Climate Change Threatens Human Rights of Millions: UN
GENEVA - Climate change threatens the human rights of millions of people who are at risk of losing access to housing, food and clean water unless governments intervene early to counter its effects, experts said on Tuesday.
At a conference on climate change and migration, United Nations officials said rising sea levels and intense storms, droughts and floods could force scores of people from their homes and off their lands — some permanently.
“Global warming and extreme weather conditions may have calamitous consequences for the human rights of millions of people,” said Kyung-wha Kang, the U.N. deputy high commissioner for human rights.
“Ultimately climate change may affect the very right to life of various individuals,” she said, pointing to threats of hunger, malnutrition, exposure to disease and lost livelihoods, particularly in poor rural areas dependent on fertile soil.
Kang, a South Korean, said countries had an obligation “to prevent and address some of the direst consequences that climate change may reap on human rights.”
This may include providing safe housing, ensuring good sanitation and water-drinking supplies, and making sure citizens have access to information and legal redress, and take part in decision-making, she said.
Environmental disasters and natural resource scarcity have long been seen as contributors to displacement, for instance in Sudan’s Darfur region where 2.5 million people have been driven from their homes by conflict rooted in part in access to water.
But the United Nations has not yet expressly tackled climate change as a human right, for instance by enshrining the right to protection from its effects in an international convention.
Michelle Leighton, director of human rights programs at the University of San Francisco’s law school, told the conference pressures from global warming could also force would-be migrants into the hands of criminals.
Some three quarters of sub-Saharan Africa’s agricultural drylands are now degraded to some degree, she said, pointing to West African countries such as Ghana, Senegal and Nigeria as most acutely vulnerable to climate change-related damage.
Many people in Somalia, Mali and Cape Verde will also have little option but to leave their lands in coming years, and many are likely to turn to human smugglers for help in accessing more prosperous countries in Europe and elsewhere, she said.
“This is a big business now,” Leighton said. “If the climate change predictions come true, and we see much more pressure on agricultural lands in sub-Saharan Africa, we are likely to see an increase in illegal smuggling as well.”
Gordon Shepherd of WWF International told the session that such pressures must be addressed by the international community as well as governments. “None of us will escape the effects of the disasters that are facing the future generations,” he said.
Editing by Jonathan Lynn and Mary Gabriel
© 2008 Reuters
While the U.N. is often a vehicle for exposing issues, it is seldom the venue for enforcement of real change. The climate change problem will be addressed (to whatever meager extent it perhaps even CAN be addressed)
when a United States president leads an effort with the major pollution players such as China, India, and Russia. The U.S president can’t just talk. We must lead by example. If we don’t, it’s just years of papers and debates at the U.N. and not much action.
One good thing that could come from global warming and the melting of the ice on the poles would be the possibility of submerging Guantanamo and the BushCheney playground. It looks as if nothing else will ever close that horrible blot on our countries reputation in the world.
“But the United Nations has not yet expressly tackled climate change as a human right, for instance by enshrining the right to protection from its effects in an international convention.” I can just see the USA, already positioning its obscenely huge military to dominate dwindling resources, allowing that to happen!
You betcha. There’s oil in them thar countries!
When the citizens leave, US corporations can move in and exploit without resistance.
After global warming has destroyed all life on Earth, there will probably be automated drilling platforms still drilling for oil under the oceans and seas.
How interesting. Corporate greed has turned Ouranos, the heavens, into Our Anus for their toxic waste dump. We have not only lost touch with the Gods but we can’t even watch them walk the Milky Way. Is this dis-aster the New World Dis-order?
If you cannot lead, leave it to the rest of us. Please get out of the way - Kevin Conrad to the US Delegation, COP-13, Bali, 2007.
Ditto, UN.
Then there’s this… http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/global_warming_or_cooling/2008/02/19/73798.html
This may be the biggest hoax ever perpetrated since Gore invented the Internet.
Don’t even have to go to the link.
Newsmax = The National Enquirer of the braindead right…
As long as neocon and Fox News pundits view global warming and climate change as a vast liberal conspiracy to reign in unlimited growth, the US will have an uphill battle to just get started.
The link from denverjomo illustrates how every inconsistency is jumped on and then elaborated upon with misleading spin.
When its time to ration food even in wealthy countries, and governments start doing refugee triage, we will lucky to be alive with or without human rights.
Human rights? Posh! The extermination of millions of species? Poo-poo! The proliferation of all kinds of bugs, large and microsopic? Yawn…
When it starts hitting us in the wallet? What?! How could this have happened?! Who’s to blame for this…?
The trouble with the linked article is that if it’s the only article an average American reads about global warming, he or she will believe it.
DENVERJOMO: Thanks for the link. I should have figured out for myself that trapping heat within the earth’s atmosphere would end up making ice. Gosh, it’s so obvious!
The writers of the UN report loath to explicate what is another result of climate change: a global free-for-all for limited resources. History has shown that even people from technologically inferior cultures can overcome the defenses of their more well-off neighbors if they are motivated by starvation or have no home to return to (the Barbarian invasions of the Western Roman Empire or the raids of the Viking era are prime examples). As for the debunkers of climate change, they generally fall into two types: they are profiting from polluting or they are deluded. It is an apples or oranges question which one is more dangerous or pathetic.
I used to believe in Global warming caused by CO2 levels increasing (fossil fuel burning, deforestation)+ metahane from various origins (not just cows but also landfills, rice fields…).
However, I understand the polarcaps on Mars are also melting. Those opposed to the fact that human activities cause global warming conclude there is nothing true about this theory. That’s not at all where I am (Istudied in the field) but I wonder how much of what me measure and see is part of Global SOLAR SYSTEM WARMING.
I don’t think there is enough data about other planets; I actually never verified is the Mars warming was true.
Anyone knowing more?
CRISPY
well you could be right. take a look at
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/10mar_stormwarning.htm
there is also some ‘galactic alignment’ apparently going to take place in 2012. whatever it is, it’s occurring at an alarming rate………..
coco
Humans have rights now?
and scince when will governments put a fortune into saving lives when they could be testing weapons to destroy them
I’m not in the-least ‘worried’ about any ‘climate change’ (I wish it WOULD warm-up here in Northern-Michigan!). All these ‘Global-Warmings’ since WW-II are due only to:
About two-thousand above-ground ‘nuclear-tests’ — (that subsequently-and-always ‘worked’);
A very-large electric-bill at HAARP in Alaska since 1992; and,
Our de-Regulated and very-dirty/large Electrical-Utility Plant system.
Change those for a short-while, and I’m confident that Al ‘Internets’ Gore would have to return his Nobel Prize within a decade — just like Temps returned-to-normal three-years after two/different 19th-Century volcanic-eruptions.
Methinks ‘Global-Warming’ is a complete&’successful’ Hoax, intended to enable many-new Nuclear-Reactors (and new-Profiteering for Al’s new best-friend in England — Baron De Rothschild, the ‘environmentalist’) — who also controls 90% of the world’s uranium-mining, and who promotes so-effectively in Europe for ‘Global-Carbon-Taxation’ — just like the Queen’s former lap-dog, Tony. Tony and Al and the Queen, however, don’t also-control multiple Central-Banks, issuing the Currency of all the world’s countries, other than 4-or-5 [hold-outs, like Cuba/Libya/Iran…].
I wonder ‘who does’?
I sure don’t! So please, don’t blame Me for any worldwide ‘Recessions’ or ‘busted-Bubbles’ or ‘Scarce/Peak Oil’ (due only to ’scarce refinement’ of abundant-Oil) — I had NOTHING to do with any-of-this…and you can take that to your local non-Reserve Bank [if its still-’Open’, that-is].
Once Hillary “Super-Delegate” Clinton and her ’surprise’ running-mate achieve all of ‘her’-Ambitions, I’m sure ALL of these ‘issues’ will be settled, once and for ‘all’…(and Monkey’s are readying to fly out your derrière as soon as you get-up out of that chair you’re in — just wait-and-see!).
In meantime, Click my Name and read some History — whilst you can still enjoy-some…(or, were you, too, ‘left-behind’ by our so-called Educational-system?).
Mr.Butterfield: When global warming has destroyed all life on earth…
Isn’t this an exaggeration? Why the emotionalism? Why such frenzy? C’mon people, I agree that we should reduce pollution but the hand wringing is too much. Most CO2 comes from turning the soil over and exposing organic matter to oxygen. Reducing pollution will barely change that. Cows, farming, pig farms, people, they all produce CO2. Burning fossil fuels is a small part of that. I’m against burning fossil fuels but I don’t buy this fear mongering. It is all being done for your own good but there is some serious manipulation going on. I saw Al Gore again yesterday, making his case. It was not scientifically presented, it sound like a sales pitch. I don’t like this approach. I would prefer an examination of the possible sources of warming and evidence for and against each particular point. This is not being done. Only one side is presented. I am not getting on this bandwagon.
This from the NOAA web site (http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/globalwarming.html#Q2):
“Human activity has been increasing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (mostly carbon dioxide from combustion of coal, oil, and gas; plus a few other trace gases). There is no scientific debate on this point. Pre-industrial levels of carbon dioxide (prior to the start of the Industrial Revolution) were about 280 parts per million by volume (ppmv), and current levels are about 370 ppmv. The concentration of CO2 in our atmosphere today, has not been exceeded in the last 420,000 years, and likely not in the last 20 million years. According to the IPCC Special Report on Emission Scenarios (SRES), by the end of the 21st century, we could expect to see carbon dioxide concentrations of anywhere from 490 to 1260 ppm (75-350% above the pre-industrial concentration).”
A simple Google on Global Warming will do a lot to enlighten.
I don’t know why we keep beating this dead horse. Leaving politics and personalities aside will do much to find out the truth.
The real question is: Yeah, so, what are we going to do about it? If we leave out the human component, we will miss the bandwagon (and boat) completely and fail to implement real solutions.
As for Mars…there may be a solar component to it. IMO, it’s an adjunct to what humans are doing, which means we’d better start doing what we can to mitigate this problem, but pronto!
denverjomo wrote:
Then there’s this… http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/global_warming_or_cooling/2008/02/19/73798.html
This may be the biggest hoax ever perpetrated since Gore invented the Internet.
Guess what…all that freak cold is not a good thing…it means crop failures. To say that the Arctic Ice Cap made a good recovery this winter is simply misleading. Please check out the following link…look what is happening…scroll down and look at the animation…the old sea ice is being flush out into the North Atlantic…this does not portend well. Only 3% of the Arctic ice is 10 years old now compared with 80% in 1989. Yes, there is a lot of ice now, but it is all very thin and will melt very quickly when the sun starts beating down 24/7.
http://ice-glaces.ec.gc.ca/app/WsvPageDsp.cfm?id=11892&Lang=eng
Wade’s right. But even just looking at the article on its own, it’s the classical straw man: Climate doesn’t violate human rights; humans violate human rights. If you’re going to discuss human rights, talk about global financial capitalism and the gangsters in governments everywhere that serve it; if you’re going to talk about resource scarcity, talk about global financial capitalism and MANAGED resource scarcity. Likewise, it’s a joke to discuss food insecurity without mention of corporate control of the food supply. Etc, etc… Big Brother’s Reuters news service has provided us with a fine example of propaganda here.
“Etc, etc… Big Brother’s Reuters news service has provided us with a fine example of propaganda here.”
Of course it has, it’s British (just like Murdoch).
And, just like Tony, and Clinton’s Rhodes-Scholarship, the BBC, and a Baron who wears ‘billowy-sleeves’ and long rock-star/Aristocratic hair, and who so-’believes’ in the WWF and other ‘environmental-concerns’ and bio-diversity, and ESPECIALLY ‘Global-Warming’.
[I’ve forgotten his family-name? Can someone remind-me — I have ‘Mad-Cow’, like my buddy Shatner…and a whole lot of other Brits — but not Gore’s or Bush’s or Thatcherites/Bilderbergers]
“Moreover, a Feb. 18 report in the London Daily Express showed that there is nearly a third more ice in Antarctica than usual, challenging the global warming crusaders and buttressing arguments of skeptics who deny that the world is undergoing global warming.”
Antarctica is in the South, HAARP is in the North.
To be ‘crystal clear’, there IS some minor ‘Global Warming’, but is is NOT any warming due to “Western-civilization and the unintended-consequence of accidental causation by humans”. It is instead very-’intended’ and planned-for. But, most of these “climate-changes” would go-away shortly, if only allowed-to…
Just quit with all the ‘Nukes’, and regulate/innovate power-plants (or do what Tesla wanted [instead of JDR and Westinghouse/Edison — before Tesla and Mr. Diesel were ‘mysteriously killed’] and convert massive-and insecure/costly/Privatized/Monopolistic ‘Grids’ to community-based and efficient/competitive/local/safer DC-generation, using bio-diesel or LPG — which, btw, is what we always should have employed in our truck-fleets (bio-Diesel — but NOT from ‘foodstuffs’) and light-truck/car-fleets (safe&clean-burning LPG that also doesn’t ‘go-stale/evaporate’ like gasoline OR wear-out motors with its depositions/filth/’additives’).
Oh — and someone really-Should not ‘pay the electric-bill’ for our twice-now “Nobel-Prize-Winning HAARP-program” (but awarded for their unknown “secret-successes” — just like Al’s, apparently?) — even if they DO like to brag about their role in ‘full-spectrum military dominance’ by their public-contention that they “can now use the Weather as an effective-weapon against our Enemies” — as per diverse Pentagon press-releases, lately…
Everyone use to Talk about the weather, but i guess my-government learned how to ‘do something about it’ — huh?
Obviously “scare tactics” do not work,
1)casts some into such deep depression that they won’t be out there consuming as usual
2)makes others jeer and make jokes ie…it’s cooling not warming ha ha
3)forms an apathetic crowd (like the big melt down predicted in 2000)
It is obvious too that due to the current world population’s desire for all to have SUV’s and huge energy guzzing homes that replicate the American dream….thanks to the catchy advertising biz ….somethin’s gotta give…
But I would not doubt that the gov/military has a handle on the weather ….or that the laws passed by Bush Sr. while everyone was watching the evolving first Irag War …have made “Human Rights” a thing of the past…gotta have that control of the masses when things do get colder/hotter/dryer/whatever
“Obviously “scare tactics” do not work,
1)casts some into such deep depression that they won’t be out there consuming as usual
2)makes others jeer and make jokes ie…it’s cooling not warming ha ha
3)forms an apathetic crowd (like the big melt down predicted in 2000)”
All those prove it DOES ‘work’ — and as-Intended.
And, what’s wrong with SUV’s? You’d love my BlaZeR-2…(and just as ‘clean’ as Schwarzenegger’s Hummers — which exceed even the CARB).
[C5 + H8 = CO2 + H2O — just like when You ‘exhale’]
lizard February 21st, 2008 8:58 am
Mr.Butterfield: When global warming has destroyed all life on earth…
Isn’t this an exaggeration? Why the emotionalism? Why such frenzy? C’mon people
lizard,
Do your own your own research. Start with the UN reports.
They involved more scientists than any other papers on the subject and they are more recent than Al Gore’s movie.
As for me, I feel no frenzy or any pressing emotion at all. Don’t tell me what I feel or “read” my mind.
There was a time when I dismissed global warming, because I thought it would only cause rising sea levels. Which meant nothing to me.
I am sure anyone who tries can find the information laid out just as lizard would like to see it, except that it will take putting information together from several sources.
Global warming can be reversed by drastic actions, such as altering the atmosphere to block some sunlight, if action is taken in the near future.
Even then man may destroy himself by some means other than global warming.
Climate change threatens the human rights of millions of people who are at risk of losing access to housing, food and clean water unless governments intervene early to counter its effects, experts said on Tuesday.
Just what we need, more government intervention.
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