Polly Higgins in Stroud: crime of ecocide could save us

OK that title wasn't quite what I meant....The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports this last week that rising sea levels will increase the vulnerability of coastal areas, and the increase in "extreme weather events" will wipe billions off national economies and destroy lives - see Guardian here - we've heard it before but again it seems the scientists are not being heard. No massive plan of action to bail out the earth?

Well the good news is that moves are afoot to create a crime of ecocide - already momentum is building behind lawyer Polly Higgins for such a change. The exciting news is that Stroudies can hear Polly on 10th March in Stroud - click on the picture to see the poster with details....and rather than ecocide saving us I meant making it a crime might!

See Polly Higgins writing in The Guardian this week: "Put in place a law of ecocide and the door is locked to any further destructive activity that is adversely impacting on our land as well as our people. Ecocide is a crime against humanity, nature and future generations and the tar sands proposal is one of the largest ecocides in the world....it's all about getting a sense of perspective; while an oil spill might not constitute an ecocide for the purposes of the law, the destruction of land the size of England and Wales most certainly is a crime of enormous proportions....Ecocide is not a crime of intent, and that must never be forgotten. No one is intending to destroy the world, but we have put profit first without looking to the consequences. Now we know just how damaging oil extraction has become, and we know that it creates one legacy that we cannot afford to ignore any longer."