Human Rights and Climate Change
How should we evaluate climatic impacts? I have argued that climate change jeopardizes core human rights. In particular, I have argued that it undermines the human right to life, the human right to food and water, and the human right to health. For one statement of this argument see
[1] 'Climate Change, Human Rights and Moral Thresholds' in Human Rights and Climate Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), edited by Stephen Humphreys, pp.69-90. This has been reprinted in Climate Ethics: Essential Readings (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010) edited by Stephen Gardiner, Simon Caney, Dale Jamieson and Henry Shue. [This paper seeks to show that climate change undermines human rights using very minimal and uncontentious conceptions of those human rights.]
For other treatments of the impact of climate change on human rights, see
[2] ‘Cosmopolitan Justice, Responsibility, and Global Climate Change’, Leiden Journal of International Law vol.18 no.4 (2005), pp.747-775.
[3] ‘Cosmopolitan Justice, Rights and Climate Change’, Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence vol.XIX no.2 (2006), pp.255-278.
[4] 'Human Rights, Responsibilities, and Climate Change' in Global Basic Rights (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009) edited by Charles Beitz and Robert Goodin, pp.227-247. This has been reprinted in Environmental Rights (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012) edited by Steve Vanderheiden.
[5] ‘Global Justice, Climate Change, and Human Rights’ in Leadership and Global Justice (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) edited by Douglas A. Hicks and Thad Williamson, pp.91-112.