00:00Calls are growing for ecocide to become an international crime.
00:07Broadly defined as the severe widespread and long-term destruction of the environment,
00:11scientists and activists are pushing for the International Criminal Court to make ecocide
00:17the world's fifth international crime.
00:20The campaign to expand the ICC law comes amidst a series of global conflicts, including the
00:25wars between Israel and Hamas and Ukraine and Russia.
00:29Currently, the ICC's statute includes genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the
00:34crime of aggression.
00:36The interest in prosecuting environmental war crimes stems back to the Vietnam War,
00:40but has fluctuated since that conflict's end.
00:43In 2019, Vanuatu, a small nation in the South Pacific, petitioned the court to recognize
00:49ecocide as a crime.
00:51Then in 2021, a panel of lawyers prepared a draft law which created the legal definition
00:56of ecocide to mean, quote,
00:58"...unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood
01:02of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by
01:07those acts."
01:08The concept has since been adopted by the ICC, but still remains unpunishable by law.
01:14Other ecocentric laws have been implemented around the globe.
01:17The European Union adopted its own ecocide law this past November.
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