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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America's system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.
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In Rich Nations, 72% Say Climate Damage Should Be 'Criminal Offense'
Across the 22 countries, 72% of people agreed that "it should be a criminal offense for leaders of large businesses or senior government officials to approve or permit actions they know are likely to cause damage to nature and climate that is widespread, long-term, or cannot be reversed."
"The majority support (72%) for criminalizing actions which allow serious damage to the climate surprised us," said Earth4All co-lead Owen Gaffney in a statement. "The majority of people want to protect the global commons; 71% believe the world needs to take action immediately. Our survey demonstrates that people across the world's largest economies are acutely aware of the urgent need to safeguard our planet for future generations."
Keyna had the greatest share of people signaling support for ecocide legislation, at 91%, followed by Argentina, Mexico, and South Africa, all at 85%. The United States was 68%. The only country with less than a majority was Japan, at 43%.
"We're seeing significant policy shifts in favor of ecocide legislation at the domestic, regional, and international levels," said Jojo Mehta, co-founder and CEO of Stop Ecocide International. "Most notably, at the start of this year, the European Union included 'qualified offenses' in its newly revised Environmental Crime Directive that can encompass 'conduct comparable to ecocide.' This means E.U. member states now have two years to bring these rules into national law—a huge moment felt across the globe."
"We know this policy-level progress has been significantly driven by widespread civil society demand," she continued. "The new Global Commons Survey makes it obvious that there is already a strong foundation of public support for this law. People clearly understand that the most severe forms of environmental destruction harm all of us, and that there is real deterrent potential in creating personal criminal liability for top decision-makers. Damage prevention is always the best policy, which is precisely what ecocide law is about."
Other legal responses to the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency have included filing civil lawsuits against oil and gas giants for their decades of deception and exploring the possibility of bringing criminal charges against corporate polluters for deaths tied to extreme weather that's becoming more frequent and devastating.
In addition to the ecocide findings, the Global Commons Survey shows that 69% of all respondents believe Earth is close to climate and nature tipping points, 61% are advocating for strong action to protect the environment, 59% are very or extremely worried about the state of nature, and 52% feel very or somewhat exposed to climate and environmental risks.
The groups that commissioned the poll noted that "people in emerging economies such as India (87%), China (79%), Indonesia (79%), Kenya (73%), and Turkey (69%) feel more personally exposed to climate change compared to those in Europe and the United States."
There were also gender disparities—women exhibited higher levels of concern and were less likely to think claims about environmental risks are exaggerated or believe technology can solve such problems without individuals making big lifestyle changes.
"People everywhere are very worried about the state of our planet and they're feeling the pain already," said GCA executive director Jane Madgwick. "Awareness that we are close to tipping points is high, as is concern that political priorities lie elsewhere."
"It all comes down to what we can do collectively to safeguard and restore the global commons which sustain all life on Earth and protect us from the most severe impacts of climate change," she added. "This is going to take bold leadership and a truly global effort, connecting actions across nations and from the ground up."
US-Backed Israeli Assault on Gaza Helped Drive Doubling of Global Hunger in 2024
The global number of people facing Phase 5—"Famine/Catastrophe," the highest level—in the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system went from 705,000 in 2023 to about 1.9 million this year, including projections through September.
About 1.1 million people in Gaza faced famine in March and April, while roughly 750,000 more recently did so in Sudan, which is locked in a gruesome civil war. South Sudan and Mali also had smaller areas of people facing food insecurity catastrophe.
Despite the figures, the U.N. hasn't formally declared a famine in Gaza, though many U.N. officials and experts have characterized the situation as such.
Though the Gaza famine numbers peaked in April, the situation remains extremely dire, according to VÃctor Aguayo, UNICEF's director of child nutrition, who visited the besieged enclave last week.
"I walked through markets and neighborhoods—or what is left of them," Aguayo told reporters on Thursday. "I listened to the struggles of mothers and fathers to feed their children. And there is no doubt in my mind that the risk of famine and a large-scale severe nutrition crisis in Gaza is real."
Aguayo called for a cease-fire and humanitarian intervention, saying that "it's important to remember that the nearly half of Gaza's population suffering from this devastation are children."
"The nutrition situation in Gaza is one of the most severe that we have ever seen," he added.
Israeli forces have killed more than 41,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in the last 11 months, displacing nearly the entire population of 2.2 million, often multiple times, and destroying much of the enclave's infrastructure. They've also restricted emergency aid into Gaza, according to a large number of reports.
Rights groups have argued that Israel has used starvation as a weapon of war—a war crime. U.N. experts have called it an "intentional and targeted starvation campaign."
Hamas and allied militant groups massacred more than 1,100 Israelis on October 7 and took roughly 250 hostages, dozens of whom are still being held. Israel's declared war aim is eradicating Hamas and returning the hostages. The effort has received widespread international condemnation, both from rights groups and multilateral institutions, including the International Court of Justice, which in January ordered Israel to prevent acts of genocide, and the International Criminal Court, which in May sought warrants for the arrest of Israeli and Hamas leaders.
The United States has been Israel's chief diplomatic ally and weapons supplier throughout the 11-month assault, with the Biden administration approving another $20 billion in arms transfers last month.
Thursday's GRFC update shows that Sudan, like Gaza, faces a large-scale humanitarian crisis. As of August, 8.5 million Sudanese faced Phase 4—"Emergency"—conditions of food insecurity, far more than any other country in the world. Famine has been declared in a refugee camp near El Fasher in Darfur and is expected to last through October, the report says.
The two main warring parties are the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), the state's official military, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group. The conflict began in April 2023 and has displaced more than 10 million people, just counting those who've stayed in the country.
As in Gaza, experts have accused armed forces of restricting aid and using starvation as a weapon of war.
Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, responded to the GRFC update by declaring that the hunger crises in both Gaza and Sudan were by design.
"That's because of the starvation strategy of the Israeli government and Sudanese forces," he wrote on social media.
The IPC classification system requires that an area meet three criteria to reach the Phase 5 "Famine" stage: 20% of households must face extreme lack of food, 30% of children must suffer from acute malnutrition, and two adults or four children out of 10,000 people must die each day due to starvation-related causes.
Recent formal declarations of famine by the United Nations have occurred in an area of South Sudan in 2017 and two regions of Somalia in 2011.
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