24. Guardians of the Earth: The Rise of Ecocide Law

Could the destruction of nature become considered as serious a crime as that of genocide? How does the structure of law shape a civilisation’s norms, behaviors and overarching story?

Today we’ll be discussing international Ecocide law, a massively growing movement that wants to embed the notion of ‘ecocide’ crime at the highest levels of law - at the International Criminal Court in The Hague - and create a powerful deterrent for the further damage to ecosystems and people globally.

Our guest is Pella Thiel, a maverick ecologist, farmer, author and who has co-founded the Swedish hubs of international networks like Transition Sweden, End Ecocide Sweden and is an associate of the Centre for Environment and Development Studies at Uppsala University. Pella was awarded the Swedish Martin Luther King Award in 2023 and the Environmental Hero of the year 2019.

We discuss: 

• Why ecocide law is different & a game changer as compared with other environmental laws
• How it can help create a new moral baseline, shifting global values and mindsets
• Where the tensions or synergies might lie between the Rights of Nature and Ecocide law
• The notion of positive tipping points
• And how an Embassy of the Baltic Sea might play out as a practice center for ecological community building

Episode Website Link

Show Links:

• Stop Ecocide International : Breaking News page
• End Ecocide Sweden
• Pella Thiel personal website
• Nate Hagens interview with Pella Thiel
• Lifeworlds Resource Page: Ecocentric Law
• Lifeworlds Episode on Rights of Nature
• MA Earth Interview with Jojo Mehta (Director of Stop Ecocide)
• Positive Tipping Points
• Embassy of the North Sea
• The Ecopsychology Initiative

Look out for meditations, poems, readings, and other snippets of inspiration in between episodes.

Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock & Ellie Kidd

Photo credit: Law Statue 

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