How to Kill an Ecosystem in 10 Steps or Less Andrés Ingi Jónsson skrifar 16. maí 2022 12:00 The delusion of perpetual growth and climate catastrophe The impending climate catastrophe – the effects of which can already be directly felt in various environments across the globe – strikes some people as wildly urgent and others as a problem for some undefined later time. Part of this wide difference in people’s sense of urgency is explained by how close they are to the problem. Greta Thunberg’s generation understands the severity of the issue very well, since they’re poised to inherit the future. Similarly, people in the global south can already feel the dramatic effects of climate change in their day-to-day lives as the ecological balance upon which their livelihoods depend deteriorates at an ever-accelerating rate. The people in control, however – the politicians holding power in richer states as well as people at the helm of international corporate behemoths – they cling desperately to delusions of power. They’re collectively convinced that the situation imposed by the generation before them, the state of affairs which they perpetuate, can continue unimpeded. They’re convinced that they can use their political and economic power to brush the issue aside. Their actions speak louder than their words – we see just how delusional they are in their half-hearted incremental reforms and their desperate search for a technological miracle. Such a fissure between the ruling and the ruled is nothing new – it’s a mainstay of every political struggle throughout history. But it’s different this time. If the ruling classes keep putting things off, the Earth will become uninhabitable. But they just don’t understand. They’re too wrapped up in their power fantasy to realize that actual change, the real change we need, is only possible through a radical inversion of values. The green transition must revolutionise how we, as a species and as a community, treat the Earth and its resources – we must change our fundamental attitude towards our home. According to the old and outdated attitude, the human race is the Earth’s steward, and the Earth itself is a storehouse of infinite surplus value just waiting to be ravaged and cleaned out. We pillage, burn and pollute as if we own the place, as if we don’t have to consider any possible future for the ecosystems we throw off-balance. This is precisely what has to change: we must reconsider our relation to the planet and its delicate ecological systems from the ground up. Redefining destruction for the 21st century The past century is rife with examples of grand ecological destruction in the name of economic progress. The Amazon rainforest, to name but an example, has undergone constant and steadfast destruction – for mining, oil exploration, agriculture – to fuel unsustainable consumption habits of people living far away from the destruction. Records for deforestation are still being broken to this day: more than 1000 square kilometers of forest were destroyed in April 2022 alone. Not only is nature defiled, but human rights are violated as well when the environments people rely upon are decimated. The severity and scope of the destruction we carry out every day is vast enough to boggle the mind – which might be why we seem to have a hard time grasping its extent. It’s no wonder that we seem to have a hard time discussing how we can become accountable for our actions as a species when we can’t even contextualize the impact and severity of our destruction. Take crimes like individual homicide or collective massacres, for example. Here, we’re dealing with crimes committed against living, breathing beings: in each case, there’s a culprit and there’s a victim. This logic works well enough for its intended subject, but it can work against us if we try to apply it to more complex cases. When we’re accustomed to thinking in these terms, we tend to follow a logic of “no body, no crime.” This can make addressing legal and moral culpability difficult when faced with something like a global climate catastrophe caused by human action. Whole ecosystems are being thrown off-kilter, ravaged by over-production, mutilated by pollution and other blatant abuses… but even so, many might ask themselves: “Where’s the victim here?” – which is obviously troublesome. Ecosystems are less tangible entities than organisms from one perspective, but infinitely more real and far-reaching on another. Obviously, the survival of countless species hinges on ecological equilibrium. Enter ecocide – a conceptual tool in the fight for life on Earth The concept of ecocide is designed to meet our need for a new vocabulary. Its roots stretch back half a century, having been coined by Olof Palme at the UN Conference on the Environment in Stockholm in 1972, but the concept has been gaining traction over the past years through the Stop Ecocide campaign. In its simplest form, ecocide can be seen as man-made natural disaster. But the campaign wants more than just recognition of ecocide as a concept, it sees it as a tool to hold to account those most responsible for disastrous decisions. By making the people in charge accountable for the destruction of the environment, we can make them feel the same urgency we do. That’s why the Stop Ecocide campaign wants ecocide be treated as an international crime by the International Criminal Court. That is, ecocide should be considered just as severe as crimes against humanity, for example. That might seem like a tall order – and it is. But that shouldn’t discourage us from fighting for it. In fact, the fight is already underway. Last year, a group of experts convened by the campaign settled on a legal definition of the term: “unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts”. Parliamentarians from all over the planet – myself included – have formed a coalition to fight for the recognition of ecocide as a crime under the International Criminal Court, alongside war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity and crimes against peace. The fight to have ecocide recognized as a crime has found its way into Alþingi, the Icelandic Parliament, as well. Earlier this year, I proposed a parliamentary resolution to that end: that the Icelandic government propose adding ecocide to the Rome Statute, which would make it fall under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, and to bring a bill to Alþingi to ban ecocide under Icelandic law. This way, Iceland could use its voice on the international stage to enact positive change for the whole world. The resolution already enjoys broad political support, with twelve members from four different parties co-signing the proposal – and hopefully it will receive even broader multipartisan support when it comes to a vote, since this is an issue none of us can afford to turn a blind eye to any longer. Iceland – environmental paradise? People all over the world seem to have an overly romanticized view of Iceland – but is it deserved? Well, not really. For a long time, the main goal of Icelandic governments was to be exempted from international climate treaties aiming to reduce carbon emissions, like the Kyoto Protocol, for example. The government has raised dams and submerged invaluable swaths of land in order to power aluminium refineries. Our greenhouse gas emissions increased by 23% from 1990 to 2020 – and in the industrial sector, our emissions doubled! We have all this green, sustainably sourced energy – and we foolishly squander our opportunities. Iceland could easily place itself at the forefront in the battle against climate change, showing the world how to respect not only nature but human rights as well. Instead, our carbon footprint is obscenely large and we pollute way too much. Hopefully, Parliament will support the resolution to recognize ecocide both internationally and locally. It’s not enough to offset our blatant disregard for the ecosystem so far, but it’d be a step in the right direction. Not only do we need to act concretely in order to correct our course, but we also need to reinvent our values as a global society if we’re to survive the coming storm. If you want to learn more about ecocide and the political fight for recognition, visit www.ecocidealliance.org or www.stopecocide.earth. Andrés Ingi Jónsson is a member of parliament for the Icelandic Pirate Party Viltu birta grein á Vísi? Sendu okkur póst. Senda grein Andrés Ingi Jónsson Umhverfismál Píratar Mest lesið Halldór 29.03.2025 Halldór Hugtakastríðið mikla Sigmar Guðmundsson Skoðun Forsjárhyggja Sjálfstæðis- og Framsóknarfólks í Hafnarfirði í garð fólks með fötlun Stefán Már Gunnlaugsson Skoðun Falsfréttastjóri RÚV dýpkar holuna sína Einar Steingrímsson Skoðun Ekki er allt sem sýnist Ólafur Helgi Marteinsson Skoðun Ákall um breytingar Gissur Freyr Gissurarson Skoðun Skóli án aðgreiningar: Hentar ýktasta mynd skólastefnunnar öllum börnum? Jóna Sigríður Valbergsdóttir Skoðun Hrynur sjávarútvegur? Stefán Ólafsson Skoðun Laun kvenna og karla Sigríður Ingibjörg Ingadóttir,Steinunn Bragadóttir Skoðun Vanfjármögnun vísindanna Magnús Hallsson,Styrmir Hallsson Skoðun Skoðun Skoðun Kristni og íslam: Samfélag sem hvílir á skilningi Skúli S. Ólafsson skrifar Skoðun Hugtakastríðið mikla Sigmar Guðmundsson skrifar Skoðun Forsjárhyggja Sjálfstæðis- og Framsóknarfólks í Hafnarfirði í garð fólks með fötlun Stefán Már Gunnlaugsson skrifar Skoðun Ekki er allt sem sýnist Ólafur Helgi Marteinsson skrifar Skoðun Skóli án aðgreiningar: Hentar ýktasta mynd skólastefnunnar öllum börnum? Jóna Sigríður Valbergsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Vilji til að rjúfa kyrrstöðu í húsnæðiskreppunni Finnbjörn A. Hermannsson skrifar Skoðun Grænt ál frá Íslandi er mikilvægt fyrir sjálfstæða Evrópu Guðríður Eldey Arnardóttir skrifar Skoðun Þegar barn óttast önnur börn Kolbrún Áslaugar Baldursdóttir skrifar Skoðun Falsfréttastjóri RÚV dýpkar holuna sína Einar Steingrímsson skrifar Skoðun Ákall um breytingar Gissur Freyr Gissurarson skrifar Skoðun Veit sem sagt Grímur betur? Hjörtur J. Guðmundsson skrifar Skoðun Hvernig talar maður við tölvur og hafa vélar rökhugsun? Henning Arnór Úlfarsson skrifar Skoðun Laun kvenna og karla Sigríður Ingibjörg Ingadóttir,Steinunn Bragadóttir skrifar Skoðun Verkin sem ríkisstjórnin verður dæmd af Diljá Mist Einarsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Open Letter to new HÍ Rector re Disability Support Hópur starfsfólks og nemenda við HÍ skrifar Skoðun Vanfjármögnun vísindanna Magnús Hallsson,Styrmir Hallsson skrifar Skoðun Kárhóll og Kína: Þegar vísindi verða pólitísk tól Davíð Michelsen skrifar Skoðun Mál Ásthildar Lóu Þórsdóttur – Hvernig manneskjur viljum við vera? Hulda Steingrímsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Ríkisstjórn gegn fjölskyldusameiningum? Þorbjörg Þorvaldsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Lýðræðið deyr í myrkrinu Heiðar Örn Sigurfinnsson skrifar Skoðun Færni til framtíðar Álfheiður Ingólfsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Ofbeldi Bjarni Karlsson skrifar Skoðun Lestu Gaza Móheiður Hlíf Geirlaugsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Ný fjármálaáætlun - tækifæri til að efna loforðin um bætt geðheilbrigði Sandra B. Franks skrifar Skoðun 10 ár og bull í lokin Jón Pétur Zimsen skrifar Skoðun Opið bréf til atvinnuvegaráðherra: 48 daga, nei takk Gísli Gunnar Marteinsson skrifar Skoðun Á nú að opinbera það að ég veit í rauninni ekki neitt? Kristín Hrefna Halldórsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Háskóli Höfuðborgarinnar, ekki Íslands Arent Orri Claessen,Gunnar Ásgrímsson skrifar Skoðun Hrynur sjávarútvegur? Stefán Ólafsson skrifar Skoðun Iftar, agape og Eid: Kristnir og múslimar við sama borð Hilal Kücükakin Kizilkaya,Sigurvin Lárus Jónsson skrifar Sjá meira
The delusion of perpetual growth and climate catastrophe The impending climate catastrophe – the effects of which can already be directly felt in various environments across the globe – strikes some people as wildly urgent and others as a problem for some undefined later time. Part of this wide difference in people’s sense of urgency is explained by how close they are to the problem. Greta Thunberg’s generation understands the severity of the issue very well, since they’re poised to inherit the future. Similarly, people in the global south can already feel the dramatic effects of climate change in their day-to-day lives as the ecological balance upon which their livelihoods depend deteriorates at an ever-accelerating rate. The people in control, however – the politicians holding power in richer states as well as people at the helm of international corporate behemoths – they cling desperately to delusions of power. They’re collectively convinced that the situation imposed by the generation before them, the state of affairs which they perpetuate, can continue unimpeded. They’re convinced that they can use their political and economic power to brush the issue aside. Their actions speak louder than their words – we see just how delusional they are in their half-hearted incremental reforms and their desperate search for a technological miracle. Such a fissure between the ruling and the ruled is nothing new – it’s a mainstay of every political struggle throughout history. But it’s different this time. If the ruling classes keep putting things off, the Earth will become uninhabitable. But they just don’t understand. They’re too wrapped up in their power fantasy to realize that actual change, the real change we need, is only possible through a radical inversion of values. The green transition must revolutionise how we, as a species and as a community, treat the Earth and its resources – we must change our fundamental attitude towards our home. According to the old and outdated attitude, the human race is the Earth’s steward, and the Earth itself is a storehouse of infinite surplus value just waiting to be ravaged and cleaned out. We pillage, burn and pollute as if we own the place, as if we don’t have to consider any possible future for the ecosystems we throw off-balance. This is precisely what has to change: we must reconsider our relation to the planet and its delicate ecological systems from the ground up. Redefining destruction for the 21st century The past century is rife with examples of grand ecological destruction in the name of economic progress. The Amazon rainforest, to name but an example, has undergone constant and steadfast destruction – for mining, oil exploration, agriculture – to fuel unsustainable consumption habits of people living far away from the destruction. Records for deforestation are still being broken to this day: more than 1000 square kilometers of forest were destroyed in April 2022 alone. Not only is nature defiled, but human rights are violated as well when the environments people rely upon are decimated. The severity and scope of the destruction we carry out every day is vast enough to boggle the mind – which might be why we seem to have a hard time grasping its extent. It’s no wonder that we seem to have a hard time discussing how we can become accountable for our actions as a species when we can’t even contextualize the impact and severity of our destruction. Take crimes like individual homicide or collective massacres, for example. Here, we’re dealing with crimes committed against living, breathing beings: in each case, there’s a culprit and there’s a victim. This logic works well enough for its intended subject, but it can work against us if we try to apply it to more complex cases. When we’re accustomed to thinking in these terms, we tend to follow a logic of “no body, no crime.” This can make addressing legal and moral culpability difficult when faced with something like a global climate catastrophe caused by human action. Whole ecosystems are being thrown off-kilter, ravaged by over-production, mutilated by pollution and other blatant abuses… but even so, many might ask themselves: “Where’s the victim here?” – which is obviously troublesome. Ecosystems are less tangible entities than organisms from one perspective, but infinitely more real and far-reaching on another. Obviously, the survival of countless species hinges on ecological equilibrium. Enter ecocide – a conceptual tool in the fight for life on Earth The concept of ecocide is designed to meet our need for a new vocabulary. Its roots stretch back half a century, having been coined by Olof Palme at the UN Conference on the Environment in Stockholm in 1972, but the concept has been gaining traction over the past years through the Stop Ecocide campaign. In its simplest form, ecocide can be seen as man-made natural disaster. But the campaign wants more than just recognition of ecocide as a concept, it sees it as a tool to hold to account those most responsible for disastrous decisions. By making the people in charge accountable for the destruction of the environment, we can make them feel the same urgency we do. That’s why the Stop Ecocide campaign wants ecocide be treated as an international crime by the International Criminal Court. That is, ecocide should be considered just as severe as crimes against humanity, for example. That might seem like a tall order – and it is. But that shouldn’t discourage us from fighting for it. In fact, the fight is already underway. Last year, a group of experts convened by the campaign settled on a legal definition of the term: “unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts”. Parliamentarians from all over the planet – myself included – have formed a coalition to fight for the recognition of ecocide as a crime under the International Criminal Court, alongside war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity and crimes against peace. The fight to have ecocide recognized as a crime has found its way into Alþingi, the Icelandic Parliament, as well. Earlier this year, I proposed a parliamentary resolution to that end: that the Icelandic government propose adding ecocide to the Rome Statute, which would make it fall under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, and to bring a bill to Alþingi to ban ecocide under Icelandic law. This way, Iceland could use its voice on the international stage to enact positive change for the whole world. The resolution already enjoys broad political support, with twelve members from four different parties co-signing the proposal – and hopefully it will receive even broader multipartisan support when it comes to a vote, since this is an issue none of us can afford to turn a blind eye to any longer. Iceland – environmental paradise? People all over the world seem to have an overly romanticized view of Iceland – but is it deserved? Well, not really. For a long time, the main goal of Icelandic governments was to be exempted from international climate treaties aiming to reduce carbon emissions, like the Kyoto Protocol, for example. The government has raised dams and submerged invaluable swaths of land in order to power aluminium refineries. Our greenhouse gas emissions increased by 23% from 1990 to 2020 – and in the industrial sector, our emissions doubled! We have all this green, sustainably sourced energy – and we foolishly squander our opportunities. Iceland could easily place itself at the forefront in the battle against climate change, showing the world how to respect not only nature but human rights as well. Instead, our carbon footprint is obscenely large and we pollute way too much. Hopefully, Parliament will support the resolution to recognize ecocide both internationally and locally. It’s not enough to offset our blatant disregard for the ecosystem so far, but it’d be a step in the right direction. Not only do we need to act concretely in order to correct our course, but we also need to reinvent our values as a global society if we’re to survive the coming storm. If you want to learn more about ecocide and the political fight for recognition, visit www.ecocidealliance.org or www.stopecocide.earth. Andrés Ingi Jónsson is a member of parliament for the Icelandic Pirate Party
Forsjárhyggja Sjálfstæðis- og Framsóknarfólks í Hafnarfirði í garð fólks með fötlun Stefán Már Gunnlaugsson Skoðun
Skóli án aðgreiningar: Hentar ýktasta mynd skólastefnunnar öllum börnum? Jóna Sigríður Valbergsdóttir Skoðun
Skoðun Forsjárhyggja Sjálfstæðis- og Framsóknarfólks í Hafnarfirði í garð fólks með fötlun Stefán Már Gunnlaugsson skrifar
Skoðun Skóli án aðgreiningar: Hentar ýktasta mynd skólastefnunnar öllum börnum? Jóna Sigríður Valbergsdóttir skrifar
Skoðun Grænt ál frá Íslandi er mikilvægt fyrir sjálfstæða Evrópu Guðríður Eldey Arnardóttir skrifar
Skoðun Open Letter to new HÍ Rector re Disability Support Hópur starfsfólks og nemenda við HÍ skrifar
Skoðun Mál Ásthildar Lóu Þórsdóttur – Hvernig manneskjur viljum við vera? Hulda Steingrímsdóttir skrifar
Skoðun Ný fjármálaáætlun - tækifæri til að efna loforðin um bætt geðheilbrigði Sandra B. Franks skrifar
Skoðun Iftar, agape og Eid: Kristnir og múslimar við sama borð Hilal Kücükakin Kizilkaya,Sigurvin Lárus Jónsson skrifar
Forsjárhyggja Sjálfstæðis- og Framsóknarfólks í Hafnarfirði í garð fólks með fötlun Stefán Már Gunnlaugsson Skoðun
Skóli án aðgreiningar: Hentar ýktasta mynd skólastefnunnar öllum börnum? Jóna Sigríður Valbergsdóttir Skoðun