Ecocide

Ecocide (from Ancient Greek oikos 'home' and Latin caedere 'to kill') is the destruction of the environment by humans. Ecocide threatens all populations that are dependent on natural resources for maintaining ecosystems and ensuring their ability to support future generations. 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'. Common causes of ecocide include war, pollution, wanton overexploitation of natural resources and other 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 due to the country's use of Agent Orange and other herbicides/defoliants during the Vietnam War. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (adopted 1998, enforced 2002) makes no provision for the crime of ecocide in peacetime, only in wartime. Ecocide in peacetime was to have been included in the Rome Statute, but was removed due to objections by the United Kingdom, France, and the United States. The disparity stemmed from the colonial powers' objections to inclusion of cultural genocide, during negotiations that had led to the creation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (the CPPCG, or Genocide Convention, adopted 1948, enforced 1951). Ecocide has been made national law in several countries, with many more countries and the European Union considering introduction of such a law. Stop Ecocide International and others are working to introduce ecocide in peacetime into the Rome Statute, making it both international and national law. Several countries – including Fiji, Niue, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Tonga, and Vanuatu – have supported criminalizing ecocide under international law. Ecocide...