Our Green Peer Natalie Bennett tells The Independent that serious harm against nature must be treated as a crime both in the UK and internationally.
Natalie has posed two amendments to the Environment Bill. One will make ecocide, harming nature, a criminal offense. The other calls on the UK to support the recognition of ecocide by the International Criminal Court. She told The Independent:
“The ocean on fire we saw in Mexico is a reminder of the scale of the dangers we face [from harming the environment],”
“What we are talking about with ‘ecocide’ is acts of harm on an enormous scale. In a UK context, this could be a major oil spill in the North Sea, similar to the Deepwater Horizon spill in America.
“If these kinds of acts happen in the UK, the impact not only on the natural world but also on people would be absolutely enormous.”
The BP Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010 killed 11 workers and thousands of marine mammals and sea turtles.”
