Amnesty International  (1961)

Amnesty takes on climate justice

WHY IS IT AN ISSUE? The climate emergency is a human rights crisis of unprecedented proportions. The climate crisis threatens civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of present and future generations and, ultimately, the future of humanity. When climate crisis-related impacts hit a country or a community, the effects can seriously endanger a range of human freedoms and in many cases even put at risk the cultural survival of entire peoples.
Under international human rights law, governments have legal and enforceable obligations to tackle the climate crisis, including by rapidly phasing out fossil fuels through a just transition to green energy that respects, protects and fulfills the human rights of all people, especially those most impacted.

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?

The planet’s climate has constantly changed throughout the Earth’s history with significant fluctuations of global average temperatures. However, the current period of warming is occurring more rapidly than any past events within human history. 

The vast majority of climate scientists conclude that humanity has caused most of the last century’s warming by releasing heat-trapping gasses – known as greenhouse gasses – to power our modern lives. We are releasing these gasses through the burning of fossil fuels, industrial agriculture and land-use change, transportation and other activities that drive the climate crisis. Greenhouse gasses are present in the atmosphere today at the highest levels they have ever been over the last 800,000 years.

The climate crisis involves not only a rise in the global average temperature, but also a range of other impacts at a rate that is too fast for living things to adapt to. 

Research has shown that the climate crisis has led to the increased intensity and frequency of certain weather events, such as extreme heat, wildfires and extreme rainfall from tropical storms. The climate crisis also alters precipitation patterns and leads to glacial melting, sea-level rise, salt water intrusion and ocean acidification, and contributes to shifting wildlife populations and habitats and to biodiversity loss.

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