THE WORLD WITHOUT ECOCIDE: A UTOPIA OF OUR TIME?

Arne Næss Symposium 10-11 October 2013

Venues:

10 October: University Festive Hall

11 October: The House f Literature

Organizers:

-Center for Development and the Environment, Oslo University

-BI, The Norwegian Business School

Short Synopsis

The Arne Næss Symposium is designed as an annual event addressing a comprehensive paradigm shift required by the multiple crises of our time. In particular, we are interested in the main actors of the green transition – researchers, businessmen, policy makers, NGOs, lawyers and artists – to come into a dialogue and brainstorm concrete scenarios of innovation for a more sustainable world and mitigation of climate crisis. Our ultimate ambition is to create an international “Davos” , i.e. World Forum on the green transition involving a mutual cross-fertilization of diverse communities.

The format of the Symposium includes Arne Næss Lecture on the evening of 10 October,  key address and brief presentations on the morning of 11 October, and the World Café in the afternoon.

In March 2010 Poly Higgins – international barrister, award winning author, and 2013 Arne Næss Chair at SUM, Oslo University – proposed to the United Nations that Ecocide be the 5th Crime Against Peace. Ecocide is the extensive damage to, destruction of or loss of ecosystem(s) of a given territory, whether by human agency or by other causes, to such an extent that anthropogenic climate crises is exacerbated, human health is threated and the ecosystem suffers. The mission is to ensure the law of Ecocide is fully implemented by 2020. The law of Ecocide has the power to deliver the United Nations Environmental Program’s vision for a green economy.

The objective of the 2013 event is to convey maximum information to the public at large on the most dramatic manifestations of ecocide on earth, present various challenges to the process of implementation of the Act of Ecocide, and come up with alternative solutions to a more sustainable future. We shall hear the voices of researchers and champions of ecocide legislation, victims of environmental destruction, as well as the proponents of socially responsible industry.