The trial was a means to demonstrate the proposed crime of "ecocide." It would be akin to a crime against humanity, the destruction of an environment. In the dock this week were characters representing energy company officials involved in the Athabasca Tar Sands and the Gulf Oil spill. When the evidence and arguments were all in, only the Tar Sands bosses were convicted.
"The chief executives may have been actors, the corporations fictional and the trial a mock-up, but the circumstances surrounding the so-called "crimes" – the destruction of ecosystems during both the Gulf oil spill and the mining of crude oil in Alberta – are real. So is the call for a new law protecting the natural world, placing ecocide among the most heinous crimes known.
Both bosses, of Global Petroleum Company (GPC) and Glamis Group, were convicted on charges of ecocide relating to oil extraction in Canada, while one was acquitted of charges relating to the Gulf spill.
"Companies cannot be given a licence to spill and kill as long as they clean up the mess," said Michael Mansfield QC, appearing for the prosecution yesterday.
...Controversially, though, the proposed law would place criminal responsibility on the respective CEOs Messrs Bannerman and Tench personally, rather than on the firms.
...Proposals to declare attacks on the natural environment an international crime against peace began in earnest in 2008 when launched at the United Nations by British lawyer Polly Higgins. She is seeking to pressure governments to vote for her proposals if they are accepted by the UN Law commission."
This sounds far-fetched, right now. Yet as the environment continues to degrade and as the impacts of global warming-driven climate change mount, it's quite foreseeable that enviro-villains may be held to account.
