Tuesday 13 April 2010

More on "Eco-cide"

After talking the other day about the attempt by lawyer Polly Higgins--Hippy Higgins to her few friends--to equate "eco-cide" with genocide, reader Willy S. sent me this clarification of what she means.

First, the Hippy's definition of "eco-cide:
"Ecocide is the extensive destruction, damage to or loss of ecosystem(s) of a given territory, whether by human agency or by other causes, to such an extent that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants of that territory has been severely diminished."
You can see an example of such a thing after the jump . . . (which I've always wanted to say) . . .



If you think this isn't serious, or that it's not something we should joke about, then take a look at her website of examples [http://www.thisisecocide.com/hotspots/] including this one:
Space Junk:
Not one easily seen even through a telescope, but it’s out there. Millions of pieces of orbital debris, space junk and space waste are the objects orbiting the Earth that were created by humans and now discarded. From spent rocket stages and defunct satellite to explosion and collision fragments. Will it ever degrade?"
As Willy says,  "Allowing pieces of metal to orbit the earth - morally equivalent to - butchering millions of humans to death."
You really can't make this stuff up.

1 comment:

teh steve said...

The "space-junk" example makes no sense with regard to the definition.

What ecosystem(s) exist in space? Who are the inhabitants that are now unable to "peacfully enjoy" space now that we dastardly humans have mucked it up?

Could the affected parties please send me a letter of complaint and I'll see that it's appropriately taken care of.