Article by Juliette Jowit in the Guardian:
Could Warren Buffet or Bill Gates be the next Charles Grant?
“William Wilberforce is popularly credited with the abolition of slavery. But the campaigners – far ahead of their time in their methods – had recognised the need for a major business figure to stand beside them and declare his (it was two centuries ago) support. That man was Charles Grant, chairman of the East India Company, which then controlled over half of world trade.
The British lawyer Polly Higgins often draws parallels between the campaign to outlaw slavery and her initiative – to abolish ecocide – the destruction of the natural world. Think poisoning a river, tropical deforestation, or the havoc wreaked by climate change. The comparison is not original but it is valid, concerning the protection of powerful business interests, the damage that they cause but often do not see, and the prevailing ideology that some people can have dominion over others or their environment without consequences.
Higgins’s solution is also as simple as the outright outlawing of slavery: the campaign wants environmental destruction to be declared illegal by making it a fifth crime against peace in the international criminal court.”
This is a hugely inspiring initiative – a 21st century Charles or Charlize Grant is just what the world needs. So many companies are already leading the way on closing the Nature/Society gap in order to ensure that human economies can flourish within ecological boundaries. And this reminds me of the late Ray Anderson, who revolutionized Interface (the textile company) and made it turn from a largely polluting company to a cleaner, greener one. Hopefully, his legacy can inspire other business leaders to lead us into the fair, sustainable future that we all want.
At least you people have an outlet
I have just read the following article
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/earth/the-age-of-energy/9057351/Richard-Branson-Green-Economy.html
and wondered if Eradicating Ecocide got Richard Branson on board?
Maybe he could lead by example and help to further the cause!.
In principle having an ‘inside’ champion is very good, but didn’t the recent leak of Heartland documents show that Bill Gates has been funding the climate change denial campaigns? And although he’s been putting a lot of money into the new agriculture “green revolution” in Africa, that appears to consist of promoting/entrenching genetically modified crops which require high petroleum inputs (synthetic fertilizers and pesticides) and working against the kinds of ecologically sustainable methods that even the United Nations has said are necessary to ensure that we can feed the world. Wolf in sheep’s clothing?
just checking…