What many people don’t realize is
that climate change directly affects human rights. In class we defined human
rights as, “rights you have simply because you’re a human”. The main essence of
these rights is the right to life, the equality between all people. When we
talk about climate change, a lot of issues
arise. In an article posted by the United
Nations Human Rights, it says “The Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) unequivocally
confirmed that climate change is real and that human-made greenhouse gas
emissions are its primary cause.” This should be a wake up call to everyone,
but most people don’t even realize it. This climate change affects everyone
around the world. When we break it down, climate change causes droughts, water
shortages, heat waves, rising sea levels and the spreading of diseases. All
these factors impact human rights: the right to life, water, food, housing,
health and development. Most people don’t realize how this climate change
affects the world around us.
This chart shows the statistics for projected sea level rising in the upcoming years.
These impacts of climate change
ever further put poor countries and communities at a disadvantage for growing
as a country or trying to escape poverty. Some of these countries rely on arid
lands, low lying coastal lands and other types of fragile ecosystems, and with
this climate change, there’s a greater risk of losing land for housing and
substances these people require to live.
The
President of the Republic of Kiribati, Anote Tong, said “Climate change impact is a moral issue above all. It
remains the biggest moral challenge facing human kind, and for low lying
countries, climate change is about our survival into the future.” The climate
change has directly affected Tong’s nation. The rising sea levels have led to
water contamination as well as a loss of land and crops. This climate change
demoralizes the rights to health, food, water and even in some cases
self-determination.
“The poorest people in the poorest countries.
Their children. And ours. Populations of small islands, and low-lying coastal
lands. For some communities, climate change threatens their very survival,” said
Flavia Pansieri, the UN Deputy High Commissioner.
“It’s my striving that if I’m
more productive, I’ll be more accomplished, and if I’m more accomplished then
I’ll be more successful, if I’m successful then life will matter and if my life
will matter than i will be loved. It’s exhausting.” Elizabeth Lindsey said this about herself
in her Ted Talk about the affect of climate change and human rights. I think
this shows how much people try and strive to make ends meet.
This chart shows the projected Carbon Dioxide till 2030.
The Dominican Republic has a big issue in the
rise of CO2 concentration, which can tend to acidify the oceans. This is a big
problem for these types of tropical regions because the more acidic, the harder
it is for ocean organisms to general shells and coral. As mentioned before,
this climate change in the Dominican Republic will also lead to the spread of
infectious diseases. According to the Committee
on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, it will also increase the amount of
hurricanes, which will contribute to the rise of sea levels.
In Farish Noor’s article, he talks about going
beyond eurocentrism by talking about Ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism is the
tendency of the individuals and cultures to view themselves from the
perspectives of their own beliefs, culture and values, while also involving the
viewing of one’s own culture as superior and any other culture that is out of
the norm as inferior. Noor explores the importance of living with different
cultures with their different interpretations of human rights and liberties. It
is also important to believe that not one perspective is better than the other.
No group should have their basic human rights torn away from them because of a
certain set of cultural differences.
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