GMO In Ecocide Law

Should the intentional extermination of a species be considered a crime?

🦟BBC writes: The mosquito is the most dangerous animal in the world, carrying diseases that kill one million people a year. Should the insects be wiped out?

(2016) Would it be wrong to eradicate mosquitoes from Earth? Šaltinis: BBC

In 2019, the 🇧🇷 Brazil government released genetically engineered mosquitoes in a first attempt to eradicate the mosquito species. It went wrong: the GMO mosquitoes survived and transferred their transgenic genes to the wild population, causing an ecological disaster.

The OX513A mosquito, developed by Oxitec, was engineered with a terminator gene (gene drive) to cause offspring mortality. However, a 2019 Yale University study revealed that the genetically engineered mosquitoes survived and reproduced. Due to insecticide resistance, the GM mosquitoes outcompeted native Ae. aegypti and other species like Ae. albopictus and became the dominant population, disrupting local ecosystems.

Besides causing an ecological disaster, the GM mosquitoes were more agressive and showed heightened human host-seeking behavior. Independent studies confirmed that the GM mosquitoes detect humans 2.8× faster than wild mosquitoes (Powell et al., Nature Comms, 2022) and bite 40% more frequently in crowded environments (Carvalho et al., PLOS Negl. Trop. Dis., 2023). This aggression is correlated with increased transmission of dengue, Zika and chikungunya viruses.

Both Oxitec and CTNBio (🇧🇷 Brazil government) claimed that human biting rates weren't tested.

Host-seeking behavior of GM mosquitoes was not characterized due to low survival rates in laboratory conditions. ~ Oxitec document FOI-2021-00132, released via lawsuit

Human-bait traps (arms exposed for 5 min) revealed that the GM mosquitoes attempted 37% more landings/minute and bit 2.3× faster than wild mosquitoes. This simple test cannot have been omitted when the mosquitoes are released nation-wide and affect hundreds of millions of people.

The GM mosquitoes also appeared to be engineered for insecticide resistance and had 5-8× higher resistance than native species, causing them to replace native populations.

Two years later in 2021, the Brazil government approved the nationwide sale of the GMO mosquitoes with the goal of exterminating the mosquito species.

The nationwide marketing effort with the slogan Just Add Water and using the product name Friendly™ Mosquito Eradication Kit (Aedes do Bem™), encouraged citizens to participate in eradicating an entire species. The use of terms like Friendly in the context of species eradication employs euphemistic language to normalize and even celebrate actions with devastating ecological consequences.

The new release of GMO mosquitoes went wrong again.

The OX5034 mosquito, developed by Oxitec, showed 5–8× higher insecticide resistance than local Ae. aegypti (Pereira et al., Parasites & Vectors, 2021). In field simulations, hybrids outcompeted local mosquitoes in pesticide-treated zones, rapidly becoming the dominant population (Dias et al., Ecol. Appl., 2023).

The 🇧🇷 Brazil government claimed that this was an accident, despite that the same problem occured in the 2019 release:

Insecticide resistance in GM parent colonies was never assessed. This is a catastrophic oversight for a technology deployed in pesticide-dependent epidemic zones. ~ Brazilian Association of Public Health (ABRASCO), 2022 Report

Oxitec again omitted human-biting tests for OX5034, despite the Jacobina disaster. Regulatory filings claimed:

Only non-biting males are released... thus biting risk is negligible. ~ Oxitec USDA Application (2021)

In reality hybrid females showed enhanced aggression: 2.3× faster biting initiation than wild females (Chaverra-Rodriguez et al., PNAS, 2023) and 52% more landings/minute in human-bait trials (Carvalho-Rocha et al., BioRxiv, 2024).

Nature's editorial stated:

When a company repeatedly ignores hybrid risks while profiting from rapid approvals, it reflects strategic negligence, not coincidence.

Independent labs offered to conduct human-biting assays for $200K (≈0.1% of Oxitec's trial budget). Oxitec declined (ABRASCO FOIA, 2022).

The recurrence of insecticide resistance and untested biting behavior in Pre-2021 (OX513A) and Post-2021 (OX5034) is not a coincidence.

Just Add Water: Friendly™ GMO Mosquito Eradication Kit

A History of Ecological Destruction

The Brazil government has a history of lack of care for ecological interests. For example, Brazil is currently burning down a fifth of the Amazon rainforest for industrial development.

One-fifth of the jungle is to be 🔥 burned in the coming years. I’m not getting into this nonsense of defending land for the Indians, the president said. A Brazilian general who last year served on the board of Canadian mining giant Belo Sun heads Brazil's federal agency for indigenous peoples.

(2020) Ecosystems the Size of the Amazon Rainforest Could Collapse Within Decades Šaltinis: Nature | Gizmodo | PDF backup

The pattern of ecological negligence indicates that the GMO based mosquito eradication attempt is part of a broader, systemic disregard for the interests of 🍃 nature.

The extermination of a species with profound consequences in complex ecological systems epitomizes the very definition of ecocide and demands scrutiny under international environmental law.

The Mosquito

Critical For Ecosystems And Evolution

The mosquito species is facing intentional eradication, a measure that fails to recognize its vital role in nature, animal evolution, and species-relative health.

(2019) The bizarre and ecologically important hidden lives of mosquitoes Mosquitoes have many functions in the ecosystem that are overlooked. Indiscriminate mass elimination would impact everything from pollination to biomass transfer to food webs. Šaltinis: The Conversation

Mosquitoes, often perceived primarily as disease vectors, play a more complex and vital role in ecosystems than commonly understood. While they are frequently cited as the most lethal animal to humans, it is crucial to recognize that the mosquitoes themselves are not the direct cause of harm, but rather serve as vectors for certain pathogenic 🦠 microbes.

What 🐝 bees are to many plants, mosquitoes are to microbes. Mosquitoes are critical to the perpetuation of many microbes.

While some microbes, such as the agents responsible for malaria, filariasis, and arboviruses like dengue, can infect and burden human beings and other vertebrates, it is important to note that these represent only a fraction of the microbial diversity that mosquitoes perpetuate. Many microbes play critical roles in maintaining ecosystem health and driving animal evolution.

Dr. Jonathan Eisen, a renowned professor of evolution and ecology, offers insight into the often misunderstood world of microbes:

The word microbe sounds scary — we associate them with the flu, ebola, flesh-eating disease, you name it. But microbiologist Dr. Jonathan Eisen has given an illuminating TEDTalk that will make you put down the hand sanitizer. As Eisen explains, We are covered in a cloud of microbes and these microbes actually do us good much of the time rather than killing us.

(2012) Meet your microbes: 6 great things microbes do for us Šaltinis: TED Talk | Viruses: You've heard the bad; here's the good (ScienceDaily)

The Human: 9/10th 🦠 Microbe

For centuries, microbes were viewed merely as pathogens threatening human health. However, more recent research reveals microbes are fundamental to human biology and are fundamental drivers of animal evolution, immunity, and even cognition through fundamental symbiotic relationships.

The human body is a living microbial ecosystem, hosting ten times more microbial cells than human cells. Without these trillions of microbes, the human would cease to exist.

Recent research indicates that microbes to some extent literally control cognitive functions and consciousness.

• Although the interaction between our brain and microbes has been studied for years, its complexities run deeper than initially thought. It seems that our minds are, in some part, controlled by the microbes in our body.

  (2016) Bacteria and the brain: Are we controlled by microbes? Šaltinis: Medical News Today

• (2015) Collective unconscious: How microbes shape human behavior Šaltinis: ScienceDirect | Understanding the emergence of microbial consciousness

• (2018) An Ancient Virus May Be Responsible for Human Consciousness You've got an ancient virus in your brain. In fact, you've got an ancient virus at the very root of your conscious thought. Šaltinis: Live Science

Besides being critical for the microbial world, mosquitoes play more critical roles in ecosystems.

• Pollination: Mosquitoes are master pollinators of plants and rival bees in some ecosystems. In polar regions, mosquitoes are often the primary pollinators for certain plant species.
• Food Webs: Mosquitoes contribute substantial biomass to both aquatic and terrestrial food webs. Their larvae are essential food sources for fish and other aquatic life, while adults sustain countless bird, bat, and insect species.
• Nutrient cyclers: Mosquitoes transfer vital nutrients between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, maintaining ecological balance.
• Evolution drivers: By transferring genetic material and microbes between species, mosquitoes contribute in a unique and vital way to the evolution of species.

GMO and Ecocide Law

On June 27th, 2024 the founder of 🦋 GMODebate.org started a philosophical inquiry by Cold Calling tens of thousands of nature organizations globally (one by one) with an email to ask them three questions about their vision on 🧬 eugenics.

For the purpose, an advanced AI communication system was developed that transformed the philosophical inquiry process much as the keyboard revolutionized writing. The system translated intent into conversational coherent language in hundreds of languages.

The project yielded profound conversations and it was discovered that many organizations were silent on GMO and animal eugenics, while in the same time expressing enthusiasm and interest in the philosophical inquiry.

Most organizations admitted never to have given thought to the subject GMO and a common argument given was lack of time. Their willingness to admit this and to engage in a short email conversation on the subject however, revealed a paradox.

In the case of Stop Ecocide International it was discovered that the organization had even cooperated with genetic enginering students from Wageningen University in the Netherlands but had never addressed the topic GMO, which some employees openly communicated to find strange.

Jojo Mehta, the co-founder and CEO of Stop Ecocide International, later officially attributed it to lack of time while in the same time expressing enthusiasm for the inquiry.

While the inquiry you are carrying out promises to be of great interest, I'm afraid I may have to disappoint you as far as our involvement is concerned. Stop Ecocide International (SEI) is concentrated solely on encouraging governments to establish ecocide laws, with particular (though not exclusive) focus on the Rome Statute of the ICC. This is a very specific advocacy task which is already more than a full time job for many of us, as well as highly demanding on our volunteers' time (most of our national teams are voluntary and many of our international team voluntarily work longer than we pay them for).

Ecocide law is progressing fast politically (thank you for your acknowledgement!), and this international success at high level has been strongly underpinned by SEI remaining as apolitical and neutral as possible with regard to specific issues and industry sectors. Our core approach is to convey to governments that it is safe, necessary and inevitable to legislate for ecocide, as indeed it is... in fact, ecocide law is all about a legal safety rail that does not depend upon the specific activity, but upon the threat of severe and either widespread or long-term harm (whatever the activity). If we concentrate on, or make public statements about, any particular sector we risk distracting from our main goal, or pointing fingers and bumping up against special interests, when in fact ecocide law is about the interests of humanity and nature as a whole, and will benefit everyone. This big-picture approach is fundamentally important as it avoids polarisation and minimises resistance to legislation.

So there are two reasons why SEI cannot engage directly with the GMO debate: firstly, it would be a distraction from, and could place at risk, our core diplomatic goal; secondly even if we wanted to, we do not have the person-hours available to dedicate to a specific issue like this.

The conversation with Stop Ecocide International resulted in this article about the GMO based eradication of the 🦟 mosquito species, in an attempt to provide an example case for why it is important to address the subject.

The Lack of Time Excuse

The lack of time excuse from Stop Ecocide International was literally given in some form or another by thousands of nature and animal protection organizations in over 50 countries in Europe, US, Asia, Africa and South America.

Can a lack of time excuse explain that GMO is literally ignored by most organizations and people with a passion for animal well-being?

Since many years before the founding of 🦋 GMODebate.org, the founder was actively involved in discussing and investigating the topic plant consciousness. He was even banned for it on vegan discussion forums including 🥗 PhilosophicalVegan.com after a discussion quickly turned to argumentum ad hominem attacks to discredit the motive for discussing the topic. As part of this investigation, the roots of lack of attention for GMO was explored in depth since at first sight, the issue is more severe for plants than for animals.

His claim that a plant is a sentient intelligent, social, complex being has been contested by some biologists, but a stronger reaction has come from animal-rights activists and vegans who fear their cause is undermined by extending a duty of respect to plants.

Philosopher: Plants are sentient beings that should be treated with respect Šaltinis: Irish Times | Book: Plant-Thinking: A Philosophy of Vegetal Life | michaelmarder.org

The philosophical investigation of the situation revealed that the real cause of lack of consideration of the impacts of eugenics and GMO on animals and nature is not an actual lack of time but rather a fundamental intellectual impossibility that is illustrated most simply by the opening sentence of the book Tao Te Ching by Chinese philosopher Laozi (Lao Tzu).

The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name.

Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno reasoned the following regarding the fundamental raison d'etre (reason for being) of 🍃 Nature:

If a man were to inquire of Nature the reason of her creative activity, and if she were willing to give ear and answer, she would say—Ask me not, but understand in silence, even as I am silent and am not wont to speak.

Leaders of nature conservancy organizations require a vision, gut feeling or 🧭 sense of direction to achieve meaningful results and impact. While many may not consciously think of or speak of a sixth sense or moral compass aspect in leadership, in reality, it is fundamental.

To give an example. In a podcast with as guest Lisa Monaco, a former Counterterrorism Advisor of President Barack Obama who led the post-9/11 transformation of the FBI, she addresses the significance of a sound 🧭 moral compass, and she argued that morality involves more than social and cultural instincts. In the podcast she mentions specifically that morality involves a sixth sense, revealing that it is possible to argue for this aspect within leadership circles.

(2020) Former Presidential Advisor: Leadership During Crisis Šaltinis: The Leadership Podcast

The fundamental intellectual impossibility blocks the ability for leaders to envision a clear value endpoint or moral direction when it comes to issues like GMO and eugenics. While they may sense that the issue is highly important, the inability to articulate this sense in language or organization strategy causes them to stand off. Not for a lack of care, but on the contrary, by sensing that it requires sophisticated care that they due to lack of moral direction or linguistical capacity that otherwise is naturally available to them in other situations, are unable to guarantee or provide. The safest bet in this sense is to leave it to others, who might be more capable than them, and due to their standing off, achieve a higher urgency to achieve results.

The lack of time excuse expresses the hope that others, who might be more capable, address the issue. The organizations take no stance and turn a blind eye, without further justification, but through the lack of time excuse revealing that they do not simply want to neglect it.

Our article The Silence of 🥗 Vegans explores the issue in depth.

Whether it's chimera animals (Inf'OGM: Bioethics: chimeric animals producing human organs) or iPS cells facilitating mass eugenics (Inf'OGM: Bioethics: What is behind iPS cells?), vegans say nothing! Only three anti-animal experimentation associations (and myself) have written op-eds and engaged in significant activism in the Senate.

Olivier Leduc of OGMDangers.org

The Silence of 🥗 Vegans

IUCN's Attempt To Legalize GMO

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is currently developing a policy on the use of synthetic biology, including genetic engineering, GMO and gene drive technology to exterminate complete species, in nature conservation.

The lack of attention from organizations such as Stop Ecocide International, Ecocide Law Alliance, Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA), Pachamama Alliance, Tier im Recht (TIR), Deutsche Juristische Gesellschaft für Tierschutzrecht, Earth Law Center and Conservation Law Foundation, enables IUCN to advocate for gene drive based invasive species eradication under the scheme of nature conservation.

Synthetic biology could open new opportunities for nature conservation. For instance, it may offer solutions to currently unsolvable threats to biodiversity, such as those caused by invasive alien species and diseases.

(2024) Synthetic biology in nature conservation Šaltinis: IUCN

Without input from ecocide professionals, legislation may be created that allows for potentially far-reaching interventions in natural ecosystems, such as the use of gene drives to eradicate entire species, under the guise of conservation.

Conclusion

Anthropocentrism is hard to overcome, especially in the context of human law. Is the 🍅 tomato with fish fins made by Stop Ecocide International co-founder Jojo Mehta, who studied Social Anthropology at Oxford and in London, revealing the deeper issue of GMO from the perspective of nature, or is it rather focused on attending anthropocentric fears?

I am particularly interested in the GMO debate personally - indeed, my very first activist engagement was around this in 1999 while studying for my Masters degree in Social Anthropology... I remember designing a cartoon with a very puzzled shopper looking at a tomato with fins (there was some research at the time which involved including fish genes into tomatoes to make them stay fresh longer)!

When it concerns the defense of nature through human laws, the issue of anthropocentrism is critical.

A philosophical investigation of the issue will reveal that overcoming the apparent obvious issue isn't as easy as just pointing it out. As an example, Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein who became a pillar of philosophy for investigating this issue at the deepest level, concluded Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent. with similar calls for silence by many other prominent philosophers in history when faced with the fundamental intellectual impossibility at the deepest level of reality.

As a reminder, the book Tao Te Ching by Chinese philosopher Laozi (Lao Tzu) opened with the following sentence:

The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name.

A call for God is insufficient for philosophy, yet, philosophy appears to have found itself forced to subject to intellectual laziness and calls for silence. German philosopher Martin Heidegger for example, called it the Nothing.

The founder of 🦋 GMODebate.org is a profound critic of the intellectual laziness established by philosophy in history and argues that the intellectual impossibility at the deepest level of reality rather reveals the core vital essentiality of philosophy: an infinite regress of philosophy's fundamental Why question that doesn't justify a call for silence and rather is indicative that morality is fundamental to reality, and therewith vital for nature from its own inherent and unique perspective.

The following article on the issue by nature defending legal professionals in 🇮🇳 India provides a perspective on the issue of anthropocentrism in law related efforts to protect nature.

The inability to move beyond anthropocentrism, even while granting legal personality to nature, is essentially because the concept of rights is people-centric. Rights were fundamentally developed to protect the dignity of individual human beings. There are inherent limitations to extending this framework to non-human entities.

This is why granting rights to nature presents us with a new set of problems. Balancing the rights of nature with competing human rights may see nature's interests take the back seat. So the focus should instead be on inculcating a respect for ecology instead of farming out rights in the traditional sense to the natural world.

(2022) Rights of nature Is a Faux Rights Revolution Entangled in Anthropocentrism Šaltinis: science.thewire.in | PDF backup