Climate Crime: Who are the real criminals?
http://www.piel.org.uk/ Public Interest Environmental Law UK 1st of April in London.
Engaging Professionals, Academics and the General Public in Environmental Law
lll be there ......
The subject of the conference will be "Revisiting the Tragedy. Common Goods in the Twenty-First Century". The aim is to look at legal issues affecting the common goods from a national, European and international perspective. These will cover the illegal use of the commons, scarcity and privatisation of the commons. The four main themes being covering will be Forests, Water and Oceans, Air and Biodiversity.
How can grassroots actions engage with the law and support communities in the fight for environmental justice, rich biodiversity and equality - meaning that everyone should have the right to live in a clean and healthy environment? What tactics do we have in our toolkit?
All over the UK, from London to Nottingham to Manchester to Aberdeen, the courts are bulging. Heaving with those able and willing to put their bodies on the line to halt business-as-usual from companies polluting the air, our lungs and the rich ecosystem which surrounds us. The atmosphere has changed and people are beginning to understand the war on the poor being perpetuated on life systems all over the world. People from all walks of life are seeing the necessity in action to stop environmental injustice at its source. To take the example of the Climate9 - supporting statements generated throughout the trial showed the connections between many environmental issues – from fuel poverty to wild law to public health to climate change; Throughout the trial, in the ongoing resources and in the media, areas of justice were intimately connected to build a wide picture of environmental justice in the UK, such as police oppression, housing impacts of climate change, social, ecological and intergenerational justice and fuel poverty to support people to get to the root causes of the interconnected problems we face in 2011.
As society increasingly fails to halt disaster, taking action is no longer an exercise in finger-waggling and moral righteousness that this is simply ‘the right thing to do’ but none less than a matter of life and death. Thus, the logical response is to build a culture of environmental and community self-defence in the face of such immediate threats. Whether people care about clean air, biodiversity, increasing civil conflicts, corporate monopoly, political accountability or humanity surviving with dignity into the next century – all eyes are focused on creating a culture of communities defending themselves through a range of creative actions and community ecological governance where traditional systems of environmental governance are failing.
Listen to BBC 'Costing the Earth' a range of top lawyers, human rights and advocates for environmental justice discuss the importance grassroots actions in highlighting the environmental responsibility of the legal system http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/costearth/costearth_20101013-2130a.mp3
