Climate Change Violates Human Rights

Most of the world’s nations have by now included global warming and the immediate effects of climate change on their political agendas. They are currently wrangling over a climate treaty that should finally enact drastic cutbacks in the carbon dioxide emissions produced by industrial as well as a handful of developing nations. The international community also finds itself in tough negotiations over financial transfers from the global North to the global South that are necessary to help developing nations protect themselves from the effects of climate change. In doing so, the North must take on a dual responsibility. While the nations of the North have been polluting the atmosphere for quite some time, the effects of climate change are mainly felt among the poorest levels of society in the nations of the South. These peoples are faced with the destruction of their living space, and their already tenuous rights to water, food, housing, and education are further threatened by climate change. Thankfully, the human rights dimension of climate change is gaining ground in the minds of both politicians and the public at large. For the first time ever, the UN Human Rights Council addressed the connection between climate change and human rights in 2009.