Ecocide is criminalised human activity that violates the principles of environmental justice, such as destroying or causing extensive damage to ecosystems or harming the health and well-being of a species, including humans. We demand it be included immediately as an international crime by the UN.

Australia is going through an unprecedented fire season. Ecosystems are being wiped out. An estimated 500 million animals have been burnt to death in the state of NSW alone. (Upate January 13th: This number has been revised up to 1.2 billion animals.) Remnant, World Heritage Gondwana rainforest is being burnt and may never recover.

The LNP, presently in government in Australia, refuse to acknowledge the advice of scientific and Emergency Services experts that would have mitigated the severity of these catastrophic fires. They, along with other governments around the world such as Bolsonaro in Brazil, are spreading misinformation about Climate Change to their constituents and causing the destruction of irreplaceable ecosystems and the extinction of species, both plant and animal.

They are beholden to Fossil Fuel companies headed by the likes of Gina Rinehart, Twiggy Forrest and Clive Palmer and media moguls such as Rupert Murdoch, who put profits before the survival of our Natural Environments. At the same time as Australia is suffering under these catastrophic fires the LNP government is allowing new coal mines like Adani to be established. They are endangering people's livelihoods and their access to water and food. They are endangering the Indigenous heritages that have protected these environments for millennia. They must be stopped and held to account.

First Nations around the world are calling for assistance to preserve their countries.

The Pope has recently called for ecocide to be recognised as an international crime against peace.

The UN must act decisively and immediately on protecting the natural and human environments of the world before they are permanently lost. UK barrister the late Polly Higgins and environmental campaigner Jojo Mehta have set out the legal reasons in their Stop Ecocide campaign. The case is very clear. Ecocide must be accepted as a crime so that individuals can be held accountable for the destruction they are causing.

The UN must act. 

1.25 billion animals killed. This number does not include frogs and other invertebrates, small lizards and insects: https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/science/2020/01/08/bushfires-australia-billion-wildlife-killed/

Australian Ex Fire, National Parks and Emergency Services Commissioners speaking about the fire risks and urgent need to address Climate Change: https://twitter.com/SBSNews/status/1194759670075756544 

Footage of just one of the hundreds of fires burning in Australia: https://twitter.com/IxatDnats/status/1212593394582618113

One First Nation country's perspective on the Australian fires. November 2019 Press Release from Minyumai Indigenous Protected Area and Bundjalung Indigenous Rangers: https://twitter.com/CountryNeedsPpl/status/1195299796413632512/photo/2

https://twitter.com/CountryNeedsPpl/status/1193855973196066816

and further information about their area: http://www.firesticks.org.au/connecting-to-country-video-featuring-nsw-indigenous-protected-area-partners/

Information on the Stop Ecocide campaign by UK barrister the late Polly Higgins and environmental campaigner Jojo Mehta: https://www.stopecocide.earth

Article connecting Rupert Murdoch with the spread of disinformation on the causes of the Australian Bush Fires: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/08/world/australia/fires-murdoch-disinformation.html

Article on Gina Rinehart and the IPA spreading disinformation on Climate Change: https://www.crikey.com.au/2019/01/29/institute-of-public-affairs-climate-change-denialism/

An article on the impacts of the Australia Fires on the animals and their ecosystems: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/04/ecologists-warn-silent-death-australia-bushfires-endangered-species-extinction

Article by Australian author Richard Flanagan on the Australian Fires:  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/03/opinion/australia-fires-climate-change.html

Wiki on Ecocide: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecocide

Article on the Pope calling for ecocide law:  https://www.stopecocide.earth/newsletter-summary/pope-calls-for-ecocide-law

Article on Australian fires in the Independent:  https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/australia-wildfires-animals-plants-glaciers-sydney-koalas-nsw-a9267316.html?fbclid=IwAR3sAjOSjls2xYyEZILwrclJfBWZg7AgcOAvYiKNxZVFyBn83a9gca0gw-I

Indigenous response to Amazon Fires:  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/video/2019/aug/23/amazon-fires-the-tribes-fighting-to-save-their-dying-rainforest-video 

https://www.survivalinternational.org/news/12209