WISH20: End Ecocide by 2020

ORIGINAL: Wish20 End Ecocide By 2020

Imagine it’s 2020 and we’ve achieved the Green Economy.

Is it still possible that Ecocide, the extensive destruction of ecosystems, is still legal and profitable?

So what changed?

Could it be that the extensive destruction of ecosystems itself became illegal and provided an incentive for all the other changes that were necessary to enable the Green Economy?

In March 2010 international barrister and award winning author Polly Higgins proposed to the United Nations that Ecocide be made the fifth Crime Against Peace.

Ecocide is the extensive damage to, destruction of or loss of ecosystem(s) of a given territory, whether by human agency or by other causes, to such an extent that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants of that territory has been or will be severely diminished.

The law of Ecocide will enable sustainable development and the United Nations Environmental Program’s vision for a Green Economy. It is an innovative approach that will create a paradigm shift in the global economy and offers the promise that significant change is possible. The law of Ecocide is a new method for achieving a prosperous future for all people because it goes to the core of the environmental issues that are proving so difficult to tackle:

• It is not a small idea that will have incremental benefits;
• It does not treat the symptoms.
• The Law of Ecocide addresses the causes of many environmental issues directly;
• It will end the most extreme forms of environmental destruction;
• It can be realistically achieved because no country has a veto and it initially requires support from only 81 countries.
• It is the missing fifth Crime Against Peace.

The law of Ecocide will work because it will eliminate from most global supply chains the products and services that cause the greatest environmental destruction and so make companies that promote truly renewable solutions significantly more profitable. These companies will experience growth and so will create millions of jobs around the world. This will be good for people, societies, governments and shareholders everywhere. What is needed is an end to Ecocide.

If the world is going to achieve the Green Economy, where all humanity’s needs are delivered within the renewable capacity of the Earth, something significant has to happen to stop major environmental destruction taking place. That significant change, which many have predicted, is the law of Ecocide.

Polly and her legal team are determined to end this era of Ecocide. Find out how you can help. 

Read about Ecocide

Read the Ecocide Act and sentencing guidelines 

Read about our strategy to make Ecocide a crime

Read about what happened at Rio+20