I’m not sure how planet earth managed to request legal counsel but it must have done since Polly Higgins is described as “The lawyer for Planet Earth”. Anyway, equal rights for earth would extend to trees, grass, fish, animals, bugs, dirt, rocks and the air. In other words everything that makes up this world we live on would be legally on par with humans. Art Horn explains:
Energy Companies Go On Trial for the Crime of Ecocide – Regular readers of Energy Tribune will recall that in September of this year I wrote about a bizarre concept being promoted by ex-president Clinton and current president Obama called “climate justice”. If you want to learn more about this perversion of justice and how dangerous it is to our energy and ultimately economic future read “Skinning the cat with climate justice”. You can also go to the EPA’s website. They have a section devoted to it. If you believe in real justice you will be shocked by what you see.
Now, just when you thought it couldn’t get any weirder we have something called “ecocide”. It is not a new concept. References to ecocide go back to the late 1960s. Now this “crime against earth” is being promoted by an English Lawyer named Polly Higgins. She has been described as “The lawyer for Planet Earth” and “One of the world’s top 10 visionary thinkers”. Apparently Higgins has only one client and that client can’t speak, hear or for that matter even think. That client is Planet Earth. One must then wonder how did client earth contact attorney Higgins and request legal counsel? I’ll leave the answer to that question to the lawyers.
According to Attorney Higgins ecocide is “The extensive destruction, damage 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 inhabitance of that territory has been severely diminished.” She argues that the UN should make ecocide the 5th crime against peace. The others are Genocide, Crimes against humanity, War crimes and Crimes of aggression. She has called on the United Nations to adopt a Universal Declaration of Planetary Rights. This would, in effect, give planet earth rights along side and equal to human rights and would aim to protect it against human exploitation of its resources. It would treat the earth as a living entity. These equal rights would extend to trees, grass, fish, animals, bugs, dirt, rocks and the air. In other words everything that makes up this world we live on would be legally on par with humans.
In keeping with this one of her main goals is to completely eliminate the use of fossil fuels. The ecocide crime being that we are literally sucking the life out of the planet and in doing so, are destroying the climate of Mother Earth. The climate belongs to earth, not us. “It is not merely a matter of reducing our emissions by 50%, 80%, 100% as soon as possible, but to evolve and encourage a benign world where we no longer cause damage, pollution and loss.” I don’t know what she thinks the role of humans would be in her “benign world” but you can be sure we would be its subjects, not its ruler. It is this idea that humans are equal to inanimate objects reveals how truly dangerous this effort is. It is clearly her intent to make extracting fossil fuels from the earth illegal. She said “It is not just humans that have rights, all beings do.” Polly Higgins considers the earth itself to be a living being on par with humans and therefore should be granted rights equal to humans. Have you ever asked a rock a question and received an answer? If you have you may want to consider a phone call to someone who can treat delusional behavior.
Should ecocide legally become a crime, climate change caused by companies making energy from fossil fuels would be on the hit list of criminals against Mother Earth. Granted making this a punishable crime would be an up hill battle. It would take a two thirds majority of the 117 nations who recognize the International Criminal Court (ICC) to make such a law reality. The possibilities for prosecution are nearly endless. For instance such a law could be used to prosecute “climate change deniers.” On Higgins thisisecocide website she states “action can be taken against any individual. As an international crime against peace (climate change denial) no-one escapes liability.” In an effort to save the earth from human exploitation Higgins is looking to make laws that would put the planet first and human civilization second (or third of fourth?) (Energy Tribune)
