Por Robert Hunziker
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| Image by NASA. |
According to the National Geographic Society: “The human footprint is one of the most destructive forces in Earth’s history, fundamentally altering the planet at an unprecedented scale. Humanity consumes resources far faster than they can regenerate, driving rapid environmental degradation, mass biodiversity loss, and climate shifts that many scientists classify as a new geological epoch.”
Yet, the planet is smiling, a big fat smile. It’s happy for the first time since, who knows when? Humans are taking measures to protect her precious ecosystems. The world community is waking up to the full extent of anthropogenic abuse by making it a crime to despoil our home planet.
Finland’s Social Democratic Party (SDP), at its 2026 SDP Party Congress, supported the criminalization of ecocide. SDP has become Finland’s largest party. It supports a strong national, regional and international framework to criminalize mass environmental destruction, known as ecocide.
Their resolution highlights the damage of large-scale destruction of nature with consequences impacting human health, livelihoods, natural resources and food production.
The Human Footprint Consumes 1.75 Earths
In fact, as far as the planet is concerned, help cannot come soon enough. After all, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Standards and Technology (“NIST”) which is highly regarded on a global scale as a premier, pro-science research institution and the country’s lead national laboratory for measurements, calibrations, and public safety standards: “We humans need 1.75 Earths to support our current rate of consumption! That is unsustainable, and we have to make changes… If we’re going to secure a sustainable future on the only planet we have to live on, we must transition to a circular economy.” (We Need a Second Earth to Support Our Current Consumption. We Can Do Better if We Think ‘Circular’, NIST, April 19, 2023)
The “1.75 earths” consumed by the human footprint leaves little room for error, in fact, no room. Thus, a universal ecocide law becomes much more relevant and necessary to help prevent excessive overdevelopment and/or nonsensical abuse, e.g., fossil fuel CO2 emissions are turning the planet into a roasting oven, red-faced and bloated. This is excessive and nonsensical and not necessary. Yet, CO2 has been regularly setting new record highs year-after-year in concert with record heat around the globe.
In that regard, on January 14th, 2026, the UN weather agency warned: “The 11-year streak of record global warming continues.”
In support of the UN Weather agency statement, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported on the source of increasing global warming: “Total energy-related CO2 emissions increased by around 145 million tonnes (Mt) in 2025, reaching a new high of nearly 38.4 billion tonnes (Gt) and 5% above 2019 levels. The increase coincided with record atmospheric CO2 concentrations of about 427 parts-per-million (ppm), roughly 2.4 ppm higher than in 2024 and around 50% above pre-industrial levels.”
But honestly, a very pertinent question must be asked, and answered: Why burn fossil fuels that pollute the atmosphere and heat up the planet if there is a better way? After all, there’s a simple solution; The insanity of burning fossil fuels has an escape hatch: According to the world’s pinnacle of “Stakeholder Capitalism,” i.e., the World Economic Forum: “Most of the world’s countries could run on 100% renewable energy.” Eureka!
Support for Ecocide Law – Rapidly Growing Movement
“Finland’s SDP joins a host of other political parties, legislators and governments worldwide committed to advancing ecocide laws. New domestic legislative proposals are appearing around the world, major regional progress is advancing, and a number of forward-thinking states are backing the proposal to make ecocide an international crime.” (Stop Ecocide International)
Significantly, according to the Thomson Reuters Foundation, at least 27 countries are considering an ecocide law on the books as a serious crime.
Mauritius Criminalizes Ecocide
Mauritius, as of April 18, 2026, officially supports a domestic crime of ecocide. The provision, which is set out in an anti-money laundering and financial crimes law, defines ecocide as an unlawful or wanton act committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term environmental damage, this language closely reflects the definition proposed by the Independent Expert Panel convened by the Stop Ecocide Foundation in 2021.
Interview (Snippets) with Stop Ecocide International CEO Jojo Mehta
“Ecocide refers to the most severe, widespread, and long-term harm to nature. While environmental laws and regulations exist worldwide, they are largely fragmented, piecemeal, and insufficient. Our organization works to advance legislation to criminalize ecocide, meaning that the most serious damage to the living world would be treated as a crime. Introducing ecocide into criminal law would not only provide foundational support to the diverse body of law but also help fill gaps and establish a much stronger deterrent against major environmental harms.” (Criminalizing Ecocide: A Conversation with Stop Ecocide International’s CEO Jojo Mehta, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Georgetown University, December 4, 2025)
Jojo Mehta is a graduate of Oxford and London universities, Mehta has contributed to UN conferences, diplomatic forums, and international media, including TIME, The Guardian, and The New York Times.
“A key factor in the rapid acceptance of ecocide law is the definition itself, which resulted from a drafting program commissioned in 2021. The definition focuses on the level of harm, not on specific activities or sectors. Similar to how criminal law works, a murderer is defined by the outcome, not the method. The ecocide definition emphasizes the harm caused rather than forbidding particular activities. It does not prohibit industrial fishing or mineral mining; rather, it outlines a threshold of harm that should not be crossed. This approach encourages best practices without alienating any sector, which has been hugely helpful in facilitating constructive dialogue. So, while there are countries that are not ready to support ecocide, we have not encountered many that openly oppose it,” Ibid.
Financial Industry Support
“What has been particularly interesting is the response from the investment world. For several consecutive years, the International Corporate Governance Network submitted statements to the UN Climate Conferences advising governments to legislate for ecocide. They recognize that environmental degradation is a risk factor. In an increasingly volatile world, investors need to know that their capital will still hold value ten years from now. A company engaged in severe environmental harm represents future liability,” Ibid.
Countries that support ecocide laws or have laws covering serious environmental crimes include: Vietnam, France, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Belarus, Moldova, Chile, EU, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyz Republic, Georgia, Ukraine, Armenia, Belgium, Russia, whose law reads: “Massive destruction of the animal or plant kingdoms, contamination of the atmosphere or water resources, and also commission of other actions capable of causing an ecological catastrophe, shall be punishable by deprivation of liberty for a term of 12 to 20 years.” (Existing and Proposed Ecocide Laws, Ecocide Law)
However, it’s one thing to grandstand a law on books; it’s quite another to enforce it. For example, according to sources, Russia has never convicted anyone under Article 358 (Ecocide) of the Russian Criminal Code. And many other countries with similar laws are suspect as well.
All of which gets back to the enormous human footprint, as it devours the land, enforcement to help protect abuse is lacking as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court as adopted in 1998, makes no provision for the crime of ecocide in peacetime, only in wartime. Obviously, the ICC needs an update if ecocide is to be truly enforced.
The Big Overshoot
“The Earth cannot sustain the future human population, or even today’s, without a major overhaul of socio-cultural practices for using land, water, energy, biodiversity, and other resources.” (Corey J.A .Bradshaw, Global Human Population Has Surpassed Earth’s Carrying Capacity, Environmental Letters, March 27, 2026)
The study claims 2.5 bln as the “optimal sustainable population.”
Bulging Population Nécessitâtes Écocide Law
“By destroying the ecosystems on which we depend, we are destroying the foundations of our civilization and mortgaging the living conditions of all future generations,’ said Valérie Cabanes, a French lawyer and one of the panelists who worked on the 2021 ecocide proposal. ‘This is no less serious than crimes against humanity, or the crimes of genocide or aggression.” (World Economic Forum)
Ecocide is a declaration of war against the planet that surpasses all world wars combined. Enforcement has never been more important.
“Decisions made in the next few years will determine whether our existence on Earth as we know it will continue or collapse as a result of human activity.” (World Economic Forum’s Expert Network in partnership with UN Environment Programme)
“The next few years” are right around the corner.
Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.
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