It’s official, jury unanimous: the Athabasca Tar Sands found to be a crime.
Would you like to stage your own mock trial?
Download the guidance documents from the trial in London to help you (Zip file)
On the 30th of September 2011, in the UK Supreme Court it took just 50 minutes for the jury to return with two unanimous guilty convictions of ecocide against the CEO’s of the oil companies operating in the Athabasca Tar Sands. They returned a not guilty verdict for the charge of ecocide of the Oil Spill.
It was a tense moment waiting for the jury to return with their verdicts; this was not a guaranteed outcome. The court was packed, as was the hall outside where it was being live streamed online by SKY News. People around the world were watching online and following updates on twitter – 120,000 tweets for #ecocidetrial were recorded by lunchtime.
Chris Parker QC acted for the Defence, Michael Mansfield for the Prosecution. Both were class acts. It was no mean feat to bring into the courtroom for just one day some of the issues that would arise in court for a trial on ecocide.
See pics from the day here, read what some of the papers had to say here: Independent, Deutsche Welle, The Guardian, Financial Times, CNBC. Le Monde and Brazil’s Mercado spread the message and triggered much tweeting elsewhere; The Netherlands Radio covered it and brilliant write-ups include Indymedia, Wild Law UK and Climate Rush.
Here are some reactions from prominent environmentalists to the mock trial:
Vandana Shiva, philosopher and environmental activist:“The Ecocide trial is a very important step in waking us up to the violence which is the foundation of the current economy. We need another model that is non-violent, a model which makes peace with the earth. Ecocide must stop.The ideal of limitless growth is leading to limitless violations of the rights of the Earth and of the rights of nature. This is ecocide. We need to stop the destruction of the very basis of life on Earth and of human survival.”
Jonathon Porritt, former Chair, Sustainable Development Commission: ”Once upon a time people did grievous harm to the environment without fully understanding the consequences of their actions. That defence is no longer available, and that sure knowledge we now have entails equally sure moral obligations. In this context, the idea of establishing the crime of Ecocide is both timely and compelling.”
Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends of the Earth international and Executive Director of Environmental Rights Action:”I fully believe in this cause. Making ecocide a recognised law will place a cap on the irresponsible actions of fat cats who hide behind corporate shields to destroy lives and harm the planet.”
I am looking forwarfd to a positive response on the criminalisation of ecological crimes to play a massive role in securing the future of our shared biodiversity to which we as humans also belong! My thoughts will be in London tomorrow and I sincerely hope for the long-awaited law to be passed. …and hope it to be possible to back-track and bring those responsible for some past ecological destructions which are still not mitigated for to the court room to pay for mitigation!
An eagerly anticipating the result of this trial,
Fleur.
The crime of ecocide strips away the cloak of anonymity that has shielded criminals in business suits hiding behind an impenetrable corporate shell. At last corporations would be held to account when they act in criminal ways–something they have done with impunity in the past.
This is an important case and one which provides the much needed drive towards responsible leadership. We have tried leading people towards ethical and considerate action, now we must bring in penalties for the flagrant abuse of the earth’s resource. This is the action needed today, to protect and preserve tomorrow, we have a duty of care whilst ecology is in our custody. Hope to see Polly run a week at Schumacher sometime soon (?)
If we pile on with suing for damages to humans, and tell the damage stories, it will help those in the U.S. who are lawyer-challenged or who are worrying about SLAPS (Strategic Lawsuits Against Participation Suits). SLAPS are a terrible feature of Golden Rule 2 (he who has the gold makes the rules). We must figure out guerilla ways around SLAPS, which Occupy general assembies are, in the finest bottom-up Alcoholics Anonymous U.S. tradition (use a name you want, for your own reasons, and get into confession mode recovery modes).