1. Children vs. the Climate Crisis
By Jessica Zhu, former Head of Human Rights, published August 2019
Editor's note & Preface: The Climate Crisis has long been at the forefront of international relations and domestic politics. Not many countries still deny that climate change exists. The landmark court case filed by kids against governments failing to act on climate change was a stepping stone towards recognition of looming existential crisis. This article accurately represents the importance of the case in the context of climate politics, as well as discusses why climate change is no longer a matter of partisanship but instead of basic human rights.
On Tuesday, September 24th, sixteen minors from countries around the world filed a landmark human rights complaint against Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany and Turkey for the countries’ perpetuation of climate change inducing activities. The complaint, submitted to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, argues in legal terms what many of us already know: climate change is a human rights issue.
The IYPF is committed to covering as many perspectives on an issue as possible, but when it comes to climate change, that becomes difficult. How do you ethically publish an article that is based on the denial of science itself? In TIME Magazine’s recent Climate Issue, dedicated exclusively to the coverage of climate change around the world, Editor-in-Chief Edward Felsenthal wrote that he would not include climate change skeptics in the publication because “The science on [climate change] is settled. There isn’t another side, and there isn’t another moment.” Similarly, this article features only one perspective because there should only be one perspective—that of science.
As the adverse effects of climate change are increasingly portrayed as violations of human rights, it is important to bring into the spotlight the decades-long global exploitation of indigenous peoples and people of color that has resulted from an intersection of capitalist resource- consumption and racism. Children vs. Climate Crisis, the legal complaint filed at the UN, features anecdotes from inhabitants of the Marshall Islands, such as Petitioner Carlos Manuel, whose very homes are at risk of being submerged under water by rising sea levels. It further argues that if this forces the Marshallese to flee their islands as climate refugees, they would lose thousand-years-old cultural practices and locations. Indigenous communities have consistently been marginalized by government and corporation practices damaging to the environment, from the people of the Marshall Islands fighting to save their homes, to the indigenous tribes of America protesting the construction of pipelines on their land, to the Sami people of northern Sweden, represented by Petitioner Ellen-Anne, who may lose their reindeer herding traditions because climate change is destroying the food sources of the animals. President Bolsonaro of Brazil, one of the Respondent countries, has even encouraged people to invade indigenous territory in the Amazon for deforestation and cattle farms, and has declared his intent to eradicate all indigenous land from the country (Cowie, 2019). It’s not surprising then, that indigenous people have also been among the leading activists against climate change; however, they are consistently sidelined by mainstream media and thus never get the following and recognition that Western activists such as Greta Thunberg do. Take Autumn Peltier for example, who has been nominated for the 2019 International Children’s Peace Prize for her efforts to protect the Anishinabek Nation’s water but whose name is hardly recognized by most people.
The exploitation and marginalization of indigenous people as a result of climate change is among the most pressing human rights violations today, and if left unchecked will ensure the loss of centuries-long cultures coupled with the gradual decline of the populations who follow them.
Additionally, and somewhat ironically, while countries in the West emit the highest amount of pollution per capita, it is countries in the Global South that bear the brunt of climate change’s effects, despite their minimal share in the contributions to climate change. A 2015 Nature journal study found that the average income of the world’s poorest countries could decline by 75% by 2100 if current trends continue, while some of the richest countries could see increases in income. The famous IPCC report further showed that a 1.5°C rise in global temperatures would lead to the destruction of entire communities and the premature deaths of millions of people in the Global South (Worland, 2019). The unfortunate reality is that because the people in power haven’t been personally affected by climate change, they simply don’t care. The lives of indigenous people and people in poorer countries are not valuable to them, and thus they prioritize profit over physical human lives. It is undebatable, then, that climate change has become an issue of human rights. The fight over it is inseparable from the fight to achieve global equality for indigenous people and people of color.
Even for those living in the West, climate change has brought devastating consequences. Many of the Petitioners in Children vs. Climate Crisis, including some who live in the United States, have been hospitalized for asthma and other respiratory problems following inhalation of smoke and pollution. The Paradise fires in California destroyed not only dozens of homes but also caused health issues for many across the state. In my own school, 200 miles away in the Bay Area, air quality was too unhealthy to allow sports practices to continue, and students were advised to stay indoors during break periods. For those who can’t afford to evacuate to safer areas of the world until the smoke clears, or who can’t afford to seek medical treatment, health issues are exacerbated even further. Unfortunately, this population is predominantly made up of people of color, returning us again to climate change’s intersection with racial inequities around the world.
This article is by no means an exhaustive defense of climate change as a human rights issue. Many other marginalized populations are affected by climate change in many other diverse ways, and it is probably impossible to cover all of them, especially in a short piece like this one. But it is important to recognize the fight against climate change as not just a movement to save the planet, but also an intersectional revolution that should center itself around those most affected by climate change—indigenous people, people living in the Global South, low-income communities, women, and many more.
The IYPF is committed to covering as many perspectives on an issue as possible, but when it comes to climate change, that becomes difficult. How do you ethically publish an article that is based on the denial of science itself? In TIME Magazine’s recent Climate Issue, dedicated exclusively to the coverage of climate change around the world, Editor-in-Chief Edward Felsenthal wrote that he would not include climate change skeptics in the publication because “The science on [climate change] is settled. There isn’t another side, and there isn’t another moment.” Similarly, this article features only one perspective because there should only be one perspective—that of science.
As the adverse effects of climate change are increasingly portrayed as violations of human rights, it is important to bring into the spotlight the decades-long global exploitation of indigenous peoples and people of color that has resulted from an intersection of capitalist resource- consumption and racism. Children vs. Climate Crisis, the legal complaint filed at the UN, features anecdotes from inhabitants of the Marshall Islands, such as Petitioner Carlos Manuel, whose very homes are at risk of being submerged under water by rising sea levels. It further argues that if this forces the Marshallese to flee their islands as climate refugees, they would lose thousand-years-old cultural practices and locations. Indigenous communities have consistently been marginalized by government and corporation practices damaging to the environment, from the people of the Marshall Islands fighting to save their homes, to the indigenous tribes of America protesting the construction of pipelines on their land, to the Sami people of northern Sweden, represented by Petitioner Ellen-Anne, who may lose their reindeer herding traditions because climate change is destroying the food sources of the animals. President Bolsonaro of Brazil, one of the Respondent countries, has even encouraged people to invade indigenous territory in the Amazon for deforestation and cattle farms, and has declared his intent to eradicate all indigenous land from the country (Cowie, 2019). It’s not surprising then, that indigenous people have also been among the leading activists against climate change; however, they are consistently sidelined by mainstream media and thus never get the following and recognition that Western activists such as Greta Thunberg do. Take Autumn Peltier for example, who has been nominated for the 2019 International Children’s Peace Prize for her efforts to protect the Anishinabek Nation’s water but whose name is hardly recognized by most people.
The exploitation and marginalization of indigenous people as a result of climate change is among the most pressing human rights violations today, and if left unchecked will ensure the loss of centuries-long cultures coupled with the gradual decline of the populations who follow them.
Additionally, and somewhat ironically, while countries in the West emit the highest amount of pollution per capita, it is countries in the Global South that bear the brunt of climate change’s effects, despite their minimal share in the contributions to climate change. A 2015 Nature journal study found that the average income of the world’s poorest countries could decline by 75% by 2100 if current trends continue, while some of the richest countries could see increases in income. The famous IPCC report further showed that a 1.5°C rise in global temperatures would lead to the destruction of entire communities and the premature deaths of millions of people in the Global South (Worland, 2019). The unfortunate reality is that because the people in power haven’t been personally affected by climate change, they simply don’t care. The lives of indigenous people and people in poorer countries are not valuable to them, and thus they prioritize profit over physical human lives. It is undebatable, then, that climate change has become an issue of human rights. The fight over it is inseparable from the fight to achieve global equality for indigenous people and people of color.
Even for those living in the West, climate change has brought devastating consequences. Many of the Petitioners in Children vs. Climate Crisis, including some who live in the United States, have been hospitalized for asthma and other respiratory problems following inhalation of smoke and pollution. The Paradise fires in California destroyed not only dozens of homes but also caused health issues for many across the state. In my own school, 200 miles away in the Bay Area, air quality was too unhealthy to allow sports practices to continue, and students were advised to stay indoors during break periods. For those who can’t afford to evacuate to safer areas of the world until the smoke clears, or who can’t afford to seek medical treatment, health issues are exacerbated even further. Unfortunately, this population is predominantly made up of people of color, returning us again to climate change’s intersection with racial inequities around the world.
This article is by no means an exhaustive defense of climate change as a human rights issue. Many other marginalized populations are affected by climate change in many other diverse ways, and it is probably impossible to cover all of them, especially in a short piece like this one. But it is important to recognize the fight against climate change as not just a movement to save the planet, but also an intersectional revolution that should center itself around those most affected by climate change—indigenous people, people living in the Global South, low-income communities, women, and many more.