There is an International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. It was set up to consider crimes arising from wars, including genocide and war crimes.
And a good thing too, although there have been many more crimes in many more wars than the court is able or willing to consider. But certainly a start in establishing rule of law across the world, and in many cases, because of circumstances in the countries where the crimes took place, the only way in which victims can ever seek justice. So very important, and all of us should applaud its establishment and seek to support its activities.
But while there are many victims, in many parts of the world, of the actions of thugs and brutes and racists, and just generally evil men, there is another crime of which we are all becoming victims.
The ultimate crime against humanity is the destruction of the home of humanity. I think it is time we set up a new branch of the ICC, or even a whole new court, perhaps the International Environment Court for crimes against the environment, against the world we live in. A long list of people who should be brought before it of course. I would start with Bjorn Lomborg. Arguably he is the single individual who has contributed most to the coming disaster facing us all, and he would do to represent climate change deniers everywhere. And it is not as if he has seen the error of his ways, just last week I saw an article by him criticising the Al Gore movie and still (!) denying that there is much evidence of climate change or that if there is it will be very serious at all.
I can hear the judge now, as Mr Lomborg starts blathering on again about how big the glaciers are, and how much snow is in Antactica, and how little the sea level will rise. "Be silent sir we have heard enough from you' he will say 'Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?'
And there are many others to form a queue behind Lomborg for visits to the court. Those clearing the Amazon and south east Asian rain forests, those responsible for massive oil spills, the commercial fisheries wrecking the ocean bottom and driving species to extinction, the mining companies shooting great apes to feed their work force cheaply in Africa, the tourism operators building up Antarctic tourism, Japanese whaling companies, the nuclear power industry, politicians pushing 'no tree left behind' legislation, the dam builders in China, the aquarium fish industry, 'sporting' hunters, the car industry, the coal mining companies, the politicians who want drilling in Alaska, .... aaaah, my fingers grow weary, I will leave you, dear reader, to add more to the list.
It will be a very long list will it not? The IEC will be much busier than the ICC. Humans hate and despise other human beings a great deal, and many will do much to kill and torture them, and they should be called to account for this. But many more people hate and despise the world we live in, and have done everything they can to destroy it in the last 100 years or so. And it is past time they were called to account. Starting with Mr Lomborg. Can the court finish trying him in the ten years we now have left before climate change begins to bite so severely that there will be no time to have any kind of courts?
The rest is silence.