The human element of Global Warming

Prof. S. Antony Norbert

Global warming is an observed increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. Part of this increase may be due to natural processes, and would have occurred independently of human activity.

The remainder is due to a human-induced intensification of the greenhouse effect. The increased volumes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases released by the burning of fossil fuels, land clearing and agriculture, and other human activities, are the primary sources of human-induced warming.

A change in the greenhouse gas content of the atmosphere will affect the amount of energy stored in the atmosphere. For example, if the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increased, more heat will be trapped in the atmosphere. This enhanced greenhouse effect raises the Earth’s surface temperature.

Mankind through the burning of fossil fuels for energy and transportation, and changing land use, has produced a substantial change in the atmospheric composition over most recent centuries, and it is feared that this continuing change will effect on climate change.

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have increased by nearly 30 per cent, methane concentrations have more

 than doubled, and nitrous oxide concentrations have risen by about 15 per cent.

These increases have enhanced the heat-trapping capability of the earth’s atmosphere.

In recent times, scientists have become interested in global warming, due to human’s impact on the climate system, through the enhancement of the natural greenhouse effect. Globally, the average surface temperature has increased by about 0.6øC during the last 100 years.

The rise in sea level would be 2-4 cm per decade due to thermal expasion of ocean waters and melting ice caps and glaciers. Whole areas of low-lying coastal and estuarine environments will get flooded and many islands would become totally submerged, example; Maldive Islands.

Global warming has sparked a new refugee crisis and it is a threat to food security for millions of people worldwide. It could significantly reduce the production of several key food crops grown in North America, such as corn, wheat, and potatoes. Many scientists think that such rapid warming in these ice-covered parts of the world is a consequence of the ice-albedo feedback effect.

Ice, being white, reflects a significant amount of sunlight and keeps the surface colder for longer. Highly reflective surfaces like ice have high albedos. As the enhanced greenhouse effect warms the surface of the Earth, some of the ice at high latitudes melts, exposing either bare ground or ocean, both of which have lower albedos than ice.

With a lower albedo, the exposed surfaces reflect less sunlight, with more sunlight being absorbed. This causes a further rise in surface temperature, and in turn a further melting of ice.

Here, the climatic response to primary greenhouse heating acts as a secondary climate forcing that augments the initial climate change. In the polar regions however, regional warming has been considerably greater. In some parts of Antarctica and northern Russia, temperatures have increased by about 2øC within only 50 years.

The Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the globe because water or bare earth, once uncovered, soak up more heat than ice or snow. In the Arctic region Inuit communities are at risk due to melting of ice sheets.

For Inuit communities, ice and snow are intrinsic to physical and cultural survival. Even their building of igloos is under threat. Inuit communities live in the United States, Canada, Russia and Greenland.

The total population of Inuit people is about 155,000 and inhabiting small enclaves in the coastal areas of Greenland, Arctic, North America (including Canada and Alaska), and extreme northeastern Siberia (Greenland and Russia). The name Inuit means “the people.” In 1977 the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, held in Barrow, Alaska, officially adopted Inuit as the replacement for the term “Eskimo.”

In Alaska the term “Eskimo” is still commonly used. The ancestors of present-day Inuit, probably traveled from Eurasia eastwards across northern Canada to Greenland.

These indigenous people live in one of the most inhospitable regions of the world. Their land consists of low, flat, treeless plains with permanently frozen ground (permafrost). Although some groups are settled on rivers and depend primarily on fishing for subsistence, others follow inland caribou herds.

Most of these people have lived primarily as hunters of maritime mammals (seals, walrus, and whales), and their culture has always been oriented to the sea for food and materials for clothing, shelter, and weaponry.

Current census data list 40,000 Inuit in Alaska; 30,000 in Canada; 40,000 in Greenland; and approximately 1,000 in Siberia. In the Arctic regions of Canada and the United States, warmer temperatures are melting the ice and snow that have formed the basis of culture and survival for millennia.

Many Inuit live in more conventional buildings, which are constructed mainly to keep the cold out. Unfortunately, with longer and warmer summers with 24-hour-a-day sunlight, this has turned into very hot. Since the glaciers are melting quickly, hunters are unable to use glaciers to cross safely. Now it is so unsafe and have become torrent rivers. As a result of that, sometimes, they have had a drowning as well.

There are lots of anxieties and angers that are being felt by some of the hunters that no longer they can go and hunt. They could see the change, but they can’t explain why it is changing. Global warming has particular impacts on indigenous peoples throughout the hemisphere.

Therefore, the relationship between human rights and global warming must be evaluated in the context of indigenous rights. Because indigenous people’s traditional lands and natural resources are essential to their physical and cultural survival.

The right to use and enjoy property is the right which is guaranteed in the American Declaration and American Convention, as well as in numerous other international instruments. The right to property guarantees the use of those lands to which indigenous peoples have historically had access for their traditional activities and livelihood. Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and American Court recognised this right.

The right to life, physical integrity and security is the most fundamental right that is guaranteed in all major American and international human rights agreements. As global warming interferes with the ability of people to hunt, gather, or engage in subsistence farming on their lands, it undermines their right to a means of subsistence and their right to life. The use and enjoyment of the land and its resources are integral components of the physical and cultural survival of the indigenous communities.

Global warming is destroying lands and ecosystems of the indigenous cultures. Inuit hunters are falling through the ice to their death as a result of the thinner ice in the Arctic. These poor and indigenous communities now have limited ability to turn to other sources for their needs.

If action is not taken immediately worldwide, to reduce carbon emissions, the consequences could be catastrophic. It is about humanity. It is about the right to protection from the destruction of people’s homelands, property, and livelihoods. It is about the basic human right to physical integrity. In other words, global warming is a human rights issue.

The U.S. is the world’s top polluter. Too little is done to limit emissions of carbon dioxide from factories, cars and power plants. U.N. studies forecast that global warming could bring more extreme weather conditions with disastrous droughts, floods and storms.

It could also melt icecaps and increase sea levels, swamping coastal areas and low-lying islands.

Giving due consideration to the plight and deteoriating living conditions of inuit people as a result of global warming, Nobel Peace nominee Sheila Watt-Cloutier has pushed this matter to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (Organization of American States).

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has agreed to look into this matter and set a date for hearing on global Warming. The hearing was scheduled for March 1, 2007.

As for environmental activists this decision of the commission itself is a victory. The environmental organizations have outlined the serious threat of global warming that is already having on human rights in the Arctic and throughout the hemisphere. They outlined the impacts on the people of the Arctic as follows:

Because of the loss of ice and snow, communities have become isolated from one another; hunting, travel and other subsistence activities have become more dangerous or impossible; drinking water sources have been jeopardized; many coastal communities are already threatened or being forced to relocate, while others face increasing risks or costs; and transmission of Inuit culture to younger generations has become difficult or impossible.

These impacts jeopardize the realization of the Inuit’s rights to culture, life, health, physical integrity and security, property, and subsistence.

There can be no question that global warming is a serious threat to human rights in the Arctic and around the world. These fast-moving adaptations come as a surprise even to biologists and ecologists because they are occurring so rapidly. It is also reported that between 100 and 200 other cold-dependent animal species, such as penguins and polar bears are in deep trouble.

Indigenous peoples in the Arctic are the product of the physical environment in which they live. The culture, economy and identity of indigenous people depend upon the ice and snow. Climate change now threatens these people’s human rights to culture, life, personal security, health, housing, and food.

In the light of these principles, States have an international obligation to address their role on global warming, either through their own activities or by the activities of private actors within their jurisdiction.

In the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, 190 nations have recognised the need for coordinated effort and established a regime for doing so. But simply participating in that regime is not necessarily sufficient to prevent human rights violations related to global warming.

States must work to ensure that the international system is strong enough to fully protect human rights. If they are unable to do so through global collaboration, they must take necessary steps to avoid contributing to human rights violations under their jurisdiction.

Because of the loss of ice and snow, communities have become isolated from one another. Hunting, travelling and other subsistence activities have become more dangerous or impossible.

Drinking water sources have been jeopardized. In addition, many coastal communities are already threatened of or being forced to relocate and transmission of Inuit culture to younger generations has become difficult or impossible.

These impacts jeopardize the realization of the Inuit’s rights to culture, life, health, physical integrity and security, property, and subsistence.

The writer is Professor of Geography, University of Colombo