Legal and Human Rights Implications
According to Kotze (2014), the law has a social function to insert the general interests of society into the behavior of the members of this society. Further, the law is responsible for establishing possible futures for society by acknowledging the ethics and values of these communities. In this age, humans are the center of the universe and enjoy dominion over other things, using nature to serve their needs.
Climate change has come up as a result of this hegemony leading to the ecological disaster being experienced in the world. It has led to various human rights issues, especially the issue of intergenerational justice, whether humans today have a responsibility to the future generation and what rights these future generations have now. Further, there is the issue of participation of parties that are non-state in the climate negotiation process. Legally, environmental change leads to questions on the responsibilities and rights of states such as island states that are more likely to suffer due to climate change.
Various legal issues surround the rights of climate refugees and the potential impact of climate change on fundamental human rights such as the right to life, property, equality, and human dignity. Degradation of the environment is also likely to cause problems in the alleviation of poverty as well as in the access to food and water, especially for minority communities that rely on nature for these essential supplies. The role of multinational corporations and other large organizations that are significant contributors to climate change is also a legal issue likely to result as the responsibility of these corporations is in question.
Author’s recommendations for ensuring rights, equity, and justice
Sustainability is heralded by Kotzé (2014) as a crucial concept in ensuring human rights, equality, and justice in this age. However, such sustainability will have to be much more than the weak framework used to justify ecological destruction for social-economic gain. Rather, sustainable development should consider the rights of the whole ecosphere, not just for human beings. Property developments, for example, should be ecologically justifiable for the entire biosphere. The author suggests clauses in human environmental rights that should place legal limits on developments that lead to undue demands on the biosphere.
The author also suggests the adoption of a description that includes all the interconnected relationships between all things living and non-living. By considering that the future of the earth depends on safeguarding the integrity of the whole ecosphere, including human and non-human things, humans can develop more sustainable approaches to development. Adopting such a holistic approach to sustainability will require that humans remove the focus of environmental rights from just themselves and living things to include the whole earth and earth systems, including non-living things.
Lastly, the author also proposes a shift from using the term environmental justice to ecological justice. Such a term removes the focus from the human right to the access of such resources to focus on the extent to which the resources are accessible and available. Further, an international organization that is more powerful than the current United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) is needed to reform the governance of worldwide environmental law.
References
Kotzé, L. J. (2014). Human rights and the environment in the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene Review, 1(3), 252-275.