Imagine it’s 2020, what do you see? Poverty or abundance, environmental destruction or nature flourishing? War or Peace?
Polly Higgins, voted one of the World’s Top 10 Visionary Thinkers by the Ecologist and named the Overall Champion of the 2012 People and Environment Awards, has a very bright outlook for the future. For Polly, 2020 is a future where governments and business put people and planet first; where nature is flourishing, and where the future of our children’s children is assured. To get there, Polly has one big wish which could literally change the world; to end all Ecocide, the extensive destruction of ecosystems, by 2020.
If you think this a dream, think again. Yes it’s ambitious, but this world is a real possibility. Polly’s wish is spreading like wild fire as people all over the world are signing up to ‘WISH20’; a Global Citizens’ Initiative to end all Ecocide by 2020. Polly explains “WISH20 is about uniting millions of people across the word in their wish to end Ecocide. When we do this, we mandate our leaders to make that one very big wish come true.”
Polly, ‘the Earth’s lawyer’ has an ambitious and promising solution to end Ecocide. In 2010 she proposed to the United Nations that Ecocide be made the fifth Crime Against Peace, to stand alongside Genocide. Just 1 Head of State is required to call for an amendment to the Rome Statute (the documents which sets out the existing 4 Crimes Against Peace) and then a further 80 to agree for Ecocide to be made an international law.
Polly has spoken with ambassadors at the UN headquarters in New York, the International Criminal Court and with many Governments around the world about how a Law of Ecocide will close the door to extensive environmental damage and destruction. However, on her journey it has become increasingly clear that despite support from certain world leaders for making Ecocide a crime, they will only speak out once they have clear support from their citizens.
This is where WISH20 comes in. WISH20 needs the support of the global community to become a reality; you can show your support at http://is.gd/wish20.
- The hashtag is #WISH20
- ·A number of high resolution WISH20 images can be downloaded and used at:http://eradicatingecocide.com/wish20/
Author: Tafline Laylin
As a tour leader who led “eco-friendly” camping trips throughout North America, Tafline soon realized that she was instead leaving behind a trail of gas fumes, plastic bottles and Pringles. In fact, wherever she traveled – whether it was Viet Nam or South Africa or England – it became clear how inefficiently the mandate to re-think our consumer culture is reaching the general public. Born in Iran, raised in South Africa and the United States, she currently splits her time between Africa and the Middle East. Tafline can be reached at tafline (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
I agree in Polly’s wish, but I think 2020 is too close for that goal. I also think that the world like Polly describes is possible.