Ecocide - Anthology | One book, 29 texts, 37 authors, 22 countries, 6 continents: How a law can punish serious environmental damage and better protect livelihoods

One book, 29 texts, 37 authors, 22 countries, 6 continents: How a law can punish serious environmental damage and better protect livelihoods

"Ökozid" ist die massive Schädigung und Zerstörung der Natur mit weitreichenden und langfristigen Folgen. In diesem Sammelband wird auf vielfältige Weise erklärt, welche Folgen Ökozide haben, wer dafür verantwortlich ist und was wir dagegen tun können. Inspirierende Menschen aus verschiedenen Teilen der Welt geben uns Einblicke in ihre Erfahrungen und erklären, wie ein Ökozid-Gesetz auf internationaler und nationaler Ebene helfen kann, die Zerstörung unserer Umwelt zu beenden.

Privacy notice

Funding period

3/22/23 - 7/28/23

Realisation

Bin schon dabei

Website & Social Media

City

Weimar

What is this project all about?

The vital ecosystems of the earth, are being destroyed beyond repair. Nature still has no voice in the courts. An ecocide law can change this.

This project is about publishing an anthology on the topic of ecocide. The book will be published by oekom verlag: https://www.oekom.de/.

Ecocide is the massive damage and destruction of nature, with far-reaching or long-term consequences.

Here you can see some examples of ecocides: https://www.stopecocide.de/was-ist-oekozid.

The contributions in this book show the severity of the damage already done in many parts of the world and the consequences for humans, animals and ecosystems.

You can find the contributions and authors below under "who is behind the project".

Readers can also learn about the impact an ecocide law can have on environmental protection.

Ecocide criminalization is about passing a law at the international and national level that criminalizes serious environmental crimes.

The goal of the Ecocide Law is to charge and convict those responsible for serious environmental crimes. For many years, people have been fighting for the criminalization of ecocide to be included in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court as a crime against humanity.

Furthermore, this law can serve as a deterrent against further ecocide.

People from different cultural circles and professional backgrounds, have reflected on this in this book.

Since affected people, indigenous people, activists and journalists, as well as scientists, politicians and lawyers have their say, there is room for very different perspectives, experiences and approaches to the topic.

Here are two links to websites that provide information on the topic of ecocide:

StopEcocide: https://www.stopecocide.de/
EndEcocide: https://www.endecocide.org/de/

I myself wrote an article about it in 2020: https://www.klimareporter.de/protest/oekozid-darf-nicht-laenger-straflos-bleiben

Important info about the book language: The book is published in German. At the moment we are talking about publishing it in English as well.

What is the project goal and who is the project for?

Readers should be made aware of how seriously environmental crimes can affect ecosystems and the people living in or from them.

This book is for people who want to learn about climate and environmental protection, are committed to it, or are considering doing so.

Whether you have no or little experience or whether you are already professionally and privately deeply involved in the subject does not matter.

Not least because the destruction of nature is progressing, the interest in this topic is growing.

We are all already affected by the consequences. With every day the danger for ourselves and the people we love and want to protect grows.

More and more people want to do something about the destruction of our livelihoods. This book is meant to be a part of the change. A change towards a world without destruction and full of ideas to shape our life together sustainable.

Why would you support this project?

Education about serious environmental crimes and their consequences is still slow.

Ecocides are considered one of the greatest threats to human civilization and life on Earth.

This book is a building block on the way to a better world in which serious environmental crimes have no place.

In Germany there is no anthology yet that allows the reader to get a well-founded and multi-faceted insight into this issue.

The authors are united by the knowledge that the situation around the globe is really serious. Some of them are experiencing the consequences of ecocides first hand.

We are at a crossroads, with only a few years left to effectively address the irreversible destruction of ecosystems.

Ecosystems serve as the basis of life for us humans. If they cease to function, the sources of our food, drinking water and other essentials that we owe to nature will also dry up.

How will we use the money if the project is successfully funded?

The following financial resources are required for the realization of the project:

1. a project deposit of 10.990€ to oekom verlag. For the production of the manuscript and the printing of the first edition.

The finished book will have a retail price of 32€. This price can be adjusted up or down a bit if the book gets a few pages less or more than planned.

2. a budget of about 3000€ to pay some of the authors (about 10) an honorarium.
Some of the authors are affected people, indigenous people, activists and workers who are in less privileged work or life situations.

I would like to pay these people an amount between 200-300€ in return for their elaborate text work.

Far too often, especially affected people, indigenous people and activists are expected to take on tasks without getting anything in return. I would like to counteract this at least to a certain extent.

The payment of the authors in question can be made promptly.
If the income from donations exceeds the donation goal, the amounts for the authors will be raised accordingly.

3. a large number of the texts (about 20 pieces) will be written in English and have to be translated from English into German.

For this purpose I will assemble a volunteer team to support me. I would like to pay this team a remuneration for this.

The payment is many times less than the service of a translation agency (currently the translation amounts to about 20 cents per word(2000€ per text).

Currently, the plan is to allow translators about 1/10 of the price for their work. Which will be about 200€ per text.

With about 20 texts to be translated, the budget needed is about 4000€.

Again, the payment will increase should this fundraising campaign make revenue beyond the amount needed.

All in all, I need at least 10.990€ to pay the costs of the book production and ideally 18.000€ to be able to pay the authors and translators promptly and comprehensively.

Perhaps you are now wondering why I, as the publisher, do not pay those involved myself.

I myself am currently a student and environmental activist, a single father and live below the poverty line.
My participation in each sold book will amount to approx. 1,50€.

I myself have been working on this project since November 2022. Until the completion in September/October, this will result in almost a year in which I invest 5-6 days a week several hours of working time.

If the 18,000€ should not be reached completely, the involved ones receive nevertheless their payment, In this case only with a temporal delay, since the money must be spent by me privately and/or from the sales proceeds is taken.

Who are the people behind the project?

As editor, I am responsible for ensuring that this project is implemented. The concept, framing and content have been and will be developed by me. The publishing tasks will be taken over by oekom verlag.

The following authors will appear in the anthology with one text contribution each

The continents of Africa, South America, North America, Asia, Australia and Europe are represented.

People from Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Germany, England, France, India, Ireland, Italy, Colombia, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, South Korea, Syria, Turkey and the Ukraine are included.

The voword of the book will be Jojo Metha.
Website: https://www.stopecocide.earth/jojo-mehta-profile

With a commentary by Dr. Mark Benecke: https://home.benecke.com/

1st Tren Maya Made in Germany. "Germany's Fastest Climate Protector": An Ecocide in Southern Mexico.
Victor Hübotter, born in 1999, is studying history and social sciences at Humboldt University in Berlin. In 2023, he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in History with a thesis on the Haitian Revolution. Besides his studies, Victor is active in various collectives of the climate justice movement, focusing on exposing colonial crimes committed by German companies in Latin America. As part of an international research AG, he is involved in highlighting Deutsche Bahn's involvement in destructive megaprojects in southeastern Mexico.
Website: https://deinebahn.com/

2. Blue ecocide - how the vitality of the oceans is deliberately damaged
Silvia Frey, PhD, is a German marine biologist and director of KYMA sea conservation & research. For more than 25 years she has conducted research projects, campaigns and environmental education projects to protect ocean life.
Website: https://www.speakerinnen.org/de/profiles/silvia-frey

3. The recognition of ecocide as a crime in Belgium.
Samuel Cogolati, Member of Parliament and author of the first bill on ecocide (Belgium), Chair of the IPU Committee on Human Rights of Parliamentarians, PhD in International Law (University of Leuven), LL.M. (Harvard Law School).
Website: https://samuelcogolati.be/
Julien Debande, parliamentary intern in the office of Samuel Cogolati, Master candidate in European Law (UCLouvain), Bachelor in Law (UCLouvain), human rights activist (Amnesty International), volunteer humanitarian trainer (Belgian Red Cross).
Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julien-debande-7508361bb/

4. Ecocide and Environmental Flight: The Forgotten and Suppressed Cause of Flight.
Peter Emorinken Donatus is from Nigeria, a freelance journalist and long-time environmental activist.
Website: https://taz.de/Panter-Preis-Nominierte-VI/!5878368/

5. Innocent greenhouse gas emissions or a crime against the environment? - Shell plc as an example of ecocide.
Luise Maria Kozlowski is a German law graduate and currently a legal trainee. She studied law in Berlin and received an LL.M. degree in international law from the University of Oslo. On the side, she is active with the Stop Ecocide Foundation in Germany.
Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luise-maria-kozlowski-ll-m-34a41014a/

6. Drought, oil spills and deforestation: from environmental damage to potential ecocide in northeastern Syria.
Philippe Pernot is a French journalist. He writes and photographs for the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper from Tripoli, Lebanon. He mainly reports on social inequalities, climate justice and social movements. He studied political science in Nancy (France) and at the Free University of Berlin.
Website: https://philippepernot.com/bio/

7. Urbanism as ecocide: urban planning as incremental drivers of ecocide, the old-borns of " climate urbanism" and the post-growth city.
Frank Eckardt is a German political scientist and professor of urban sociology at Bauhaus University Weimar. He researches the concept of policy and planning for the post-growth city.
Website: https://www.uni-weimar.de/de/architektur-und-urbanistik/professuren/stadtforschung/aktuelles/

8. Land grabbing, agribusiness and deforestation on the way to a tipping point? Sustainability due diligence and ecocide as international crime: possible scenarios.
Elena Bosani is an Italian lawyer, member of the Milan Bar Association, focusing on social, environmental and ethical sustainability. She is founder of the BosaniFiorentino-Parrelli law firm.
Website: https://www.egalite.org/de/elena-bosani-nuova-presidente-di-egalite-onlus/

9. Ecocide and the Colonization of the Future - On Possibilities of Resistance.
René Gabriëls is a Dutch lecturer at Maastricht University. His main research interests are social philosophy , sociology of knowledge, philosophy of language and sociology of stratification.
Website: https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/r.gabriels

10. Ecocidal effects of Russian aggression in Ukraine and visions of restoration.
Tetyana Gardashuk is from Kiev, Ukraine. She holds a Dr. Sci. Hab. in Philosophy and works at the H. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy. She is a co-founder of the National Ecology Center of Ukraine. Scientific interests: Philosophy and methodology of science, ecophilosophy, environmental ethics.
Website: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tetiana-Gardashuk

11. How ecocide and social resistance in the global south are linked to the external debt system and the transition to renewable energy in the global north: a case study from Peru.
Alexandra gavilano "is a Swiss environmental scientist and climate change activist. She is a member of the Swiss movement Extinction Rebellion, the Climate Protection Association Switzerland, Collaboratio Helvetica[4] and co-founder of fossil-free.ch, the environmental platform UP and the environmental education organization RootsCamp, Music Declares Emergency Switzerland and Pyrolysis GmbH."
Website: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra_Gavilano

12. The Colonial Crisis.
Ruan Pablo Guiterrez is a Colombian human rights defender, decolonial teacher, activist and international delegate of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) and the Yukpa Indigenous People. He has been working on visibility and denunciation of the humanitarian situation of indigenous peoples in Colombia since 2009. He is also known for developing decolonial theories, from the epistemologies of the global south, around the liberation of thought, critical of Eurocentric totalitarianism.
Website: http://www.juanpablogutierrez.com/en/juan-pablo-gutierrez

13. The politics of unsustainability - defending the planet against ecocide: a Korean perspective.
Juneseo Hwang is a lecturer at Sungkonghoe University, South Korea. His teaching and research areas are ecological justice, peacebuilding, transnational environmental crime, and green political movements.
Website: https://www.sipri.org/about/bios/juneseo-hwang
Jeongjun Yun is pursuing a B.A. in Environmental Studies and a B.S. in Statistics & Data Science at Yale University. He is passionate about pursuing data-driven environmental policy.
Website: https://jeongjunyun.com/

14. From Ecocide to the Law of Nature: Ontological Turns and the Anthropocene.
Peter Doran is a law professor at Queens University. ewr is author of A Political Economy of Attention, Mindfulness and Consumerism: Reclaiming the Mindful Commons.
Website: https://twitter.com/pfdoran

15. Legal Protection for Our Oceans. How Ecocide Law Can Protect Our Oceans; The Case Study of Fukushima - An Ongoing Ecocide.
Dr. Gwynn MacCarrick is an Australian and director of Ecocide Watch. She is a legal scholar at Griffith University and James Cook University in Australia and was part of the International Monsanto Tribunal on the issue of ecocide.
Website: https://experts.griffith.edu.au/39637-gwynn-maccarrick

16. do trees have rights? Legal and social implications of the concept of nature's intrinsic value.
Karin Michel is a German professor of ethics at the Institute for Therapeutic Education and Care at the Evangelische Hochschule RWL in Bochum.
Website: https://www.evh-bochum.de/persoenliche-homepage-prof-dr-karin-michel.html

17. A theoretical framework for characterizing ecocide in river ecosystems.
Paula dos Reis Oliveira is a Brazilian biologist and mother of two children. She received a Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam. Currently, her research focuses on ecology for water conservation and restoration in Latin-America.
Website: https://www.lhf-esalq.com.br/en/about-5
Marcelo S. Moretti has experience in limnology, focusing on benthic invertebrate ecology and organic matter processing in streams. He works at the Universidade Vila Velha (Brazil).
Website: https://www.leialab.com/
Arne Janssen researches population dynamics and ecology of plant-dwelling arthropods and has a strong interest in biological control.
Andreas Bruder is a freshwater ecologist studying the role of biodiversity in ecosystem functioning in different environmental settings. He conducts and manages basic and applied research and conservation projects in these areas.
Website: https://www.supsi.ch/im_en/Institute/staff/Andreas-Bruder.html

18. Ecocide and/or Terricide? Legal pluralisms, intersections and synergies for the decolonization of international law.
Begoña Dorronsoro is a Basque feminist /activist /academic she works on human relations; autonomies, self-determination; decolonization and decolonial feminisms.
Website: https://ces.uc.pt/en/ces/pessoas/doutorandas-os/begona-dorronsoro/apresentacao

19. Locating ecocide in contemporary times and the need for international legal regulation.
Olalere Omoteniola Popoola is from Nigeria and holds a Bachelor of Laws and works at the Faculty of Law Elizade University.
Website: https://twitter.com/oopopoola?lang=de

20. ecocide and controversial notions of renewable energy.
Malayna Raftopoulos is a Danish associate professor of international development and international relations at Aalborg University, Denmark.
Website: https://research.london.ac.uk/search/staff/751/dr-malayna-raftopoulos/
Damien Short is an Englishman, co-director of the Human Rights Consortium (HRC), and professor of human rights and environmental justice at the School of Advanced Study, University of London.
Website: https://www.rightsofnaturetribunal.org/judges/damien-short/
Joanna Morley is English and an ESRC-funded PhD candidate in Latin American Studies at the University of Liverpool, UK.
Website: https://liverpool.academia.edu/JoannaMorley

21. The relationship between ecocide and capitalism - possible solutions for wider environmental protection within capitalist systems!
André Bohn is a German criminal defense lawyer, author and teacher at the the university level. In his private and professional life he supports environmental protection and sustainable lifestyles.
Website: https://www.strafverteidiger-dr-bohn.de/

22. Ecocide through climate change and war: preventing environmental crimes and sustainable peacekeeping.
Jürgen Scheffran is a German professor of Integrative Geography at the Institute of Geography, University of Hamburg. He is head of the Climate Change and Security Research Group at the Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability at the University of Hamburg.
Website: https://www.geo.uni-hamburg.de/geographie/mitarbeiterverzeichnis/scheffran.html

23. The impact of an international ecocide law on corporate behavior - hypotheses and scenarios from legal and economic theory.
Sara Varda St. Vincent is a native of Sweden. She holds a Master of Laws (LLM) from Stockholm University and Université Aix-Marseille and a diploma in practical journalism from Poppius School of Journalism.
Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-varda-st-vincent-5734873/

24. tar sands in Canada and ecocide.
Max Wilbert is the author of Bright Green Lies: How The Environmental Movement Lost Its Way and What We Can Do About It. He has been a grassroots organizer for 20 years, most recently with Protect Thacker Pass.
Website: https://www.maxwilbert.org/

25. Ecocide & Genocide: Does Emphasizing the Nexus Serve or Undermine the Cause?
Jakub Wojsyk is a Polish doctoral student in political science at Andrassy University in Budapest, a graduate of the Global Campus of Human Rights, an alumnus of the College of Europe, and a graduate of law at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.
Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubwojsyk/

26. Ecocide as a topic of political youth education. On the design of the workshop "Crime Scene Lützerath".
Gianluca Giongo (M.A.), studied social work at the Evangelische Hochschule Darmstadt. After his studies, he worked for several years as an education officer in a state refugee council and currently works as a youth officer in the Evangelical Youth in the Rhineland. There he is the executive director of a local partnership for democracy within the framework of the federal program "Demokratie leben!".

27. India's struggle with its historic eco-culture and desire for economic growth
Chittranjan Dubey is an Indian IT consultant, author, climate activist and meditation teacher. I have been active in social and climate movements in India and Europe. I co-founded XR-India and now advocate for climate justice.
Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chittranjan-dubey-2a98606/?originalSubdomain=de
Anandajit Goswami is an Indian professor, musician, author and social activist and founder of TOHRI Foundation. I have authored nine award-winning books and 36 internationally peer-reviewed academic papers and serve on the editorial boards of professional journals.
Website: https://www.facebook.com/anandajit.goswami/

28. Ecocide as genocidal technique: colonial codes of environmental destruction in Northern Kurdistan.
Necmettin Türk is a human rights and environmental scholar and activist. He has been involved in the Human Rights Association (Insan Haklari Dernegi (IHD)) and "Mezopotamya Ekoloji Hareketi" (Mesopotamia Ecology Movement) both in Turkey and Europe as an activist who has fought against human rights violations, dams, mining, deforestation and pollution in Kurdistan. In 2021, he completed a master's degree in human rights at FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg. In his master's thesis, he studied the legal aspect and political economy of land grabbing and its impact on farmers' right to food, land, development and environment in rural areas, with a special focus on farmers' socioeconomic/environmental vulnerabilities. He is currently pursuing his PhD at the University of Hamburg. His dissertation project addresses the question of how and to what extent the democratic autonomy of Rojava as a third order responds to the climate crisis/drought in terms of developing alternative farming systems and socio-ecological transformation in a geography of conflict and resistance. In particular, it aims to uncover structural and historical facets of this ecological and social crisis through the lens of political ecology in light of colonial and ecocidal policies of external actors.
Website: https://www.humanrights-master.fau.de/speakers/necmettin-turk/

29.The Thawing Ice as Place of Longing or Monster's Lair? Literary glacial melting in the context of
of crime and punishment in realist and fantastic literature.
Sören Barkey spent the first years of his life next to the Inden open-cast lignite mine. During his studies of German and Public Law at the University of Potsdam and in various internships, he dealt intensively with the climate crisis. He is currently working on a literary dissertation on ecocide in the Anthropocene.
Website: https://www.uni-potsdam.de/de/nachrichten/detail/2022-11-29-oekozid-am-eis-wie-literatur-das-artensterben-des-klimawandels-verarbeitet

Tino Pfaff

What are the sustainable development goals of this project?

Primary sustainable development goal

Climate action

Why does this project contribute to this goal?

Der Sammelband fungiert als Bildungsgegenstand, der die Lesenden dabei ermutigen und inspirieren soll, selbst im Klima- und Umweltschutz tätig zu werden.