Can Changing the Law Save the Planet?
Can Changing the Law Save the Planet?
By Polly Higgins and Michael Pooler
Source: Redpepper.orgTuesday, April 24, 2012
Ahead of the launch of her new book, Earth is Our Business, Polly Higgins speaks to Michael Pooler about her mission to have ecocide recognised as an international crime
With her measured tone and eloquence it is little surprise that Polly Higgins has a background as a barrister. But for an environmentalist, more surprising is her former line of work corporate law. I was representing companies and employees and wondered why is it that good people think it completely normal to make money out of destroying the earth? she recounts. This really was strange for me. It was when I realized that the law was to put profit first.
For the past ten years Polly has campaigned to have ecocide recognised by the UN as the fifth crime against peace. This would place it on a par with genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression. Defined as the extensive destruction, damage to or loss of an ecosystem that results in inhabitants losing their peaceful enjoyment of the territory, our planet abounds with examples of human-caused ecocide from the BP Mexican Gulf oil spill to shale gas fracking exploration taking place in Lancashire.
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http://www.zcommunications.org/can-changing-the-law-save-the-planet-by-polly-higgins