Green Options

From North Alaska to the Pacific Islands, the phenomena of climate change is threatening the lives and livelihoods of people.

At first glance, human rights and climate change appear to be disconnected but as the world increasingly experiences climatic devastation, the human rights of people, particularly the poor and marginalized, will be adversely affected.

There is no doubt that climate change will have immense human consequences. Looking at climate change through the human rights lens reveals the extent of human suffering that is a product of our treatment of the environment.

According to a report published recently titled “Climate Change and Human Rights: A Rough Guide, 2008,” climate change is already undermining the realisation of a broad range of internationally protected human rights: rights to health and even life; rights to food, water, shelter and property; rights associated with livelihood and culture; with migration and resettlement; and with personal security in the event of conflict.

To make matters worse, the worst effects of climate change are likely to be felt by those individuals and groups whose rights protections are already precarious.

This world is founded on some basic laws, including cause and effect. Every action has a reaction. Every cause has an effect. And we may think that we’re all separate beings in this world, separate beings and entities. But in reality, we are all connected, we are all intertwined, and we are all One. And thus it follows, for everything we do, it has an effect not only on us, but on everyone else and everything else around us and even beyond.

So, we are tackling the problem of environmental fragility today. And how did we get to this place? How did we get to this situation?

Of course, there are a lot of scientific explanations, political explanations, systematic explanations, and so on.

But how did we get here, really?

By every action ever made — by us, by others, and by all of us combined.

By every thought.

By every feeling and every want or need in our hearts and expressed in our thoughts, our words, and our actions.

We can see that no matter how hard we try, we will fail to address the problems we face today if we don’t address our own personal sustainability and situation. What do I mean by personal sustainability?

For many people, the world exists as a separate, objective whole to be exploited or polluted without any expense at the personal level. If anything, people wall themselves from the consequences of their actions.

Take for example, people dump trash everywhere without a trifle to the conscience. Or big corporate engage in activities aimed at boosting bottom lines without concern of damage inflicted to the earth.

The idea that the earth is an objectively existing place, separate from ourselves lies at the very heart of the environmental challenges that we face.

Humans might have ushered Earth into the Anthropocene, but we’d be unwise to ignore the fact that we’re always going to be living in the Age of Microbes, according to a new article in Microbiology Today. “Microbes will continue as climate engineers long after humans have burned that [...]