Original Post: Oct. 1, 2011 -- Updated Feb. 27, 2012

Award-winning author of Eradicating Ecocide, barrister and international environmental lawyer, Polly Higgins proposed to the U.N. in April 2010 that a law of Ecocide be classed as a 5th international crime against Peace alongside Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, Crimes of Aggression and War Crimes.

Ecocide is defined as the mass "damage, destruction to or loss of ecosystems 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."

Exerpt from: Mock trial finds tar sands spill 'bosses' guilty of ecocide, K. Rawlinson, The Independent

Sept. 30, 2011 ~ The bosses of two of the world's biggest multi-national corporations were convicted by a jury of "ecocide" at the (UK) Supreme Court yesterday for destroying global ecosystems.

They were put on trial under international laws which establish ecocide alongside genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression, as the most serious in existence.

The chief executives may have been actors, the corporations fictional and the trial a mock-up, but the circumstances surrounding the so-called "crimes" – the destruction of ecosystems during both the Gulf oil spill and the mining of crude oil in Alberta – are real. So is the call for a new law protecting the natural world, placing ecocide among the most heinous crimes known.

MORE

Canadian Tour: Toronto, Vancouver, Feb. 2012

• Toronto
• Video - Meet 'Earth's Lawyer': Polly Higgins on the Law of Ecocide, Shot, edited, produced by Glenn MacIntosh, ecoSanity.org (1 hour 22 minutes)
• Interview - Ecocide should be treated as a war crime, Antonia Zerbisias, Toronto Star
• Interview - New campaign aims to make ecocide a crime, John Bonnar, Rabble.ca
• Vancouver
• Audio - The Law of Ecocide: Polly Higgins in Vancouver! (Polly Higgins - Eradicating Ecocide: Laws and governance to prevent the destruction of our planet), Ian MacKenzie, IanMack.com

Articles, Posts, Photos - Mock Trial, Sept. 30, 2011

• Photos - Ecocide trial, Supreme Court, London, Sept. 30, 2011
• Interview - Ecocide should be treated as a war crime, Antonia Zerbisias, Toronto Star
• Article - Is ecocide a crime? Joe Jackson, TIME
• Post - It's official, jury unanimous: Athabasca tar sands a crime, Polly Higgins, PollyHiggins.com
• Article - Mock trial finds tar sands spill 'bosses' guilty of ecocide, K. Rawlinson, Independent
• Article - Moment of reckoning? John-Paul Flintoff, CNBC
• Article - UK Supreme Court explores ecocide in mock trial, Courtney Tenz, Deutsche Welle
• Article - Trial tests if 'ecocide' could join genocide as global crime, D. Carrington, The Guardian
• Article - UK Supreme Court stages mock ecocide trial, David Blair, Financial Times
• Post - Ecocide in Canada, Andrew Gage, West Coast Environmental Law

General

• Website - EradicatingEcocide.com
• Book - Eradicating Ecocide: Laws and governance to prevent the destruction of our planet
• YouTube Channel - This is Ecocide
• Website - LoveLettertotheEarth.com
• Website - PollyHiggins.com
• Bio - Polly Higgins