Dare To Be Great

World-renowned barrister Polly Higgins proposed to the United Nations that Ecocide be made a crime that would prohibit mass damage and destruction.

She was voted one of the World’s Top 10 Visionary Thinkers, No. 35 in Salt Magazine’s Top 100 Inspiring Women of the World and dubbed The People’s Lawyer.

Polly was also the award-winning author of Eradicating Ecocide. She passed away in April 2019 and her legacy is being continued by the Stop Ecocide group, which is working at an international level to ratify the Ecocide law in 2020 and by the work of Extinction Rebellion.

‘Ecocide is extensive damage, destruction to or loss of ecosystems – and it makes no sense to commit Ecocide. Ultimately, we all suffer – all human and non-human beings. Ecocide is both a personal and a collective harm. Yet, the greatness lies in each of us to take up the mantle and become voices for the Earth.’

POLLY HIGGINS

Polly’s legacy

One year on from her death in April 2019, and with two sovereign states calling for the serious consideration of Ecocide law in international law at the end of 2019, there’s still time to realise the future Polly imagined for the Earth.

In Dare To Be Great Polly reasons that, while we are disempowered by old laws that don’t work for the Earth, how we govern ourselves can influence how society runs.

Polly’s advice, interspersed with her own journey towards protecting the Earth, doesn’t set out to condemn or frighten, but to invite her readers to join the movement from self-care to Earth-care.