Ecocide Article 3
 

Ecocide: the destruction of the natural environment by deliberate or negligent human action. Without a healthy Earth, there can be no healthy human beings as indigenous cultures already know. The more countries ratify ecocide as a crime, the more the big polluters will find their room to operate shrinking and the more appealing it will become to work in harmony with nature. In order to avoid climate disaster, its objective is to make ecocide an international crime. It's the only way. The EU has also voted to encourage its recognition, and Pope Francis also called for ecocide to become an international crime against humanity.

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Currently, much of humanity sees itself as somewhat hopeless in terms of a sustainable future. However the establishment of ecocide as a crime offers something for people to support. Enacting laws against ecocide offers a way to correct the shortcomings of the Paris Agreement of 2015. We have the knowledge that fossil fuel is no longer serving humanity well. To continue its use is tantamount to Ecocide. To do so will no doubt put humanity in jeopardy; and not just humanity, but much of life on Earth. Catastrophic climate change is a risk we have to confront. It is crucial to change our course of action. Once we accept that we can no longer continue business as usual, we can create the legislative framework to ensure a rapid and smooth transition to more healthy natural environments.

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A Law of Ecocide implies an international and trans-boundary duty of care on any person, or group of people exercising a position of superior responsibility, in either private or public capacity to prevent the risk of and/or actual extensive damage or loss of ecosystem(s) to such an extent that it puts humanity and the Living Earth at risk of injury, harm or loss of life.

(See: www.eradicatingecocide.com )

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The President of Bolivia, Juan Evo Morales Ayma is quoted as saying that: “The Earth cannot be treated as simply a resource, or object. The earth also has its rights and if we do not respect the rights of its life given properties then we will be the cause of our own destruction.” Much of modern society looks at nature as if it is simply a resource for profit and convenience and therefore that we do whatever we want with it, and dump whatever we want. Meanwhile, we have rights for corporations, business, the market etc., that endanger the rights of nature and indeed of people. Yet governments throughout the world still allow this destruction. The question is: What will the Earth look like in the future without humankind acknowledging the rights of nature? It certainly isn't looking too healthy at present.

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Unfortunately the Earth is seen simply as a form of human property. Nevertheless the question is: How can we have human rights and values if we don't respect the life of the Earth that in turn gives us life. For example, you cannot simply destroy natural water resources to get at the gas below, no matter how important it may be to source that gas. Humanity must always take into account the damage we may be doing to the natural world. This is not about the rights of nature via the rights of humans. It must be acknowledged that: Human beings cannot have genuine rights if we neglect the rights of the Living Earth.

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We need to start envisioning a future based not on exploiting nature but on recognising that nature has inherent rights. Every day we dump millions of tons of toxic waste into the world’s rivers and oceans, the equivalent of the weight of the entire human population. And it’s all legal, because under current law, nature is nothing more that human property, like a slave. But thanks to innovative thinking by some governments, and indigenous peoples, wiser mind-sets are being heard. Indeed, the United Nations has also begun to consider the rights of nature. This may be the first step toward the adoption of a Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth, a companion piece to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. This emerging declaration — which would be backed by enforceable laws around the world — seeks to redefine our human connections with all other life forms from one of dominance to one of harmony.

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Every now and then in history, the human race takes a collective step forward in its evolution. The earth, and all its inhabitants, urgently needs this to be one of those times. Disregard for nature has, and continues to have, a destructive impact on the very life that sustains human existence. It is also essential to promote the development of mutual life partnership between humankind and the rest of nature. The environmentalist Aldo Leopold wrote that to understand ecology is to "live alone in a world of wounds", since much of the damage inflicted on Earth is quite invisible to laymen. That remark, however, no longer holds true. Everywhere there seems to be a ground swell of public opinion reflecting the realization that the world is badly—perhaps mortally —wounded. Indeed, it would be fair to say that no sensible human being today could look at the prospects for our civilization, or even our species, without a sense of foreboding.

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In his book, “Here on Earth” the scientist Tim Flannery uses Leopold's words to express the agonising sense of being aware of a terrible threat while all around are blithely unconcerned. His ambition in this sweeping survey of the planet’s damaged past and its endangered future is to make every one of us see those wounds in all their grim detail and that we ought, and must do something about it.

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Flannery believes we can, not only because we know more and more about the sort of fate that awaits us if we do not change. In the meanwhile did we, only 60 years ago, consider blowing up the Arctic ice cap with nuclear bombs? Did we pump chemicals into the atmosphere, the oceans and the earth in quantities that now seem quite mad (although we are still doing it on a somewhat lesser scale)? We are changing, partly because of our conscious choices, but partly because we may also be evolving. Flannery the optimist believes that James Lovelock's Gaia theory, shorn of Lovelock's more recent forecasts, is more in line with the facts, provided that humanity becomes the thinking, responsible brain of a self-regulating earth, and that life on Earth, including human life has a positive, meaningful and exciting future provided that humanity becomes the thinking, responsible brain of a self-regulating earth. This is the real challenge for 21st Century humanity. 

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