Human Rights, Population, and Climate Change

2020 ◽  
pp. 348-370
Author(s):  
Simon Caney
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
Population Size ◽  
World Population ◽  
Reproductive Choice ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Address Climate Change ◽  
World Population Growth ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter explores the relationship between human rights, population and climate change. Some argue that to address climate change it is necessary to implement policies that reduce world population growth and perhaps also population size. This chapter examines two ways of approaching this issue, both of which focus on what human rights people have. One calls for limits on people's human right to reproductive choice. A second approach holds that respecting core human rights will be sufficient to tackle the demographic drivers of climate change. This chapter critically evaluates both accounts and proposes a third one that builds on the second approach but goes beyond it.

A Study of the Relationship Between Attitudes Towards World Population Growth and USA Population Growth

1973 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-69
Author(s):  
Larry D. Barnett
Keyword(s):  
Growth Rate ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
Growth Rates ◽  
World Population ◽  
Population Growth Rates ◽  
World Population Growth ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Public Opinion Polls

In the fall of 1965 and again in the fall of 1967, The Population Council sponsored nationwide public opinion polls in which questions were asked regarding whether the world and US population growth rates constituted serious problems. Both polls found the proportion of respondents viewing the world growth rate as serious (62% in 1965, 69% in 1967) to be higher than the proportion viewing the US rate as serious (54% in 1965 and 1967) (Kantner, 1968). Thus, attitudes towards world population growth and US population growth appear to be potentially independent of and not necessarily congruent with one another, but to date no examination has been made of their relationship. It is the purpose of the present study: (1) to determine the incidence of each possible combination of views towards the world and US population growth rates, and (2) to determine how individuals with a particular attitude towards one growth rate distribute themselves in terms of attitudes towards the other rate.

scholarly journals International problem of climate change in the context of the human right to a favorable environment

2020 ◽  
pp. 549-559
Author(s):  
Marina A. Ermolina ◽  
◽  
Anna V. Kryukova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
European Union ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Healthy Environment ◽  
Legal Method ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Relationship

The subject of this study is the Urgenda Foundation v. The State of the Netherlands case related to climate law. This is the first known example of the use of European Union human rights law in a lawsuit on climate change and the observance of the human right to a healthy environment against the state. Using the comparative legal method, the authors consider similar cases in different countries, which makes it possible to determine the specifics of the relationship between the parties in the Fund’s case.

Contesting human rights and climate change at the UN Human Rights Council

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-29
Author(s):  
M Joel Voss
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Member States ◽  
Human Rights Council ◽  
Change Climate ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Shed Light

Climate change is one of the defining problems of our time. The relationship between climate change and human rights is receiving increased attention by stakeholders, including the UN and its primary human rights body, the Human Rights Council. Discussions on the relationship between climate change and human rights are hotly contested. This article is concerned with how states advocate for or against climate change and human rights at the Council. Participant observation on climate change resolutions from 2006 to 2019 through the UN's webTV archives are used to illustrate how states frame climate change. Although passed without a vote, significant contestation occurs over the content of each resolution. During explanations of the vote, Member States make some form of three claims – using one of three dominant framings. The first focuses on equity and development. The second frames the relationship between human rights and climate change: climate change is either constructed as a problem undermining human rights or as generating a responsibility for states to protect human rights when responding to it. The final argument's framing revolves around the mandate of the Council to discuss climate change as a human right. This article helps shed light on theories of norm contestation and on the strategies and frames used in advocating for the relationship between human rights and climate change and its construction – and significance – in the UN Human Rights Council.

Protecting Natural Resources

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jérémie Gilbert
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
Conservation Of Natural Resources ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Do So

This chapter focuses on the connection between the international legal framework governing the conservation of natural resources and human rights law. The objective is to examine the potential synergies between international environmental law and human rights when it comes to the protection of natural resources. To do so, it concentrates on three main areas of potential convergence. It first focuses on the pollution of natural resources and analyses how human rights law offers a potential platform to seek remedies for the victims of pollution. It next concentrates on the conservation of natural resources, particularly on the interconnection between protected areas, biodiversity, and human rights law. Finally, it examines the relationship between climate change and human rights law, focusing on the role that human rights law can play in the development of the current climate change adaptation and mitigation frameworks.

Global Earthquake Fatalities and Population

2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas L. Holzer ◽  
James C. Savage
Keyword(s):  
Population Growth ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Poisson Distribution ◽  
21St Century ◽  
World Population ◽  
Background Rate ◽  
Death Toll ◽  
World Population Growth ◽  
Human Death ◽  
Earthquake Fatalities

Modern global earthquake fatalities can be separated into two components: (1) fatalities from an approximately constant annual background rate that is independent of world population growth and (2) fatalities caused by earthquakes with large human death tolls, the frequency of which is dependent on world population. Earthquakes with death tolls greater than 100,000 (and 50,000) have increased with world population and obey a nonstationary Poisson distribution with rate proportional to population. We predict that the number of earthquakes with death tolls greater than 100,000 (50,000) will increase in the 21st century to 8.7±3.3 (20.5±4.3) from 4 (7) observed in the 20th century if world population reaches 10.1 billion in 2100. Combining fatalities caused by the background rate with fatalities caused by catastrophic earthquakes ( >100,000 fatalities) indicates global fatalities in the 21st century will be 2.57±0.64 million if the average post-1900 death toll for catastrophic earthquakes (193,000) is assumed.

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