ECOCIDE

Cherry

By Ed Crane

Tue, 16 Nov 2021
  • 1651 reads
14 comments
 

I learned a new word today . . . .

Defined as destruction of the environment

by deliberate or negligent human action.

 

It’s a crime, punishable by many years

in prison in Russia

and several other countries  

Their numbers are increasing.

 

There is even an international legal definition

So I have to ask our honourable World leaders.

 

Those in Bonn, Kyoto Paris and Glasgow.

 

Are you prepared to confess

 

(as you pat yourselves on your backs

spouting empty promises,

drafting get out clauses

promising laws that won’t be passed)

 

to a crime punishable by death 

            . . .of us all . . .

 

 

 

https://www.stopecocide.earth/legal-definition

https://ecocidelaw.com/

Certificate PG
Non-fiction
Inspiration Point (work that responds to our weekly writing cue)

Comments

Submitted by celticman on

yep, it's a sore one. But us older people won't see the wars and famines and mass extinctions and migrations. We'll be dead. I don't know what I'm guilty of. That's the problem. 

 

Submitted by Ed Crane on

So I won't see the the f*** up they make, but my kids will and especially my grandkids.

You and I don't need to feel guilty. We just used what was available to us. 

The guilty ones were those who knew of alternatives and kept it down to keep their profits coming in (still do). The new guilty are those who continue to use coal and oil and make excuses for not changing largely to make money of keep in power.

no doubt something will come out of COP etc but far off enough by 2050 let alone 2030

too much vested interest and sheer laziness by those who have the power to make the changes

 

 

 

Submitted by David Kirtley on

Good piece. This is an appropriate way of looking at our response to climate change. Capitalism and the profit motive, and vested interests will surely have slowed down the changes we need to make.

Submitted by Ed Crane on

You have summed it all up expertly. 

Best to you 

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

On the Climate Question (BBC World Service) the other night, a lady said that feeling it was hopeless now is as bad as being a climate change denier was a few years ago? There are solutions and it is up to us to vote for those who will implement them, and to keep writing to any representatives we can think of so they know there is more to the electorate than concerns about dog poo.

I am guilty of this, is easier to write something on ABC (where I know at least one unfortunate editor will read my latest rant)  than find my MPs email and try to write something coherent, with examples knowing it most likely will not get anywhere near them

BUT WE HAVE TO TRY

 

Submitted by Turlough on

This is an excellent piece of writing. Reading it made me think but it did nothing to cheer me.

I've done my best. I recycle and compost everything I can, my car has a small engine, I rarely eat animals and I spent years cycling to work but all my efforts seem a bit pathetic when I look at the whole picture.

The people to halt and hopefully reverse our flight of self destruction are the people in power. But these people in power don't want to do anything that might upset other people in power in case they find themselves not in power as a result. It seems that the banks, arms manufacturers, drug companies and oil producers have more power than the sickly governments who court them. Better governments who can confront them are needed but voting for the right person seems to have been futile during most of my lifetime.

I'm not a pessimistic person but I find this situation on a global scale to be utterly hopeless. But I will continue to do my best, for the sake of my grandchildren.

Turlough

Submitted by Ed Crane on

I feel pretty much the same as you. I worry my Grandkids will suffer long after I'm gone. It won'tbe pleasant for my sdaughter and son either unless they get their fingers out and do what they promised in Glasgow (and more!)

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Thirty odd years ago I decided that I didn't want to have kids because the world was in such a mess but then one came along and eventually another two and I love them all to bits and I'm glad I changed my mind. But in the last few months two grandchildren have appeared on the scene and I really worry about what they will see in their lifetimes, It seems like all we had to worry about in the 1980s was a nuclear holocaust but these days things are much worse.

It was good to read about the promises made in Glasgow but I'd be happier if their outcome was going to be over a shorter timescale. The bigger the promise, the less faith I have in it.

Selfish to say, perhaps. but I'm glad I've got more years behind me than ahead of me.

Turlough

Submitted by Ed Crane on

They are going to be living in a very different World to the one I grew up in. Even though I grew up in the aftermath of WW2 and under the continous threat of nuclear war, I think I had a better future than they will have if nothing gets done.

It's a scary prospect.

Thank you for your input

Ed

 

 

Submitted by Ed Crane on

example the the COP roundabout.

I regularly watch BBC World and CNN (and some EU channels) There is a marked difference between the BBC coverage of COP and climate change (and the European channels) to CNN. The BBC devoted hours to Glasgow for two weeks and it's a hot subject on EU TV whereas CNN hardly mentioned it, spending their airtime on reports on domestic politics mainly about Trump trying to hide behind executive power and Steve Bannon's attempts at avoiding Justice. Oh and Biden's frustration with Kamala Harris

It certainly seems that despite all the hype in the US there is less interest in the future of the climate. When an influential company like CNN says so little when it could be leading the US population on the dangers, that's a worry. But since US politics is such a corrupt mess it's hardly surprising I guess.

You are right, Di we should not feel helpless but it seems to me the 'ordinary people' are the only ones who will be taking it seriously and will be doing things like using electric vehices, heat pumps and so on but it's a drop in the ocean compared to certain powerful nations continue to pump coal smoke and oil fumes from power stations into the atmosphere.

Coming from a scientific background I accept changing to clean energy is a long term and difficult process, but things and research could certainly be moving a lot more quickly.

 

Submitted by Ed Crane on

 

 

Submitted by celticman on

cherries are plastic, I don't know if that's organic. But look on the bright side they'll be here longer than us. 

 

Submitted by Jane Hyphen on

Brilliant ending. I hadn't heard the word ecocide before. It feels hopeless but as Di-Hard said, that is the worst, most defeatist way to address it. My kids are adults now, I worry for their kids. People come into the garden centre where I work and bang on about 'peat free' and then walk away with their bag of coconut fibre, shipped from halfway round the world (and their plants will need at least two to three times as much watering) thinking they've done their bit. They drive away in 4x4s unaware of the huge bin full of plastic packaging that we fill up everyday after deliveries or mostly unnecessary crap. It all has to stop now.

 

Submitted by Ed Crane on

you make a very valid point. I never thought about that. I don't have a garden these days but my last house had very sandy soil. It used to swallow peat by the sackful so we ended up planting mostly conifers and shrubs. We made a nice shady space in the end without spending a fortune on peat or anything else.

When I go to my local garden centre/farm shop I have to admit it never occured to me about the packaging the knick-knacks they sell come in. 

as for 4x4s they are a waste of space  -- literally! (even the electric ones) and from what I hear lately Elon Musk isn't doing the environment any favours.

A few years ago I bought a diesel 'cos I thought it was good for saving the world's energy now they are polluting monsters. It's difficult to know what is the right thing to do but making empty promises and flying to COP in private jets certainly isn't right.

Thank you for your excellent reply.

Ed