Ecocide: Recognizing a Crime

Currently there are recognized four international Crimes Against Peace: Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, War Crimes, and Crimes of Aggression.  Polly Higgins, an English barrister, has started a campaign to add a fifth crime to the list.  Ecocide is the destruction of large areas of the environment and ecosystems.  Some ecocide is caused by natural events but there is a category for ecocide caused by human activity: Ascertainable Ecocide.  This is the destruction, damage or loss to territory, caused by human activity, whether by people, corporations or nations.  Some specific instances of this crime would be nuclear weapons tests, damaging exploitation of resources such as is going on with the tar sands extraction in Canada, the use of defoliants like Agent Orange, and the many ecological by-products of war and widespread pollution of many kinds.
By Larry Kerschner