Essay by Eric Worrall
Greta Thunberg recently dropped into Kyiv to Help Ukraine Push the UN Ecocide Narrative – the push to treat environmental crimes on a par with war crimes. But “Ecocide” goes a lot further than acts of war.
Russia is accused of ‘ecocide’ in Ukraine. But what does that mean?
By Radina Gigova, CNN
Updated 3:55 AM EDT, Mon July 3, 2023CNN —
On June 6, Ukraine suffered an environmental catastrophe. The collapse of the Kakhovka dam in the south of the country sent water thundering downstream, killing more than 100 people according to Ukrainian officials. It wiped out villages, flooded farmland and nature reserves, and swept up pollutants like oil and agricultural chemicals as it made its destructive path towards the Black Sea.
The causes of the collapse have yet to be established – whether it was targeted as part of Russia’s war in Ukraine, or whether it was a structural failure – but what is certain is that it is one of the biggest ecological disasters Europe has seen in the last few decades.
And Ukraine is calling it “ecocide.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the collapse as “an environmental bomb of mass destruction.” High profile figures outside the country have agreed. The Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, on a visit to Kyiv on Thursday, told reporters that “ecocide and environmental destruction is a form of warfare as Ukrainians by this point know all too well, and so does Russia.”
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As the world continues to witness ecological disasters that span national borders, criminal accountability is rare, due in part to a lack of proper legislation and investigative process, experts say.
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The fact that ecocide would not just apply in conflicts could be an obstacle, Weir said. “It also applies in peacetime, and it’s also potentially targeting corporations, like big oil companies, who may well be committing ecocide through their actions,” said Weir. There are a number of countries that may fear “how far it could go, or what it could constrain,” he added.
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Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/02/world/ukraine-ecocide-dam-collapse-crime-climate-intl-cmd/index.html
Assuming it was actually Russia which blew the dam, punishing people for ecologically damaging attacks on civilian infrastructure seems reasonable right? Deliberate acts of war which lead to large scale environmental disasters and widespread suffering should be prosecutable at the Hague.
The problem is the target of proposed Ecocide laws is a little broader than prosecuting physical war crimes.
British campaigner urges UN to accept ‘ecocide’ as international crime
Juliette Jowit
Sat 10 Apr 2010 01.37 AESTProposal to declare mass destruction of ecosystems a crime on a par with genocide launched by lawyer
A campaign to declare the mass destruction of ecosystems an international crime against peace – alongside genocide and crimes against humanity – is being launched in the UK.
The proposal for the United Nations to accept “ecocide” as a fifth “crime against peace”, which could be tried at the International Criminal Court (ICC), is the brainchild of British lawyer-turned-campaigner Polly Higgins.
The radical idea would have a profound effect on industries blamed for widespread damage to the environment like fossil fuels, mining, agriculture, chemicals and forestry.
Supporters of a new ecocide law also believe it could be used to prosecute “climate deniers” who distort science and facts to discourage voters and politicians from taking action to tackle global warming and climate change.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/apr/09/ecocide-crime-genocide-un-environmental-damage
Note the article above was written over 10 years ago – but I doubt the plan to use UN ecocide laws to attack climate skeptics has changed, given there is still an intent to apply the laws during peacetime, against individual companies, and possibly against individuals.
Make no mistake, climate activists are finding lots of ways to take advantage of public sympathy for Ukraine.
Back in March George Soros explained how resources liberated by the breakup of the Russian Federation, following a Russian defeat, would help fund his green energy ambitions. I’m not sure if Soros has asked Russians how they would feel about Soros using resources liberated by the chaotic breakup of the Russian Federation to fund his personal green ambitions.
And now it looks like Ukraine may be helping their UN backers to attack our freedom to even criticise these green plans, with their push for “ecocide” crimes like “climate denial” to be recognised as crimes against humanity, on a par with wartime mass murder of civilians.
I’ve been accused of contributing to the extinction of the human race for citing empirical facts about climate.
So have I. My response is laughter. The climate loonies don’t like that.
They are planning on laughing AFTER you are in the camps.
Leftists always push things too far.
Yes, I agree!
They are winning the Iraq war, God save the queen!
Authors should be porosecuted for making false allegations like this: “The radical idea would have a profound effect on industries blamed for widespread damage to the environment like fossil fuels, mining, agriculture, chemicals and forestry.”
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Let us start with mining. I am a “miner”. In two decades, colleages and I in our Company found a dozen new mines, Just four of the biggest ones of these are pictured here.
These have produced product that, in today’s money and commodity values, are now approaching $Aust 100,000,000,000. Uranium, copper, bismuth, silver, gold and more. Commodities that Society demands.
Each of these mines, moderately large by world standards, could be contained in a surface area of 5 km by 5 km. That is but a tiny pinprick on the scale of a country, one that bears no relation to “widespread damage”. Besides, they mined areas get rehabilitated back to a standard that resembles pre-mining conditions.
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I am also a “Chemist” by degree who resents blaming chemicals for “widespread damage”. All of the Chemists I have met have been ordinary folk, mostly with family folk with a desire to minimise harm to other people. Not one of them would even dream of letting loose on the market any chemical that had not been thoroughly tested (Covid “vaccines” included).There has been an occasional chemical mistake like Thalidomide with delayed harm, quickly corrected. There are grey areas like chlorine gas used in WWI warfare. I once managed a large pilot plant using 10 tonnes of chlorine a day, similar to WWI doses, to strip the iron out of the mineral ilmenite to leave titanium dioxide, used to make white paint and titanium metal for artificial bone joints and space craft. You can be assured that we took expensive precautions and lost a lot of sleep over preventing an accidental leak that could have killed a few thoudand people – but did not.
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I am also a “forester”. Early years were at CSIRO improving vast areas of tropical pastures by selecting and growing introduced grasses and legumes. My boss was awared the prestige one-a-year CSIRO medal. Years later, elsewhere, I had a stint attending management meetings of a subsidiary company that was large in forestry and paper. These foresters were close to Nature and expressed no wish to destroy. There were all-round benefits in science being applied to how trees grow and which ones to grow best here and there. I have also given invited lectures at International symposia on those prime garden plants, the Camellia .and the Rhododendron and made collecting visits to far west China. Nobody I have met has had the slightest interest in destruction of the environment that we love.
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My story is not unusual. All of the people I have met are horrified at the thought that they are doing wrong. OTOH, the ones I have discussed this with are also horrified by some of the mad acts being done by dumb people called greens who do well out of scaring the pants off school kids and the gullible with stories of the earth melting and all that rubbish. It is propaganda, the worst type becase a big target is children. Familiar ground, because many greens have failed to grow up mentally, let alone scientifically.
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Has anything I have written here upset any reader? Tell me,please. It is hard for everyone, as Robbie Burns noted, to see ourselves as others see us.
Geoff S
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Excellent stuff Geoff. We need mines and we need miners.
SteveG,
See how easily people can agree with articles that have data and hands-on experience and positive outcomes?
Contrast this with the ravings of top people in the WHO, the WMO, the UN itself. Filtered and adjusted data, models taken as producing data, little if any hands-on experience, a large catalog of failed predictions while spending other peoples’ money instead of generating new wealth for all.
You think my colleagues and I feasted on that $100 billion? Wrong. Many of us still living are on old age pensions. Geoff S
I know mate. I was speaking with a recently retired guy, that worked in the mining sector. He is an engineer, just a regular guy, with family, and a new grandchild. He was getting his hands dirty doing some gardening.
We just starting chatting, I didn’t know him, but we shared a common hobby (classic sports cars). Such an interesting bloke, and widely travelled, worked on some really interesting projects from Australia, to South Africa and South America. He was recently asked to consult on a project in Chile, I think.
Mining, folks just think it’s about digging big holes in the ground, they got no idea.
Hey you ever been down one of those super deep gold mines in South Africa?
Cheers..
Just as an observer, I’ve been down deep in the Coeur d’Alene mining district of North Idaho. As a kid, I and cousins, swam in water-filled coal cuts in Western Pennsylvania. An uncle ran the dragline. I enjoyed both activities, for different reasons.
I am from Western Pennsylvania as well. When I was attending Slippery Rock University we used to go to a former water-filled cut just north of Butler called “Cupec (sp?)” It had great high cliffs for diving into the clear 25′ deep water and we loved it. The water was clean and clear, and it was a wonderful place to have picnics and campfires at.
A dairy farmer I knew in south east Ohio had a 40 acre section of his farm strip mined and rehabilitated. It gave him the only level area on the whole farm for cropping silage.
He also planted black walnut for eventual lumber on the rocky areas.
“These foresters were close to Nature and expressed no wish to destroy.”
Got that right! We are of course accused by alarmists of deforestation for doing routine forestry work.
Among the alarmists are some ecoterrorists that in their twisted minds are able to justify destructive acts. Some even turn to arson believing that it helps their cause.
In some sense, fundamentally they are committing murder suicide.
Good post.
We’re up against thousands, perhaps millions of chairman Maos, most of which are themselves just useful idiots. They have little understanding of the life improving value of the commodities that you mention.
The increasing power of government suppression available to these Maos is frightening.
Typos create new Englkish language words.
Verb “porosecute”. To riddle a miscreant with holes that creatre porosity.
They are the ones pushing a wind turbine power scheme that may wipe out every large bird on the planet, a plan to block out the Sun that may push us into a reglaciation cycle that could kill billions by starvation, promoting endless policies that are needlessly pushing up the cost of energy and thereby putting hundreds of millions into energy poverty, causing hunger and possible starvation by making it mandatory we use food for motor fuel…
They best be careful what they make laws against, being that they are pure fools and incorrigible liars.
Help sought please.
Trying to find an earlier WUWT article about foreign ownership of journals like Scientific American and Science and Nature. Mostly German, IIRC.
Can’t get a result from WUWT search engine, my bad choice of key words.
Geoff S.
I searched Google and got this on Scientific American magazine:
“In print since 1845, it is the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States. Scientific American is owned by Springer Nature, which in turn is a subsidiary of Holtzbrinck Publishing Group.”
The other two publications are also owned by this same group. Holtzbrinck Publishing Group is located in Stuttgart, Germany.
Hi Tom,,
Thanks.I had found that stuff, am really looking for the WUWT article. Might have been by Kip.
Geoff S
Phew. Thank goodness that I don’t deny that the climate exists. I am truly grateful for those geography lessons at school.
Actually Climate does NOT exist. It is a human notion, a compressed reference to the normally expected weather, which does exist.
Its like saying that a flock of sheep exists. The sheep yes, but the flock, not so much. It would vanisdh in an instant if they all kept walking in a straight line…The inability to distinguish between real things, like rain, sheep, falling stones, and abstract concepts (models) like flocks, climate and gravity, is how the climate alarmists manage to befuddle everyone.
None of the things that Marxists get hot under the collar over are real, in the sense that they are not facts, but interpretation of facts.
And viewpoints are a free choice. Until Marxists make them de rigeur
What is media construct Greta doing in a wsr zone and who paid?
She’s regurgitating the same line – ecocide for the dam breaking.
Greta has been arrested in Sweden now. Faces possible imprisonment.
Hoping!
Happy Independence Day.
If the dam was deliberately destroyed then that is in itself a designated war crime and has been since the late 1940’s.
I don’t think that 617 Squadron were prosecuted for destroying the Möhne and Eder dams in 1943. Maybe the law only applied after it was created.
It was incorporated into the Geneva convention in 1949, article 48 onwards.
The dams were in fact of strategic importance, so exempt from the convention rule that came into existence 6 years later…
And here we have the problem – nobody knows who destroyed the Nova Kakhovka dam in 2023. In Feb 2022 Russia captured the dam; in Oct 2022 Ukraine may have targeted rocket and artillery strikes on the dam, causing damage and in Jun 2023 the dam was destroyed, flooding villages and Russian defences.
However, footage allegedly showing blasts over the dam from 2023 are actually from Oct 2022 – it’s still unknown as to whether the dam gave way after being weakened the previous year or if new, intentional, damage caused the destruction. Nobody knows despite the, now compulsory, finger-pointing exercise.
Maybe the green movement would be charged with ecocide for promoting stupid and useless things like wind farms and carbon farming.
“Maybe the green movement would be charged with ecocide”
The Human-caused Climate Change Greens ought to be charged with Crimes Against Humanity. Everything they do harms humanity and progress because they live in a False Reality where CO2 is a dangerous gas, and their unreasonable efforts to control CO2 are causing great harm to society and humanity.
They should definitely be put on Trial.
May Anthony Fauci be the first to the gallows, arrogantly directly responsible for the deaths of millions, economic devastation, damage to young children, and long term damage to the human gene pool through forcing fake vaccines. Yet there is no war crimes tribunal raised against he and his ilk. He will be allowed to live out his remaining days in comfort and self-righteous freedom. What is a mere dam collapse during war by comparison?
I think you will find it was Trump who pushed for and took credit for the vaccines.
“I’m honored to welcome doctors, scientists, industry executives, and state and local leaders to our historic Operation Warp Speed Vaccine Summit. It’s been some journey for all of us. It’s been an incredible success.
From the instant the coronavirus invaded our shores, we raced into action to develop a safe and effective vaccine at breakneck speed. It would normally take five years, six years, seven years, or even more. In order to achieve this goal, we harnessed the full power of government, the genius of American scientists, and the might of American industry to save millions and millions of lives all over the world.”
Shall we hang him too?
Trump is not a medic of any description. He took his advice from Fauci.
What is it President Truman said…. “The buck stops with me.” But it seems that only applies to people who take responsibility for what they do. Of course being the gutless swine Trump is, he now wants to deny being part of the vaccine development team. But let’s be honest, it is only because he thinks the morons who follow him, don’t see the value the vaccines added and his support will lose him votes. What a guy…..
“I think you will find it was Trump who pushed for and took credit for the vaccines.”
Trump pushed for the quick development of vaccines, which is what any sensible person would do under the circumstances.
Trump had nothing to do with the formulation of the vaccines. That’s on the drug manufacturers.. If there was something wrong with the vaccine, it wasn’t Trump’s fault.
But Tom, there was nothing wrong with them (any more than any other vaccine). Once the perception changed (because of consistent misinformation from the right mostly) so did Trumps support. I would bet my last dollar, that had the vaccines not been maligned Trump would have sung how great they were and how great he was, for getting them through in quick time…. as he did in the speech I quoted above.
He flip flops all the time depending on where the votes are. His latest one is on transgender rights. There was a time where he said he was happy for trans people to be in his Miss Universe competitions. Now the tide has changed he mocks them to win votes from the fearful right…. What a guy
I thought Trump has maintained a pro-covid-vax position. Have I missed something?
Yes you have… He is now distancing himself because he is scared any support of the vaccines will lose him votes.
At the time, the “given” in the medical community and the public was that a vaccine was absolutely required. This normally took 10 years.
What Trump did was to assemble the capabilities of private companies beyond just pharmaceuticals to develop and produce the vaccine in record time. An example was to ask Eastman Kodak to produce the synthetic chemicals needed by the drug companies.
It’s also nonsense that it was an American effort alone. The production of the vaccines was truely an example of high level international cooperation. You can read about it here…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_COVID-19_vaccine_development#:~:text=On%2021%20December%202020%2C%20the,developed%20by%20BioNTech%20and%20Pfizer.
Surely Ecocide would have to include flying in a private jet to conferences around the world, and once you’ve arrived driving in a convoy of gas guzzling mega-limousines or helicopters, before flying off again for a cruise round the Mediterranean on a very large private motor yacht.
Ecocide would also, of course, include acts of arson that devastated huge tracts of forest and brush, sending vast quantities of particulates and the dreaded CO2 into the atmosphere. I wonder if those zealots that set wildfires would care to be the first prosecuted as eco war criminals?
These activists make me sick .
How did Greta travel to the Ukraine?
She did not walk or ride a horse.
She was transported there using fossil fuel and the transport vehicles were manufactured using fossil fuel ,mainly coal for iron and steel smelting.
Our New Zealand Prime Minister Hipkins recently traveled to China taking 2 planes to sign a trade deal .
Around 100 in the first New Zealand Air force plane and another plane followed in case the first plane broke down .
Can you believe this ?
They lecture us on our “carbon footprints ” with the Greens keeping them in power but this shows that this carbon emissions is absolute nonsense .
Governments around the world are just using it as a lever to keep them selves in power .
“Supporters of a new ecocide law also believe it could be used to prosecute “climate deniers” who distort science and facts to discourage voters and politicians from taking action to tackle global warming and climate change.”
Their thinking hasn’t changed in 13 years, they still intend to intimidate us into silence.
Let’s take a look at how climate science distorts reality to shoehorn CO2 in as climate driver.
climate.gov has proven itself to be a major source of CO2 disinformation in this world, by making a false statement and then supporting it with their disingenuous graphic.
What’s wrong with this picture? The units don’t match. Hint: 1 ppm equals 7.80432 gigatons.
The US government and climate scientists don’t know how to apply simple high school chemistry to the graphical CO2 information above, thus they created mis/disinformation.
The govt/cli-sci/media expect you to infer, and say, that measured atmospheric CO2 increase from Law Dome and Mauna Loa came from the increase in man-made emissions.
However when the graphic is remade with matching units for both timeseries, a different picture emerges, one where the man-made portion is a much smaller portion of the whole:
In 2021, 1 ppm of man-made CO2 was swamped by 86 ppm of CO2 from other sources.
All man-made emissions added up do not even approach the amount for any single year.
The entire climate science industry is therefore built upon a monstrously made-up lie.
Everyone deserves to know they were and are continually lied to about climate change.
Everyone deserves to know ‘taking action’, reducing emissions, won’t change the climate.
From the article: “A campaign to declare the mass destruction of ecosystems an international crime against peace – alongside genocide and crimes against humanity – is being launched in the UK.”
Where is this mass destruction of ecosystems? The only thing I can think of off hand is the destruction being caused by Chicom mines mining materials for windmills, solar and EV’s.
The Climate Change Alarmists are probably thinking about mass destruction of the Earth’s ecosystems due to too much CO2, which, as we all know, destroys everything in its path, at least, according to the climate alarmists.
Of course, there is no evidence that CO2 is anything other than a benign gas, essential for life on Earth, but that doesn’t stop climate alarmists from making outrageous claims about it, such as implying that it can destroy whole ecosystems.
This is what you get from religious fanatics.
The term “mass destruction” is being used to imply these are reasonable people. But as history has shown, once they get a little acceptance they will push towards their real agenda which will end up with speech crimes.
Mass destruction of tropical ecosystems to produce useless biofuels. Mass destruction of mountain, range and forest ecosystems to build useless wind and solar power projects.
So let’s declare it. Greens and complicit “influencers,” financiers and politicians are international criminals against peace.
Ecocide?
Would that apply if they actually try one of the geoengineering things to stop “Climate Change” after it fails?
Apparently “ecocide” is mostly a thought and speech crime, while actually doing something that harms the environment or contributes CO2 to the atmosphere, like flying around in private jets or setting fires to attract attention, is not.
Little girl Greta arrives in the Ukraine preaching anti-fossil fuels, chemicals and mining are doing untold harm…
Without evidence, just belief…
meanwhile, Ukraine dependent upon revenue from fossil fuels and mining is at war with Russia. A real war where tanks, jets, drones and missiles destroy men and materials.
Zelenskyy is an attention hound and welcomes all chances to receive attention, even from people against his revenue stream.
But, that is as far as ecosilly Greta followers will get preaching anti-fossil fuels in the Ukraine or Russia.
Yes, when you are trying to save your nation, you would want a lot of attention, even from Greta.
Answer to above headline question: It will if Biden, the Democratic party, Lurch, AOC, King Charles, the IPCC—and yes, even little Greta—have their way.
I wonder where the Ukrainian people would rank ‘the climate crisis!!’ in a list of all the problems they’re faced with right now.
They’ll be hoping next winter isn’t too cold.
Is there any forum on the Internet with competent military experts?
Was the destruction of a dam, before any large land attack, in anyone interest?
Well that’s a bit tricky. Certainly Russian defences were flooded, forcing them to move and dig in further away. The lowering of the reservoir water levels advantaged either side that wanted to advance across the river upstream of the dam. It’s also made life difficult for the people downstream, some of whom have died, and impacted the water available to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power plant.
I would say that rather than advantaging any one side, it’s actually inconvenienced everyone in the area.
“Well that’s a bit tricky. Certainly Russian defences were flooded, forcing them to move and dig in further away.”
The flooding also helped the Russian position, flooding areas the Ukrainians would use to advance their attack.
Highly unlikely. The Ukrainians on the West bank that watched the Russians on the East bank drowning in the floodwaters (unlike the Ukrainians, they had no advance warning) and running away had been there for some time without attacking and it’s unlikely they would ever have attacked that part of the Dniepr into the teeth of the Russian defences. Like I said, I don’t think it advantaged either side.
I would recommend searching Moon of Alabama.
Also The Automatic Earth.
Note that this “ecocide” is just a warmup to the destruction of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant.
Your fate depends on a handful of judges voting on pivotal cases as basis for permanent legal precedent. So many of those votes are predictably divided to suggest you need to worry about that concentration of power.
Many such decisions would be avoided if a clear applicable law was passed on the matter, and the court would have nothing to say. The administration often wants to do without a clear law, hence the conflict: on abortion or on carbon.
If you don’t want such concentration of power, get Congress to pass a law allowing (or not) abortion, limiting (or not) CO2, cancelling (or not) student loans.
Or maybe you don’t actually care about power concentration, and are fine with a senile man and the corresponding junta imposing vaccine mandates.
“climate deniers” who distort science and facts”
I demand a serious investigation to determine who is doing more harm to the population of the earth; Climate Deniers or Climate Alarmists who also “distort science and facts”.
Never happen of course.
For the truth about climate change they all need to read “the Rational climate e-Book” by Patrice Poyet. The book is very profusely referenced and the down load is free.
Maybe all of us who have downloaded for free Patrice Poyet’s e-book “The Rational Climate e-Book” will be put into a prison and then a retraining concentration camp and forced to recant. It is not my fault that I am a man of science that that is how I have earned my living.