What is an ecocide? Thanks for asking!

An ecocide is a term for an act that causes significant damage to the environment or ecosystems. It comes from the Greek word éoikios, meaning home, and the Latin word caedere, meaning kill. In theory individuals, companies and states could be brought to justice for committing such acts. It’s not recognised as a crime in many places, but France is currently looking at passing a law to do just that. The term was first used in the early 1970s in response to strategic deforestation by the American military in Vietnam, carried out with a herbicide called Agent Orange. This was used as a chemical weapon to destroy the forest cover and food resources relied on by Vietnamese guerilla fighters.

So what’s caused the French to consider making ecocide a crime?

A group of randomly selected French citizens was set up by President Emmanuel Macron in 2019, following regular protests by the gilets jaunes movement. The panel was named the Citizens’ Convention on Climate. Macron said: “We do not include our fellow citizens sufficiently in the transparent, debated construction of the solutions we put forward. So that is the idea behind the Citizens’ Assembly process.” The CCC has been set the task of defining actions to tackle climate change, with the aim of reducing emissions by 40% within the next decade. The ecocide law is one of the group’s key proposals, along with a ban on advertising high carbon footprint products and a tax hike on processed foods. The French Minister for Ecological Transition was first to back the idea of a referendum on the issue. Then President Macron himself announced in late June he would back the law. A referendum could be held as early as next year.

Exciting times for environmentalists! What’s going on elsewhere then? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions!

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