Spirituality and Ecological Hope

Fostering Ecological Hope
Today from Margaret Swedish:

For the Inuit, global warming is now, and it is threatening their entire way of life. Permafrost is melting, their homes and buildings are crumbling, the wildlife on which they depend for food are in danger of extinction.

Global warming is largely human caused, the emitters know it, and they are not doing enough to stop it — for example, the world’s biggest carbon dioxide emitter, the US of A.

Like a gun to the head, the Inuit are saying this amounts to a human rights violation, and they brought their grievances before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

The petition was filed in 2005 by Sheila Watt-Cloutier, an Inuit leader in Canada and a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, specifically against the US, which emits a quarter of all human-induced carbon dioxide emissions. The Commission rejected the specific claim, but agreed to hold hearings on the relationship between global warming and human rights. That hearing took place yesterday. You can read or listen to her testimony here, at the website for EarthJustice, a group that provides legal services for, well, our Earth, so to speak — which needs good lawyers, as the website says. Anyway, there’s lots more info here, so take a look.

Global warming has quickly risen to the top of the agenda at the United Nations as well, especially since the release of the report of the UN-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The Washington Post reports this morning that the new UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon (the choice of the US, by the way), in a speech yesterday called global warming as big a threat as modern warfare, including the threat of nuclear war.

Calling it ‘an inescapable reality,’ Ban:

warned that the destruction it inflicts — including the loss of arable land to droughts and coastal flooding — is likely to be a “major driver of war and conflict” in the coming decades.

He also expressed hopes that the US would wake up and begin to take global leadership in meeting the crisis with effective action.

Speaking before an international high school conference at UN headquarters, Ban urged the younger generation to do a better job of caring for the planet:

For my generation, coming of age at the height of the Cold War, fear of nuclear winter seemed the leading existential threat on the horizon. But the danger posed by war to all humanity — and to our planet — is at least matched by climate change…

The majority of the UN’s work still focuses on preventing and ending conflict. But the danger posed by war to all of humanity — and to our planet — is at least matched by the climate crisis and global warming…

We are all complicit in the process of global warming. Unfortunately, my generation has been somewhat careless in looking after our only planet.

And then some.

For these international bodies, this is new ground being broken, and the significance should not be underestimated — global warming as a human rights issue, global warming as a bigger threat than war, global warming as a top priority for international governance — this is all significant and represents real, if slow, progress.

How is it possible for President Bush, Cheney, and Co. to keep ignoring these voices — and then sleep well at night?

Photo credit: Earthjustice

[tags] global warming, climate change, Sheila Watt-Cloutier, human rights, Inuit, Ban Ki Moon, Interamerican Commission on Human Rights[/tags]