Climate Change Violates Human Rights
04/09/2024
Climate Change
Violates Human Rights
European Court: Rules that CLIMATE CHANGE violates HUMAN RIGHTS
A Step Toward Working-Class Political Power
Court of Human Rights
In a victory for life on the planet, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on April 9 that the Swiss government’s failure to meet minimum standards for greenhouse gas emissions constitutes a Human Rights violation. The ECHR ruling was in response to a lawsuit brought by a group of 200 mature women. The women claimed that Climate Change violated their fundamental right to live by raising temperatures and increasing their risk of dying. But they were not fighting for themselves. “We know statistically that in 10 years we will be gone. So, whatever we do now, we are not doing for ourselves, but for the sake of our children and our children’s children”. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-68768598
Cancer Alley
These same Human Rights are being violated in “Cancer Alley,” a toxic area located between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. In “Cancer Alley”, people live with air and water pollution spewed out from the region’s cluster of petrochemical plants. Death rates from Cancer are 50 times the national average, yet the State of Louisiana and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have both failed to act.
In 2019, the residents of Cancer Alley organized the Coalition Against Death Alley and marched 50 miles from St John the Baptist Parish to the capitol in Baton Rouge demanding the fundamental human right to a Clean Safe Environment. During the march, the Louisiana State Police threatened to arrest them for marching over a bridge, and the Governor of Louisiana refused to meet the coalition when they ended their march at the Governor’s mansion. Their fight is our fight and it is not over!
Corporations Rights
Corporations continue to deploy the vast and powerful means of production in ways that emit Greenhouse Gases, Toxic Air and Water Pollution. The right of corporations to continue doing so is protected by state power whose prime mission is to facilitate the corporate quest for profit. Indeed, the US Supreme Court will soon determine whether the EPA can regulate pollution using science, not corporate greed (doi:10.1001/jama.2024.3654; doi:10.1001/jama.2024.3723). Unlike the European Court of Human Rights, it appears that the US Supreme Court will side with the polluters.
Fundamental Rights
We cannot depend on the courts to protect our Fundamental Rights. Only the Working-Class – all of us who must find jobs in order to live – is capable of transforming state power into an instrument for securing an environmentally sustainable Future for the Benefit of All.
Time is running out!
Let’s talk.
“As people struggle to survive war, climate catastrophe, poverty, and pandemic, a new fascist state form is arising to crush us – the naked rule of corporate power.” ..”The battle is a class struggle because the ruling class is the enemy of humanity and the earth itself.” from the League Program
The Voices of the League series of articles are intended to encourage a dialogue with developing revolutionaries. We highlight issues of the day and areas of special interest to new revolutionaries to provide an action guide. Please make your thoughts known by commenting at the end of the article.
Program of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America:
https://lrna.org/lrna-program/
