Podcasts / Report
for End Ecocide on Earth Conference Online
On October the 13th,
End Ecocide on Earth gathered legal experts,
scientists, NGOs, politicians and citizens to the
European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) in
Brussels to talk about the concept of ecocide and ways
to legally implement it at national, European and
international levels.
We heard from a
number of well-known speakers and experts about the
history of ecocide and what it means, the relationships
between ecocide and health, indigenous rights,
environmental security, justice, climate change and
more. It gave us the opportunity to learn more about
the latest legal developments and what is still missing
to protect our health and the environment in an
efficient way.
You can find a summary
and all the podcasts of the day here.
The next day,
experts were invited to discuss the best way to prevent
ecocide and decided upon a common strategy to get an
amendment adopted by the International Criminal Court
to recognize Ecocide as a crime against humanity and
peace.
On Tuesday 14th
October, young Europeans were given the opportunity to
meet policy makers and discuss ways to improve the
European Citizens´ Initiative (ECI). This event was
organised in partnership with the ECI campaign. During
the workshop we explored the challenges that Citizens’
Initiatives face, and developed proposals for making it
better – to benefit initiatives in the future years. In
particular, we focused on the question of engaging more
young people within ECIs.
The excellent
attendance at this conference which was highly
oversubscribed shows the huge interest in the concept
of ecocide throughout Europe. It is remarkable what a
grassroots movement can achieve and we will continue to
do all we can to ensure an effective legal protection
of ecosystems.
The journey to End Ecocide on Earth has just begun and
we invite you all to join us on that journey – first of
all by adding your signature on our website www.endecocide.org.
Christmas / December
activities
This Christmas we
have two special actions for you to participate in and
show your support to END Ecocide. First, our Spanish
supporter Annalivia was again very hard at work already
preparing her world known special hand crafted
Christmas cards !
An article about her cards is to be released in the
December edition of the Austrian women´s magazine « Die
Gute ». Take a look at all the Goodies follow
this link and join her this year spreading info about
our movement via special Christmas cards!
And for all that are
not good at arts and crafts, we have the Earth Hug Day
coming up on the 12th of December.
Gather a few friends, get out on the streets and hug
other people telling them : “The most important things
in life, money can't buy” - like a Hug, love or
spending time with the ones you care for. It is also
the last day of the climate conference COP20 in Lima
and two days after International Human Rights Day. So
there are plenty of reasons to tell people to STOP
consuming and to START protecting our planet. More
details and which hashtags to use for social media pics
of your activities with a link to the facebook event
can be found here
(http://tinyurl.com/earthhugday). Join us, as 1200
volunteers around the world have already - including
Friends of the Earth Australia and Friends of the Earth
Austria and be part of a global Hug Event !
Ecocide of the month – El
Rio de Aguas
Here in South
Eastern Spain, extending over 150 sq Kilometers, is the
largest aquifer in the Province of Almeria. It lies
under the ground where the “Spaghetti Westerns” were
filmed and where the epic film, “Exodus” was filmed
last year. It is named the Sorbas-Tabernas basin, in
the province of Almeria in Andalucia, Southern Spain.
This aquifer
supplies water to 15 towns, numerous small villages,
(some with no access to “mains water”), and subsistence
farmers. This demarcation includes the area of Special
Scientific Interest known as the Paraje Natural of El
Rio De Aguas, (Paraje Natural Karst en Yesos de
Sorbas), unique in Europe. Since 1998, owing to
continuous over-exploitation, the “water table” has
been dropping by at least 3.3 meters a year.
Conservatively this indicates a lowering of 52.8 meters
over the intervening years. In recent years the
department of Environment has allowed two million
olive trees to be planted on this aquifer with a
further three million destined to be planted in the
coming years.The situation is now critical. The largest
Spring draining this huge aquifer, the Spring of El Rio
De Aguas is no longer producing enough water to
maintain the protected Eco-system of the Paraje
Natural, and barely enough to supply the needs of local
farmers.
Villagers and
subsistence farmers down-stream from the Spring of El
Rio De Aguas are now facing the total loss of their
livelihoods. El Rio De Aguas is their one and only
access to free water. The Eco-system of the Paraje
Natural is already compromised. Some irrigation lines
previously used to water fruit trees and vegetable
gardens are dry, the trees dead, and the land
impossible to use.These villagers and farmers have
nowhere to go. The Eco-system of the Paraje Natural is
dying. Rainfall is insufficient to re-charge the
aquifer. Underground water levels are continuing to
drop.If the present irrigation of two million olive
trees continues we will be without water within two
years.
If a further three
million olive trees are planted, (now in planning), all
life at present enabled by El Rio De Aguas will cease
to exist.In both cases we are faced by the most extreme
form of Ecocide. There is no life without water.
Peaceful enjoyment of the territory will be forever
lost.
UNESCO Conference “The
Call of Paris”
The
Call of Paris on November the 14th at UNESCO's ¨Ten Years
of Existence¨ anniversary, was celebrated in the form
of an international symposium organized by the
Association for the Anti-cancer Therapeutic Research
(ARTAC), to which our spokesperson Valérie Cabanes was
invited, where she presented the strategy of the End
Ecocide on Earth movement.
The Call of Paris, signed in 2004 by many scientific
personalities, such as the entire Councils of
Doctors of the twenty-five Member States of Europe,
1.500 NGOs and 350.000 European citizens, stated:
- that most diseases are caused by chemical
pollution;
- that because of this pollution, children are
in danger;
- and that if we continue to pollute the
environment as we do now, mankind itself
will be is endangered.
This conference
brought together scientists, political and civil
society, actors expressing the wish that pollution is
regarded as a crime against humanity.
Last January, authors of the Charter of Brussels, which
included End Ecocide on Earth, launched a petition
going in the same direction.
This conference
underlined the lack of coherent policies regarding both
health and the environment. The absence of
environmental protection - resulting from the refusal
of political powers to accept accumulating scientific
evidence correlating environmental factors with
emerging diseases - allows those who pollute/ pollutors
to contaminate with impunity while the victims of their
actions pay multiple times through their exposure t o
the pollutants and their obligation to pay –
physiologically and financially for their exposure.
During his speech,
Dr Belpomme, a cancer specialist and organizer of the
conference, explained why it is morally and legally
imperative that ¨the fight must start now”. Under the
terms of the Call of Paris, both pollution and the
serious destruction of nature must be recognised as
crimes and perpetrators must be proscecuted as
criminals. Such actions directly affect health – and
life of flora and fauna – not only of this generation,
but for future generations as well. Dr Belpomme spoke
of the emergence of cancers, congenital malformations,
chronic and neuro-generative diseases which he and a
large body of scientists have linked to increasingly
polluted environments. He calls on the International
Criminal Court (ICC) to note the signatories of the
Call of Paris together with the working group setup by
End Ecocide on Earth and a growing swell of concerned
citizens, to act now to make this wish a reality.
Stay tuned for two more conferences coming-up this year
where Valerie and Thomas will speak to END Ecocide:
Let’s End Ecocide together!
Every hand helps!