to be reluctant to sign to such principles, given the incidences of recorded crimes involving the taking of lives and hacking of limbs, it comes as something of a surprise (according to this map) to see Japan and some Indonesian areas, not to have engaged positively. It might then be wise to steer clear of such countries, in all things commercial and tourist.

PROPOSED CONVENTION ON THE PREVENTION AND PUNISHMENT OF ECOCIDE 

Ecocide is defined as “an extensive damage or destruction which would have for consequence a severe alteration of the global commons or the Earth’s ecological system“ – upon which rely all living beings in general and humankind in particular – and in compliance with the known planetary boundaries. Ecocide thus includes all major environmental disasters, however it primarily refers to anthropogenic (human-caused) impacts.

Humanity’s unsustainable exploitation of the planet’s finite resources has given rise to the rapid climate change and sixth mass extinction event that is being witnessed today. Consequently, the survival of present and future generations is threatened. In order to maintain biodiversity and the right of future generations, a new definition of well-being and prosperity is needed, one that is based on scientific understanding of the stability of the global ecosystem and enshrined in the international legal framework to protect these rights from corporate greed - where executives of such companies have a duty to shareholders to make them money. This is regardless of corporate responsibility statements, designed to attract investors.

ECOCIDE ENCOMPASSES:

1. Climate change

2. Change in biosphere integrity (biodiversity loss and species extinction, industrial fishing)

3. Biogeochemical flows (nitrogen and phosphorus cycles)

4. Land-system change (for example deforestation, industrial farming, mining, oil drilling, palm oil production)

5. Ocean acidification

6. Freshwater use

7. Atmospheric aerosol loading (microscopic particles in the atmosphere, air pollution)

8. Stratospheric ozone depletion - greenhouse gases

9. Introduction of novel entities (e.g. oil spills, organic pollutants, radioactive materials, nuclear energy, nuclear weapons & waste, nanomaterials, and micro-plastics).


The planetary boundaries are the limits to the stability of the global ecosystem, determined in 2009 by Johan Rockström’s scientific team, revised in January 2015 by Will Steffen‘s team from the Stockholm Resilience Centre, beyond which human existence is threatened.

The science shows that these nine processes and systems regulate the stability and resilience of the Earth System – the interactions of land, ocean, atmosphere and life that together provide conditions upon which our societies depend.

Four of nine planetary boundaries have now been crossed as a result of human activity. The four are: climate change, loss of biosphere integrity, land-system change, altered biogeochemical cycles (phosphorus and nitrogen). Two of these, climate change and biosphere integrity, are what the scientists call “core boundaries”. Significantly altering either of these “core boundaries” would “drive the Earth System into a new state”.

“Transgressing a boundary increases the risk that human activities could inadvertently drive the Earth System into a much less hospitable state, damaging efforts to reduce poverty and leading to a deterioration of human well being in many parts of the world, including wealthy countries,” according to Professor Will Steffen.

The planetary boundaries are inextricably related, and the transgression of one increases the risk of surpassing other limits (e.g. climate change significantly affects the freshwater cycle). Professor Johan Rockström asserts that once certain thresholds are passed, there is a risk of “irreversible and abrupt environmental change”, the consequences of which would be catastrophic for humanity. For example, by 2050 it is estimated that half a billion people are likely to experience water-stress, increasing the potential for conflict over scarce resources.

The Earth is currently in the ‘Anthropocene’ period of its geological history, named for the unprecedented impact of humans on the natural environment and its biogeochemical processes. Since the Industrial Revolution, human activity has resulted in the escalating loss of biodiversity, massive deforestation, depletion of nitrogen and phosphorus needed for soil cultivation, scarcity of fresh water, ocean acidification, over-concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and finally the loss of integrity of the ozone layer. As of January 2015, the planet has crossed the threshold of four of its nine limits.

WE NEED TO UPDATE THE LAW URGENTLY

The Rome Statute is the legislation that governs the International Criminal Court (ICC), established to end impunity of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community. Crimes recognised under the Statute are: war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity and crime of aggression.

The definition of war crimes includes widespread, long-lasting and severe damage to the natural environment, however there are currently no provisions to protect the environment from such harms during peacetime. Given its severity and global implications, ecocide should be a crime subject to universal jurisdiction. The principle of universal jurisdiction derives from the assumption that certain crimes are so serious that they affect the international community as a whole, and consequently nation states have a duty, if not the obligation, to act for humanity’s common best interest and take legal action against perpetrators of international crimes. In view of its significant consequences, and the propensity of legal entities to commit such a crime as ecocide, it must be recognised as a crime of strict liability. This means liability need not be established by malicious intent, rather by knowledge of the consequences of the individual or legal entity’s action.

MAN MADE FAMINE - There is little difference between Man Made Famine, once the cause of the starvation and deaths is known, than other forms of genocide. Those responsible are held to be Climate Nazis by many, and may one day be accountable for such crimes in the International Criminal Court.

Man Made Famine is a form of geographical genocide. You don't have to line people up and shoot them, gas, or otherwise take their lives to commit the crime of this form of genocide. You simply have to carry on, business as usual, in the knowledge that failing to take action to curb global warming, is killing people in another land.

Famine that is caused by the industrialization and acceleration of growth of economies in unsustainable fashion, is nothing less than the premeditated murder of those less fortunate peoples in climate vulnerable locations on planet earth, who are unable to defend themselves.

ISLAND NATIONS UNDER THREAT FROM ECOCIDAL ACTS - 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

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://ypte.org.uk/

https://www.endecocide.org/en/
https://www.stopecocide.earth/what-is-ecocide

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