Scientists: “Protecting nature is protecting ourselves”

Make ecocide an international crime, senior researchers say. Mass environmental destruction is a global problem. Addressing it requires international law with global scope.
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Top row, left to right: Alasdair Skelton, Björn-Ola Linnér, Garry Peterson, Glenn Bark.

Second row: Göran Finnveden, Karin Gerhardt, Kevin Noone, Peter Stenvinkel.

Eight experts in fields ranging from sustainable development, resilience and biodiversity to human health and sustainable food systems argue that ecocide should be a crime. Criminalizing the worst cases of environmental destruction would help protect biodiversity, help limit climate change, and strengthen resilience.

Excerpts from the article:

“Global protection of nature will contribute to limiting climate change. The world’s forests, wetlands and grasslands bind carbon dioxide and make us more resilient to climate change. Biodiversity and unspoilt land are also crucial to, for example, future food security. Protecting nature is protecting ourselves.”

“In 2022, a groundbreaking international agreement, the Global Biodiversity Framework, was signed in Montreal. Its purpose included to stop and reverse the ongoing loss of biodiversity. The goals are ambitious and necessary, but not a single one of the previous goals to protect biodiversity was fully achieved. Achieving the goals requires governments to act.”

“Scientific analyses demonstrate the value of  an international ecocide law for achieving the goals in the Paris Agreementprotect human rights and contain the economy within planetary boundaries.”

Read the full article in Sydsvenskan (in Swedish) here.

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