Climate
change: A gross violation of human rights
What is elegantly termed as “climate
change” is in reality one of the most gross violations
of human rights ever committed in history. It is a crime to Humanity
as a whole.
People are already dying, or
becoming homeless, or suffering from hunger and malnutrition
as a result of changes in weather patterns. Entire countries
–particularly small island states- are witnessing the impacts
of rising sea levels that may make them disappear underwater in
few years’ time. People living in lowland areas close to
the oceans are facing the same threat. Communities living in mountain
areas are witnessing the melting of the ice and snow that ensures
their water supply and productive activities throughout the year.
Climate change is not just “happening”;
it is the result of a socially unjust and environmentally destructive
economic model imposed by a corporate-led minority on the entire
planet. Climate change is a crime being committed by an extremely
powerful group of corporations in alliance with also very powerful
governments that provide them with impunity.
What makes the issue more dramatic
is that even if those responsible would agree to immediately
adopt the necessary measures to avoid further climate change,
the basic human rights of millions of people will continue being
violated as a result of the already changed weather patterns.
To name but a few:
- The right to food and water:
the increased occurrence of catastrophic droughts, floods and
extreme temperatures will destroy people’s agricultural
production and limit access to sufficient and clean drinking
water.
- The right to health: malnourishment,
heat waves, extreme cold, new illnesses related to environmental
change, will impact on people’s health, in many cases leading
to death.
- The right to live in your
own homeland: millions of people will be pushed away from their
homelands by climate-related impacts, and will become environmental
refugees.
- The right to life: the increasing
occurrence of catastrophic climate events such as cyclones, hurricanes,
tornados and floods will result in millions of deaths.
- The right to peace: desperate
situations resulting from climate change will result in civil
strife, repression and even war.
Within the many millions of
people whose rights will be violated as a result of climate change,
most of the suffering will be borne by those who lack the resources
to protect themselves against climate-related events. Although
the majority of these live in the South, the impacts will disproportionally
affect vulnerable groups in every single country of the world.
Instead of changing course
to avoid further increasing climate change and its related human
suffering, the climate criminals are promoting
“solutions” that will violate the rights of many more
people while at the same time enabling them to continue business –and
climate destruction- as usual. The following examples can illustrate
this:
- Promotion of agrofuels as
a substitute to fossil fuels. This “solution”
implies the appropriation of vast areas of forest and agricultural
lands to dedicate them to sugar cane, soya, oil palm, jatropha,
eucalyptus and other crops for producing agrodiesel and ethanol
to be used as fuels. As a result, a number of human rights are
violated, such as the right to food, water, health, medicines,
biodiversity, territory, culture.
- Promotion of hydropower as
a substitute to fossil fuels. This approach results in the building
of large hydroelectric dams that flood extensive areas of forests
and agricultural lands and that impact heavily on fish populations.
Local people not only loose their means of livelihoods but are
also forced to migrate as their lands become submerged under
the dams’ reservoirs. Thus those rights -to livelihoods
and to live in their territories- are violated, together with
a larger number of basic human rights.
- Promotion of carbon reservoirs
and carbon sinks for trapping carbon dioxide emitted from fossil
fuels. This means either the takeover of peoples’ forests –defined
as carbon reservoirs that need to be preserved- or the appropriation
of their lands for planting trees to act as so-called carbon
sinks. Needless to say that the result is the violation of a
large number of human rights.
Everything expressed above
gives only a very partial picture of climate-related violation
of human rights. The full picture is far worse and can become
even more dramatic if climate criminals are allowed to continue
to destroy the Earth’s climate. This is not a matter that
can be left in the hands of “experts”, many of which
have been and continue being accomplices of those responsible
for the crime.
In this context, women have
an important role to play. Although it is true that women are
the most affected by climate change, it is equally true that
they are also key catalysts for positive change. Their knowledge
and experience is fundamental for a successful mitigation of
climate change, as well as for climate change adaptation.
What is at stake is nothing
less than the right of this and future generations to a livable
planet. This very basic human right –on which many other
rights depend on- needs to be imposed by organized peoples –women
and men- worldwide.
Climate needs to be taken back
into peoples’ hands before it is too late.
