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Climate Change is an Issue of Human Rights
These principles must be put at the heart of any deal on global warming
Sixty years ago today, the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the cornerstone document created in the aftermath of unimaginable atrocities. This declaration, and the legal documents that stemmed from it, have helped us combat torture, discrimination and hunger. And now, this venerable document should guide us in the fight against one of the greatest challenges ever to face humankind: climate change.
As representatives from virtually every country are sitting at the negotiating table in Poznan, Poland, for the UN Conference on Climate Change, poor people are already coping with the impacts of global warming. From increasing droughts to increasing floods, from lower agricultural productivity to more frequent and severe storms, many rightly fear that things will only get worse. Their human rights - to security, health and sustainable livelihoods - are increasingly being threatened by changes to the earth's climate.
Indeed, the poorest who contributed the least to the problem of climate change are now bearing the brunt of the impacts. Ninety-seven per cent of deaths related to natural disasters already take place in developing countries. In South Asia, the 17 million people living on sandbanks in the river basins of Bangladesh could be homeless by 2030 as increasing Himalayan meltwater floods their homes. In Niger, changing rainfall patterns are contributing to increased desertification which, for the Tuareg and Wodaabe people, has caused massive losses of livestock and food insecurity. In South America, a loss of snow in the Andes in the next 15 to 20 years will pose a serious risk to the more than nine million people living in Lima, Peru's largest city.
But, as a new report by the International Council on Human Rights Policy on the links between climate change and human rights makes clear, the negative impacts on people of changes in climate do not always involve horrific headlines and images of hurricanes, floods or refugee camps. More commonly, they will be cumulative and unspectacular.
Those who are already poor and vulnerable are and will continue to be disproportionately affected. Incrementally, land will become too dry to till, crops will wither, rising sea levels will undermine coastal dwellings and spoil freshwater, livelihoods will vanish. Carbon emissions from industrialised countries have human and environmental consequences. As a result, global warming has already begun to affect the fulfillment of human rights, and to the extent that polluting greenhouse gases continue to be released by large industrial countries, the basic human rights of millions of the world's poor to life, security, food, health and shelter will continue to be violated.
Our shared human rights framework provides a basis for impoverished communities to claim protection of these rights. We must not lose sight of existing human rights principles in the tug and push of international climate change negotiations. A human rights lens reminds us there are reasons beyond economics and enlightened self-interest for states to act on climate change.
Because climate change presents a new and unprecedented threat to the human rights of millions, international human rights law and institutions must evolve to protect the rights of these peoples. But, most importantly, states must take urgent action to avoid more serious and actionable violations of human rights.
The principles of human rights provide a strong foundation for policy-making and these principles must be put at the heart of a global deal to tackle global climate change. Urgently cutting emissions must be done in order to respect and protect human rights from being violated by the future impacts of climate change, while supporting the poorest communities to adapt to already occurring climate impacts is the only remedy for those whose human rights have already been violated.
As we mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is worth remembering that climate change violates the declaration's affirmation that "everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which [their] rights and freedoms...can be realised".
We must now grasp the opportunity to create the kind of international order that the framers of the UDHR dreamed of - even in a radically changed global context they never imagined.
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“I am a skeptic…Global warming has become a new religion.” - Nobel Prize Winner for Physics, Ivar Giaever.
“Since I am no longer affiliated with any organization nor receiving any funding, I can speak quite frankly….As a scientist I remain skeptical.” - Atmospheric Scientist Dr. Joanne Simpson, the first woman in the world to receive a PhD in meteorology and formerly of NASA who has authored more than 190 studies and has been called “among the most preeminent scientists of the last 100 years.”
Warming fears are the “worst scientific scandal in the history…When people come to know what the truth is, they will feel deceived by science and scientists.” - UN IPCC Japanese Scientist Dr. Kiminori Itoh, an award-winning PhD environmental physical chemist.
“The IPCC has actually become a closed circuit; it doesn’t listen to others. It doesn’t have open minds… I am really amazed that the Nobel Peace Prize has been given on scientifically incorrect conclusions by people who are not geologists,” - Indian geologist Dr. Arun D. Ahluwalia at Punjab University and a board member of the UN-supported International Year of the Planet.
“The models and forecasts of the UN IPCC "are incorrect because they only are based on mathematical models and presented results at scenarios that do not include, for example, solar activity.” - Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera, a researcher at the Institute of Geophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico
“It is a blatant lie put forth in the media that makes it seem there is only a fringe of scientists who don’t buy into anthropogenic global warming.” - U.S Government Atmospheric Scientist Stanley B. Goldenberg of the Hurricane Research Division of NOAA.
“Even doubling or tripling the amount of carbon dioxide will virtually have little impact, as water vapour and water condensed on particles as clouds dominate the worldwide scene and always will.” – . Geoffrey G. Duffy, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering of the University of Auckland, NZ.
“After reading [UN IPCC chairman] Pachauri's asinine comment [comparing skeptics to] Flat Earthers, it's hard to remain quiet.” - Climate statistician Dr. William M. Briggs, who specializes in the statistics of forecast evaluation, serves on the American Meteorological Society's Probability and Statistics Committee and is an Associate Editor of Monthly Weather Review.
“For how many years must the planet cool before we begin to understand that the planet is not warming? For how many years must cooling go on?" - Geologist Dr. David Gee the chairman of the science committee of the 2008 International Geological Congress who has authored 130 plus peer reviewed papers, and is currently at Uppsala University in Sweden.
“Gore prompted me to start delving into the science again and I quickly found myself solidly in the skeptic camp…Climate models can at best be useful for explaining climate changes after the fact.” - Meteorologist Hajo Smit of Holland, who reversed his belief in man-made warming to become a skeptic, is a former member of the Dutch UN IPCC committee.
“Many [scientists] are now searching for a way to back out quietly (from promoting warming fears), without having their professional careers ruined.” - Atmospheric physicist James A. Peden, formerly of the Space Research and Coordination Center in Pittsburgh.
“Creating an ideology pegged to carbon dioxide is a dangerous nonsense…The present alarm on climate change is an instrument of social control, a pretext for major businesses and political battle. It became an ideology, which is concerning.” - Environmental Scientist Professor Delgado Domingos of Portugal, the founder of the Numerical Weather Forecast group, has more than 150 published articles.
“CO2 emissions make absolutely no difference one way or another….Every scientist knows this, but it doesn’t pay to say so…Global warming, as a political vehicle, keeps Europeans in the driver’s seat and developing nations walking barefoot.” - Dr. Takeda Kunihiko, vice-chancellor of the Institute of Science and Technology Research at Chubu University in Japan.
“The [global warming] scaremongering has its justification in the fact that it is something that generates funds.” - Award-winning Paleontologist Dr. Eduardo Tonni, of the Committee for Scientific Research in Buenos Aires and head of the Paleontology Department at the University of La Plata. # #
It's an old list of global warming denier talking points that have been debunked long ago.
"debunked long ago"
Where?
ping - you there? where?
I hope you are right. I am not a scientist, but after Alan Greenspan's public confessions my respect for the authority of experts has suffered some damage.
We can't even build a decent road.
We can't even provide a system of decent healthcare.
We can't even feed our people correctly.
We can't stop our mad obsession with violence and dreams of evil empire.
What makes you think we can alter the planet at this point?
Its in our DNA to conquer & rule.
And there's money to be made in global warming.
is that really true??? that it's in our dna to conquer and rule???......
where do you get that from????...............or are you being obtuse?
i agree with the rest of what you said..............
DNA's primary function is to take resources from its surroundings in order to replicate itself. That's also the function of RNA's, and certain self-replicating proteins. So far, DNA's (not human-specific) seem to be on a proven successful track.
I think the rhetoric suggesting global warming is a myth have heated up thanks to criticisms of livestock industries.
Pachauri was the one who highlighted the importance of reducing meat production.
The idea that human action doesnt affect the environment is childish.
When you cut down a tree, you affect the habitat.
Ergo, if you pump lots of pollution into the air, it will have an effect.
Do polluted rivers clean themselves(only when humans stop polluting them)?
The notion that climate change would be used to keep developing countries in servitude smacks of human supremacist whining.
And scientists can profit from a position for or against depending on their source of income.
You can bet that the livestock industries will pay scientists to say that livestock has no effect on pollution(even though common sense-extinction, river pollution, water and food shortages prove otherwise).
Anything can happen and while I think that humans sometimes think they are more powerful than they really are, and make assumptions about how nature works that become dogma, the opposite is true as well--sometimes humans will think man-made actions cannot possibly have a negative impact.
Developing countries are often idiotic. They may not have room for cars but because the west has them, then they MUST have them, even if its bad for them(ditto for smoking and meat eating).
Human stupidity is not restricted to the western world.
Yup, human supremism is run amuck. All who caused the death of an animal or a plant for food reasons should themselves be put to death.
All animals that dropped poop into the river, thereby polluting it, should also be put to death.
All plants that spread their pollens, thereby polluting rivers, should also be put to death.
All living beings that take resources from the enviornment for its own use and replication should be put to death. Everything should be put to death, but especially human! Humans are the lowest scums of the earth.
(Tongue firmly in cheek)
Euthanasia is also an issue involving human rights but it too counts for little.
A civilization which forces dying people to suffer months or years of terrible agony and indignity is hardly going to care about damage caused by global warming, is it? Get the connection?
After all, global warming damage provides opportunities for entrepreneurs to make money and not allowing people to die when they want to also provides more income for the health industry and the clerics.
Human rights? What are they? Our Masters decide!
www.dangerouscreation.com
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Environmental crimes are lost on economists and money changers.
Our planet can not sustain the current reproduction rates--and this is an essential factor in warming and related environmental issues. This president has waged war against family planning and the environment since his first day in office, when he essentially halted our international aid to these essential programs.
Bush’s contribution to over population, as well as his other enviromental crimes, have already caused immeasurable suffering & environmental damage to our planet. Until effective family planning programs can proceed without blockages from such irrational zealots guided by religious right radicals, starvation and environmental degradation from overpopulation can only worsen.
Yup, people are entitled to unchanging climate and weather. All those ancient cities dug up in deserts are frauds. People living in alluvial deposit plains, and the Rockie Mountains and praries, where they are finding ancient fish fossiles from millions of years ago, should all be swimming with the fish.
We have yet to solve two human rights problems.
War is when people are killed or hurt because of where they are living.
Various forms of environmental pollution already contribute to the deaths of most Americans. Who in your family is dead of cancer from chemicals? Who in your family loved to eat artery goo produced by rotten-hearted corporations and then finally got a heart attack or a stroke? Where did that sugar diabetes come from? MS? Gulf War Syndrome? ADHD? Asthma? Stress at work? Throughout the world, generations of people are dying from industrial disease. Is this not a human rights disaster?
Global warming disposesses us of our heritage:
-- of millions of species of animals and plants, of their DNA, of the wonder their sheer diversity produces in the human mind.
-- of safety, in a world newly full of hurricanes, floods and tornadoes.
-- of our land. I see Miami as a few skyscraper tops sticking out above an open ocean as far as the eye can see in every direction. I see China as a vast desert.
Social conservatives believe breathing is a privilege, not a right.