Anthropology Of Lifestyle Choices And The Making Of Ecocide

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-192-0_5How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Ecocide; Externality; Coltan; environment

Abstract

It is established that a surge in urbanization and population has created an adverse impact on the environment. Technological advancements have resulted in a paradigm shift in our lifestyle, typically, towards fast-paced. Certain technologies have become indispensable especially personal and communication gadgets. This increased dependence has created a demand imbalance resulting in an economic response geared towards mass-scale production underscored by rampant exploitative behavior. This has had a direct adverse impact on the environment. In the current form, most of these mass scale production activities can be qualified to be causing an ecocide. In this paper, we explain the concept of ecocide from the perspective of an economic externality rather than considering it an international crime per se. Unlike a crime, an economic externality is incidental to an economic process. We further our insights into the economic aspect of ecocide and examine the ineptness of the present legal structure bringing urgency to aptly and effectively address the issue of ecocide. The economic perspective is critical to understanding the lacuna in the present legal framework. We take the instance of our intensive reliance on mobile phones and laptops and the adverse impact this has created on the environment highlighting the case study of mining Coltan. The first part of the paper analyses the present legal framework of production of Coltan in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and its effectiveness or lack thereof in preventing environmental harm. The second part of the paper focuses on establishing liability of causing ecocide, therefore, provide for compensation with the help of the Coase Theorem. The paper concludes with suggestive perspectives to evaluate solutions that may have a lasting impact in mitigating environmental harm to the extent of an ecocide.

Copyright

© 2023 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Madhuri Meelee
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/12/31
TI  - Anthropology Of Lifestyle Choices And The Making Of Ecocide
BT  - Proceedings of the World Anthropology Congress, 2023 (WAC 2023)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 34
EP  - 43
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-192-0_5
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-192-0_5
ID  - Meelee2023
ER  -