Polly Higgins is a British barrister on a mission, and this book is very much her tour de force, detailing as it does an international ‘Law of Ecocide’, which Ms Higgins has proposed to the United Nations. Her ambitious objective is to create an international ‘earth law’; one that declares environmental destruction illegal by making it ‘the fifth international crime against peace’.
Ecocide is defined as ‘the extensive damage, destruction to or loss of ecosystems of a given territory, whether by human agency or by other causes, to such an extent that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants of that territory has been severely diminished’, and the proposed law would see chief executives and heads of states alike legally responsible for protecting Mother Earth.
The game-changing proposal asks the reader to see the earth as the business of us all and offers radical, yet practical, changes to the tools of business.
Publication of the book coincides with the launch of the ‘Who is Charles Grant?’ campaign, an international movement aimed at finding industry leaders who are ready to stand up against mass destruction of the environment.
Ms Higgins’ previous offering, Eradicating Ecocide, won The People’s Book Prize for non-fiction in 2011.