Ecocide: How a fast-growing movement plans to put environmental destruction on a par with war crimes

A campaign to criminalize acts of widespread environmental destruction is quickly gathering pace.

Ecocide, which literally translates from Greek and Latin as “killing our home,” is an umbrella term for all forms of the mass damage of ecosystems, from industrial pollution to the release of micro plastics into the oceans.

The term has been debated by academics, climate activists and legal professionals for more than half a century. However, it’s only in recent years that the idea has become increasingly widespread, with Pope Francis, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and French President Emmanuel Macron all...