Ecocide

Part of a series on
Environmental law
Pollution control law
Natural resources law
Reference materials
Related topics

Ecocide (from Greek oikos "home" and Latin cadere "to kill") is the destruction of the environment by humans.[1] Ecocide threatens all human populations who are dependent on natural resources for maintaining ecosystems and ensuring their ability to support future generations.[2][3][4][5] The Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide describes it as "unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts".[6][7]

Common causes of ecocide include war, pollution, over-exploitation of natural resources such as the Amazon rainforest, and industrial disasters. The term was popularised by Olof Palme when he accused the United States of ecocide at the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment.[8][9]

There is currently no international crime of ecocide that applies in peacetime, only in wartime, covered by the Rome Statute.[3][10] It was originally planned to be included in the Rome Statute and supported by many states, but was removed due to objections by the United Kingdom, France and the United States of America. Ecocide has been made a national law in several countries with many more discussing implementing a law, including the European Union.[11] Stop Ecocide International and others are working to enshrine ecocide into the Rome Statute, making it both international law and national law in member states' national law.[10][3] Several countries have supported criminalising ecocide in international law, including Fiji, Niue, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Tonga and Vanuatu.[12]

Ecocide is a common theme in fiction with many films and books set in a post-ecocide world, including the James Cameron's Avatar films, Blade Runner, Mad Max, WALL-E, Interstellar, Threads and Soylent Green.

  1. ^ Mehta, Jojo; Jackson, Julia (24 February 2021). "To stop climate disaster, make ecocide an international crime. It's the only way". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
  2. ^ Crook, Martin; Short, Damien (3 April 2014). "Marx, Lemkin and the genocide–ecocide nexus". The International Journal of Human Rights. 18 (3): 298–319. doi:10.1080/13642987.2014.914703. ISSN 1364-2987. S2CID 145716977.
  3. ^ a b c Eichler, Lauren (4 September 2020). "Ecocide Is Genocide: Decolonizing the Definition of Genocide". Genocide Studies and Prevention. 14 (2): 104–121. doi:10.5038/1911-9933.14.2.1720. ISSN 1911-0359. S2CID 225298981.
  4. ^ Crook, Martin; Short, Damien; South, Nigel (2018). "Ecocide, genocide, capitalism and colonialism: Consequences for indigenous peoples and glocal ecosystems environments". Theoretical Criminology. 22 (3): 298–317. doi:10.1177/1362480618787176. ISSN 1362-4806. S2CID 150239863.
  5. ^ Sarliève, Maud (2020). "Ecocide: Past, Present, and Future Challenges". Life on Land. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer International Publishing. pp. 1–11. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-71065-5_110-1. ISBN 978-3-319-71065-5.
  6. ^ "Legal Definition of Ecocide". Stop Ecocide International. Retrieved 13 May 2023.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference AutoS8-9 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Watts, Johnathan (24 July 2019). "Make environmental damage a war crime, say scientists". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
  9. ^ Gray, Mark Allan (1995–1996). "The International Crime of Ecocide". California Western International Law Journal. 26: 215.
  10. ^ a b White, Rob; Heckenberg, Diane (2014). Green Criminology: an Introduction to the Study of Environmental Harm. Routledge. pp. 45–59.
  11. ^ "European Parliament proposes including "ecocide" in EU law". Stop Ecocide International. 29 March 2023. Retrieved 13 May 2023.
  12. ^ "Stop Ecocide International". 6 pacific nations call for just transition to "fossil fuel free pacific" including strengthening law to prevent ecocide. 17 March 2023. Retrieved 13 May 2023.