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S.R. No. 32, as introduced: 94th Legislative Session (2025-2026) Posted on April 22, 2025
1.1A Senate resolution
1.2designating April as Ecocide Awareness and Prevention Month in the State of 1.3Minnesota. 1.4WHEREAS, the United States sprayed 20,000,000 gallons of the chemical Agent Orange 1.5in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos during the Vietnam War; and 1.6WHEREAS, Agent Orange defoliated the jungles and caused cancers, neurological diseases, 1.7and birth defects in at least 3,000,000 people; and 1.8WHEREAS, Dr. Arthur Galston, a biologist at Yale University, labeled this destruction 1.9"ecocide," a word combining the Greek "oikos," meaning "home," and the Latin "cidere," meaning 1.10"to kill," creating the new word ecocide, meaning "to kill our home"; and 1.11WHEREAS, ecocide is defined as "unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that 1.12there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the 1.13environment being caused by those acts"; and 1.14WHEREAS, examples of ecocide today include the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 off 1.15the coast of Louisiana; deforestation of the Amazon rainforest; the Alberta Tar Sands project, known 1.16as the most damaging project on the planet; destruction of worldwide coral reefs; fracking; 1.17exploitation of the Niger Delta; and the bombing of the Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine; and 1.18WHEREAS, there is increasing legal recognition at the global level of ecocide as a human 1.19rights crime of the same magnitude and gravity as the crime of genocide; and 1.20WHEREAS, the European Parliament, the International Court of Justice, and the International 1.21Criminal Court have all criminalized ecocide with laws to hold major perpetrators financially 1.22responsible for the human and natural damages; and 1.23WHEREAS, 700,000,000 people worldwide and 13,000,000 people in the United States 1.24will be displaced by environmental disasters by the year 2050; and 2.1WHEREAS, in 2024, 11,500 people were killed by climate disasters and 148,000,000 people 2.2were affected by climate crises, numbers which are expected to rise annually; and 2.3WHEREAS, the United Nations affirms that the climate crisis is not "gender-neutral." It 2.4disproportionately affects women, girls, and gender-expansive people, especially Indigenous and 2.5rural people, with displacement and death; and 2.6WHEREAS, it is scientifically documented that the climate crisis is caused by the warming 2.7and rising of the seas, which constitute 71 percent of the surface of the planet, and that this warming 2.8and rising leads to increasingly fierce storms, droughts, and floods; and 2.9WHEREAS, the United States Department of Defense has created Climate Adaptation Plans 2.10and stated that climate change is a threat multiplier with grave implications for United States defense 2.11and global security because of increasing competition to access food, water, shelter, and other 2.12life-sustaining resources; and 2.13WHEREAS, at state legislatures in the United States, there is increasing legal recognition 2.14of ecocide as a crime, including passage of laws in Vermont and New York and pending legislation 2.15in several other states; and 2.16WHEREAS, from 1980 to 2024, there were 61 confirmed environmental disasters in 2.17Minnesota that cost the state at least $1,000,000,000 each and occurred at an average of 1.3 events 2.18a year; and 2.19WHEREAS, from 2019 to 2023, the most recent data on record, the rate of disasters in 2.20Minnesota that cost at least $1,000,000,000 each increased to four events a year; and 2.21WHEREAS, the cost of mitigation, reconstruction, repair, and prevention of climate crises 2.22is currently borne by taxpayers; and 2.23WHEREAS, the responsibility to mitigate, reconstruct, repair, and prevent environmental 2.24damage in Minnesota must be borne by and paid by the entities most culpable; and 2.25WHEREAS, laws to end impunity for perpetrators of ecocide will deter future malfeasance 2.26and encourage positive actions; and 2.27WHEREAS, ending impunity for ecocide in Minnesota will reduce harms that 2.28disproportionately affect Indigenous, rural, and minority populations; and 2.29NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the State of Minnesota that it 2.30proclaims the month of April Ecocide Awareness and Prevention Month, and encourages programs 2.31and public engagement to prevent environmental degradation, which is a threat multiplier of violence 2.32and harm. |
