The Cost of Human Rights

The discussion of human rights can quickly become a dreary topic, but this post comes bearing good news. Last Saturday the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that they are creating an Office of Environmental Justice. This office is combining three smaller offices which are environmental justice, civil rights, and conflict prevention and resolution. The new office is a higher level office with a senate approved assistant administrator. This is a huge step for the United States in recognizing and potentially addressing issues of environmental justice. The EPA defines environmental justice as, “ fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies” (Environmental Protection Agency) . While this is not specifically included in many Intentional Human rights documents, this is definitely an issue of human righ

Floodwaters inundate a home in Cayey, Puerto Rico on Sunday, September 18.   Stephanie Rojas/AP Last Sunday a class one hurricane given the name Hurricane Fiona reached the mainland of Puerto Rico. A class one hurricane means that wind speeds reach between 74 and 95 miles per hour and large amounts of rain to go along with the high wind speeds Class one is the lowest class for hurricanes. Despite this, hurricane Fiona has devastated the territory of Puerto Rico. Approximately 400 people had to be rescued due to flash flooding and the entire island lost power. Additionally the destruction and flooding has severely limited access to clean drinking water. As of Tuesday around 40 percent of the island had access to clean drinking water. Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico around the five year anniversary of hurricane Maria which devastated the island and left the island without power for months. It took 11 months for everyone on the island to have their power restored and the electrical grid i

  I would like to take a step back today and look at some of the standards of human rights that have been adopted on a global scale despite not all countries necessarily abiding to these standards. One major document addressing human rights is the United Nations declaration of Human Rights which was proclaimed in december of 1948. I read through these rights with the question in mind of would these rights be affected if the population was dealing with the effects of climate change in specific. There are a few specific articles that stand out when looking at these rights through that lens. The first article that stands out is article three which states that everyone has the right to life. This stands out because the effects of pollution and climate change have caused people to lose their lives. An example of this is the flooding in Pakistan which caused approximately 1500 casualties, which has increased from last week.  Additionally, article 25 states, “ Everyone has the right to a stan

During the month of August, Pakistan has had the effects of climate change devastating the nation. Heat typical of a La Nina weather with extreme heat conditions as early as May. The city of Nawabshah in Pakistan hit 49.5 degrees celsius or 120 degrees fahrenheit on May 1st (Nasa). As late July came around, monsoonal rains hit Pakistan and have been causing devastating flooding. According to the Nasa Earth Observatory they have received five to six times their average rainfall over the last thirty years. Along with the monsoonal rains the increasingly hot summer temperatures have caused glacial ice melting. Pakistan has the most glacial ice of any nation outside of the polar regions (Nasa). The melting of these glaciers not only adds to the flooding but is a clear indicator of climate change. “Devastating Floods in Pakistan.” NASA, NASA, https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/150279/devastating-floods-in-pakistan. The floods have affected approximately thirty three thousand people an

Hello,       Welcome to The Cost of Human Rights where we will be discussing the relationship between Climate change and sustainability with international human rights. This blog will aim to bring light to climate change issues that are often studied by environmentalists but are not always connected to issues of human rights and quality of life for the people who are disproportionally impacted by these issues. I would not only like to bring light to these issues but discuss the cost and benefits of these issues when it comes to human rights and the roles of governments in both creating and solving these issues. Issues of sustainability are becoming increasingly important as they continue to get worse. My goal is to bring light onto issues that may not be main topics of discussion and show the connection between environmental issues and human rights issues that is often ignored.  Thank you for reading and stay tuned for new posts!