I came across this topic earlier and felt it would make a great starting point for my first environmental related blog post. Let me know what you think about my style of writing, the content of the post, and any other suggestions.
Changing the way that people think about the environment is one of my main areas of interest. Many people will see this story and ignore it, simply because it’s about the environment and therefore ‘boring’, or because it doesn’t relate to or affect them.That’s one of the problems with trying to get people to sit up and take notice, they just don’t care.
However a current movement started by environmental lawyer Polly Higgins could soon change that.
It is an interesting case, and if the Ecocide Act can get off the ground and find its way into becoming the 5th international crime against peace, then companies (little and large), will have to begin to have the environment in the forefront of their minds when making business decisions that could harm the environment. The ability to convict executives of companies makes this all the more fascinating. It changes the way large multi-national companies have perhaps in the past accepted that they could be sued for polluting the environment (knowing that they would make more than enough money to pay off a law suit anyway), by putting real people in the firing line. No longer would CEO’s remain anonymous figures, and instead potentially face damage to their professional reputations, and worse, prison sentences.
It could potentially have a similar effect as the Licensing Act (2003). Although alcohol and the environment may be two unrelated subjects, the Licensing Act (2003) ensures that the in the case of alcohol having been sold to a minor, it is not only the employee that sold the alcohol that can be prosecuted, but also the company/store that the alcohol was sold at. Having worked in nightclubs and supermarkets myself, I know how much emphasis is put on this during training at such companies. If the ‘Ecocide Act’ was to come in to place, then you would expect a similar level of emphasis to be made to staff throughout the power pyramid of a company. This would hopefully not only increase the awareness of environmental damage but also create a decline in crimes against the environment.
It of course has more far-reaching effects, and if this post has interested you or you want to know more, visit www.eradicatingecocide.com or check out this blog http://oaktreegarden.wordpress.com/2011/12/22/ecocide-giving-name-to-violence-against-the-earth/ . The video may be long but what he’s saying is interesting and makes a lot of sense.
Jack.
I am a freelance environmental author with an MSc and BSc in Environmental Sciences from The University of East Anglia. Just trying to develop social media as an effective platform for communicating and engaging with people on all things green... Please get in touch with me if you are interested, I am willing to discuss any proposals.
jacksenvironment 
I think is a wonderful initiative, however, as someone who has a background in international relations, I would ask who would be responsible for enforcing this, and what would enforcement look like? I think that fines are not enough of a threat to large companies for them to take an ecocide act seriously. My question stems from calling this “genocide of the environment”; case in point, genocide is a crime against humanity that goes unenforced by international bodies, including the United Nations. Further, I believe that many would see crimes against people as more severe than crimes against the environment. As someone who is in public health currently. crimes against the environment are incredibly serious as well because of the immediate and long term consequences they have on human health. All of that being said, I would love to see this initiative be successful in the future.
Also, I like the comparison the the Licensing Act. It is helpful to bring in successful legislation from other disciplines to support an argument.
[…] and country level before it gains support at the international level. Read the original blog post here. LD_AddCustomAttr("AdOpt", "1"); LD_AddCustomAttr("Origin", "other"); […]
[…] From the blog item by Allison Marron I recently came across another WordPress blog which covered the concept of ecocide, a movement that would make environmental destruction a crime recognized at the international level. Although I’m unsure of how this would be enforced, how well this could be enforced, or how much of a priority this would be to counties compared to other international crimes (such as genocide), I think it’s an incredibly interesting and worthy concept for environmental health. Perhaps this is something that could be successful with a grassroots effort (one example being the grassroots campaign Eradicating Ecocide), or legislation starting at the state and country level before it gains support at the international level. Read the original WordPress blog post here. […]