ECOCIDE &
ENVIRONMENT
SESSION FOURTEEN
12/9/12
Last week we looked at how people have resisted violence
in society- sometimes through non-violent means like
leaving anonymous letters and messages of rebellion, or
direct action like burning draft cards and sabotage, or even
fighting back through armed uprisings.
Increasingly, changes to the environment can cause stress
factors to societies like drought, famine and crop failure.
Overfishing by foreign companies caused Somali fisherman
to move into piracy after there were no longer enough fish
left to sell or feed their families. After the international
community successfully suppressed piracy in the Horn of
Africa, many former pirates were recruited by the terror
group Al-Shabaab, who offered food, money and jobs. The
situation in Yemen now poses the largest cholera crisis in
history- and started with water scarcity that led to a
collapse in food prices, mass migration to urban areas and
political unrest as infrastructure failed to support a
populace with enough water, or rights.
READ: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/21/what-isenvironmental-
injustice-and-why-is-the-guardian-covering-it
HUMAN (IN)SECURITY
Global security used to refer to the relationship between global superpowers during the Cold War, and the idea
that as Russia and the United States tried to make themselves more secure (by developing and stockpiling and
nuclear weapons, for example), it could only do so by posing a bigger threat than the other side, making their
opponent- and by extension, the rest of the world- less secure.
By the end of the Cold War and the start of the 1990s, more conflicts were within countries- civil wars,
genocides, political uprisings and coups- than between countries. The United Nations suggested a new
understanding of security- one that focused less on nations and more on the people within them. This became
known as HUMAN SECURITY, and argued that if we focus on freedom from want (like food, healthcare and
education) and freedom from fear (voting without fear of reprisals, or torture) then there will be less war and
conflict, by taking care of the things that cause it. This led some governments, like Norway and Japan, to call
for more money to be invested in humanitarian aid than military expenditure, hopefully preventing war than
paying for it later. This is known as human development.
THE SEVEN AREAS OF HUMAN SECURITY
As defined by Mahbub ul Haq in the UN’s 1994 Human Development Report
ECONOMIC- basic income, either from employment or a social safety net. Only ¼ of the world is currently considered
economically secure. Unemployment can be a stress factor in political tensions, leading to enrollment in terror groups,
militias and gangs. Many Americans are unable to afford a $400 emergency without going into debt- a big risk when you
consider the cost of healthcare and the number of people without it.
FOOD- the United Nations has evaluated that the world has enough available food, but it is not distributed fairly or
equally affordable. With climate change, global food supplies may be at risk, at least at the rate of demand and
unsustainability now- conflicts have already erupted in Mexico over the surge in popularity and demand for avocados.
HEALTH- infectious and parasitic diseases are a major cause of death in developing countries, with children and rural
populations at highest risk globally. Malnutrition and lack of clean water contribute to epidemics, as well as access to
health services. Reliance on cheap medicines- rather than specialized care- is now causing high rates of MRSA and other
dangerous medically-resistant ‘superbugs’ across the world.
ENVIRONMENTAL- this refers to both natural events and man-made threats in nature, like air pollution and tainted
water. Global warming has increased the frequency and severity of hurricanes/typhoons and wildfires, which can cause
people to lose their homes, livelihoods, and put their health and access to food/clean water at risk.
PERSONAL- the protection of people from physical violence- whether from the
state/police/government/army, or domestic abuse, or violent crime
COMMUNITY- traditional communities and ethnic minorities are often at risk, especially indigenous
peoples- for example remote tribes still living in the Amazon whose homes and safety are under threat
from illegal logging and exposure to modern pathogens
POLITICAL- political security is also the security of human rights, and whether people live in a society
where they are free from political repression, torture, disappearance or arbitrary punishment and
electoral violence/suppression. During periods of political unrest human rights violations are more likely.
THE SEVEN AREAS OF HUMAN SECURITY
As defined by Mahbub ul Haq in the UN’s 1994 Human Development Report
Often these areas overlap- for example, economic insecurity might effect someone’s
health. Environmental insecurity might threaten your economic security if it hurts your
job, or personal/communal security if you live in an area where companies hire militias
or armed security, such as loggers in the Amazon. On the next slide you will see some
examples.
1. Educational/public
announcement murals on
ebola in Liberia
2. Police beating voters in
Spain during the Catalan
independence referendum,
Iraqi women voting,
Alabama state troopers
attacking protesters in Selma
3. Smog in Beijing, water
samples from Flint MI, and
floods in Peru
“The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said
‘This is mine’, and found people naïve enough to believe him,
that man was the true founder of civil society.
From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many
horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved
mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and
crying to his fellows:
Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you
once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and
the earth itself to nobody.”
-Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1754)
The ‘Beaver Wars’ raged across the Great Lakes region of America and Canada
between 1629 and 1701. The demand for beaver pelts by colonists saw
European nations sponsor and encourage warfare between Native American
groups, selling guns to their chosen groups. The French supported the
Algonquin (Huron, Erie and Shawnee) in the northeast while the English and
Dutch sponsored the Iroquois’ efforts to expand territory. Natives caught in
the middle were often slaughtered or captured, entire villages burnt to the
ground and those fleeing forced to leave food, firewood and shelter, becoming
refugees on their own land as the beaver supply got smaller and trade got
more competitive to fulfill demand from Europe.
The fashion for beaver fur in Europe led to whole populations to be wiped out
and forced off their land on the other side of the world, and changed the
presence of some tribes in North America and Canada forever.
At one point over 30 million buffalo/bison roamed North America. Considered
sacred by many Native American tribes, peoples like the Plains Indians relied
on bison for food, clothes and other materials. The expansion of European
settlers in the 19th Century saw white colonists move farther into native
lands, hunting bison and building railroads that allowed quick transport and
sale of bison goods. Roughly 4-5 million bison were killed in just three years
and the species was almost driven to extinction.
As major resource, the loss of bison changed the ways of life for Native
Americans across the Plains, North West and Rockies. Under new laws, many
Natives were not allowed to leave reservations to find new work, nor borrow
credit to find other forms of trade. The effects are still felt today.
“Give me a home where the buffalo roam”
MODERN EXAMPLES ABROAD
The rise in globalization has seen international companies mine, harvest and manufacture across the world, often
at a great cost to local populations. While we learned about the violent methods used by the Belgian empire to
force the collection of rubber in the Congo, the demand for rubber only grew across the world during the 20th
Century. The ‘Rubber Boom’ in Latin America saw indigenous communities enslaved, forced to work in rubber
plantations far from home, recruiters going out to ‘hunt’ for them across Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Brazil.
Workers were flogged or killed for failing to harvest enough rubber for a company registered and run in London.
Indigenous people in the Amazon were again under threat from foreign companies during an effort to bring
Chevron to justice for failing to clean oil fields it bought in the Amazon, toxic waste and crude oil spilling into the
rainforest and water supplies and affecting 30,000 residents across five tribes causing cancer and birth defects.
WATCH: https://youtu.be/duFXuRnd2CU
Court cases have also been brought against Coco-Cola, Chiquita, Shell and Union Oil. In Sinaltrainal v Coca-Cola
(2009) union workers in Colombia accused the company of using paramilitaries to target and execute union
members at a bottling plant. Chiquita has also been accused of directly paying militias and terrorist groups in
Colombia and Costa Rica. Kiobel v Royal Dutch Petroleum (, Sarei v Rio Tinto and Doe v Unocal were all cases in
which oil and mining companies were taken to court by Nigerian, Papua New Guinean and Burmese victims and
activists, accused of human rights abuses and funding government actions against those that protested the
companies. Some of these cases were settled out of court,or moved to a different domestic setting after the US
Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that the law used to initiate proceedings- the Alien Tort Act- didn’t apply outside of
America.
Increasingly, many groups are trying to fight against irreversible threats to their environment.
WATCH: https://youtu.be/Qe9ZybqKOLg

ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM AT HOME
‘Ecological racism’ focuses on the pollution and epidemics from toxic waste that disproportionately effects
marginalized communities. Many have pointed out that it is not a coincidence that the lead-tainted water crisis
in Michigan took place in one of its poorest towns, Flint. Similarly, the choice to re-route the DAPL oil project
through the Sioux Standing Rock Indian Reservation risking the water supply and sacred burial grounds, was due
to a rejection by the majority-white town of Bismarck, ND over a risk to its drinking water.
When Native American, First Nation and other activist communities came together to stop the pipeline’s
construction in 2016 they were often treated violently by the National Guard and local police, jailing protesters
for ‘civil disorder’ among other things. In contrast, after the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge
in the same year by armed white cattle ranchers and militiamen the organizers were acquitted during federal
trial and treated as folk heroes for standing up to the federal government.
North Carolina is currently the second largest pork producer in the United States- but for those who live nearby,
its ‘Heavens 4 Hogs, Hell 4 Humans.’ With a smell so bad residents can’t go outside and farm runoff that
attracts vermin, causes health problems and pollutes water and soil, poor and African-American residents are
the most effected. One local said “how many hog pens have you found next to a country club?” Another said
“this is environmental racism. This is my family land, and I’m sure race played a part when they decided they
wanted to develop this area. It’s my land.” In a majority black town in Louisiana, the risk of cancer is 50 times
higher than the national average due to the runoff from chemical plants along the Mississippi river.
READ: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2019/may/06/cancertown-louisana-reservespecial-
report
READ: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/20/north-carolina-hog-industry-pig-farms
ECOCIDE
WATCH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgQ9kVzy1TM
‘Ecocide’ was first imagined as a form of war crime to describe certain types of actions targeting the
environment or ecosystem for destruction, like the intentional arson of oil wells in Kuwait by Saddam’s
troops during the first Gulf War or Agent Orange by the US military during Vietnam, killing both humans
and wildlife while clearing forests as a strategy.
While the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Article 8(2/b/iv) describes the following:
“an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilian
objects or widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment which would be
clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated.”
Lawyer Polly Higgins later argued for a more defined concept of ‘ecocide’ to be added to the Rome
Statute to describe damage, destruction or loss of ecosystems- by human intention or otherwise,
including individuals, corporations and the state. This creation of criminal responsibility for humancaused
ecological disasters could be key to holding companies accountable, like in slide 9.
QUIZ
DUE MONDAY 16TH AT MIDNIGHT
THIS IS THE LAST ONE!!! NO CLASS/QUIZ NEXT WEEK
1. ON SLIDE 6, IDENTIFY THE HUMAN SECURITY AREAS IN ROWS 1, 2 & 3. KEEP IN MIND
THERE MAY BE MORE THAN ONE- EXPLAIN WHICH YOU CHOSE & WHY.
2. CHOOSE A NEWS LINK FROM SLIDE 2 OR 11 AND COMPARE TO THE SYLLABUS READING ON
THE BISON. MAKE AN ARGUMENT WHETHER YOU AGREE OR DISAGREE THAT
ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION IS A FORM OF VIOLENCE.
3. BASED ON SLIDE 12 & THE READING ON ECOCIDE (SEE SYLLABUS), DO YOU THINK IT
SHOULD BE CONSIDERED A CRIME UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW, SIMILAR TO GENOCIDE OR
WAR CRIMES?
***BONUS QUESTIONS- WORTH FIVE POINTS EACH (PURELY OPTIONAL):***
READ THE ROUSSEAU QUOTE ON SLIDE – IS LAND OWNERSHIP THE PROBLEM?
IS HUMAN SECURITY MORE IMPORTANT TO SOCIETY THAN NATIONAL SECURITY? WHICH IS A
GREATER KEY TO PREVENTING VIOLENCE?