[TLDR (too long didn’t read): If you are reading this, chances are you care about HR. This Reader is about three caveats to keep in mind when humanity is fighting for its very survival. For a quick overview, just read the bolded text]. Note: You can easily translate the Readers to many languages. Use the app deepl.com and it is done instantaneously. It takes seconds to download the app into your computer or phone and translations are of high quality.
[As if it were necessary (…), in this Reader, I add three more caveats (to the many you are already aware-of) threatening the rights of nature].
Caveat 1: The excessive use of fossil fuels as an energy source leading to an ecosystem loss has taken homo (not so) sapiens perilously close to extinction. (Mark Wahlqvist)
1. Profiteering and conflicts over who controls energy sources has fostered unfettered industrial materialism —a major extinction risk factor. Not only is energy the power we need, but it is also controlled by the powerful. Can we be sufficiently insightful and collaborative to change this hostage energy trajectory and survive healthfully on a habitable planet? Individuals, households and communities, as opposed to unaccountable monopolies, will have to seek to control the energy systems on which our livelihoods depend so as to render them truly sustainable, accessible and affordable.
2. Interconnected food and energy systems ownership can indeed be devolved to ‘The Commons’ as a cooperative sustainability strategy. The social momentum for an appropriate-technology-for-energy-conservation-renewability is now a reality as a basis to move towards a social mobilization to address our current food, nutrition and health insecurities.
3. Some argue that access to energy is a human right, although the conceptualization of energy as part of the Commons ought to suffice. It is clear that this right could contribute substantially to the achievement of the SDGs by 2030 –better late than never. There remain some opportunities through changed consumption patterns though these are not as important as other needed measures on the corporate supply side to rescue humanity at the brink. (M. Wahlqvist)
Caveat 2: The Green New Deal will not reverse the ever-widening health and other inequalities of the last few decades. Period.
4. As the world pursues strategies like the ‘Green New Deal’* (GND), (discussions of green energy and carbon markets included) does not question the fundamental growth-centric, capitalist approach to the energy conundrum; it will hardly mitigate the damage it has done, and will certainly do nothing to repair it. (Erika Arteaga et al)
*: Beginning in 2007, the concept of a GND was coined and consciously popularized. However, its focus on labor and production is myopic and still overlooks a key tenet of climate justice, namely inequality at the global scale. Without a firm grounding in the principles of global solidarity, a GND pushed by the Global North will reproduce many of the same injustices we face worldwide today. Without a fundamental shift, the GND will continue to deny sovereignty to those least responsible for the climate crisis.
Caveat 3: ‘Climatizing human rights’ entails moving towards decelerating human activity
5. In addition to questions about material well-being and equity, human rights actors ought to raise questions about the compatibility of economic policy with a livable climate system, a livable biodiversity, a livable air quality, and other conditions necessary for human flourishing and a thriving web of life. It entails also defending the health of the ‘more-than-human world’ (i.e., including the rights of future generations and of non-humans in nature). By adding a concern with planetary limits, climatizing rights may help decelerate human activity to a level that is compatible with the flourishing of human life. (Cesar Rodriguez-G.)
6. To further ponder: Who is talking about the anthropogenic basis of climate change? Public environmental policies are too permissive; they fail to protect the health and other rights of the population. Not enough socio-environmental political awareness has been generated, so that too many citizens are not aware of their environment and are not aware of the economic, political and human rights origin and consequences of the environmental problems that affect them. (Karla Yohannessen)
7. And last, but not least, a mini-caveat: When it comes to plastic pollution, out of sight is not the same as truly gone.
So, have you ever wondered?
8. Who or what controls the number of satellites that can be launched into space? Who gives permission to fishermen to dredge and clear out ocean floors or to kill 100 million sharks per year? Who gives oil companies permission to keep extracting substances that they know are ruining our world, causing death and destruction? and who can stop the climate crisis from getting worse?
9. There are just so many things out of our control in the big picture. We ignore it all at our peril despite the fact that these basic factors just keep going thus making things worse for everyone. For without the big picture, we remain mired in parochialism and without the necessary vision to enable the needed solutions.
10. As hard as it is to get the big picture, though, it is an important goal to strive for. Otherwise, we do not have the understanding to make the best decisions and stay motivated, and we remain at the mercy of conspiracies and their perpetrators, always on the prowl to put a dagger into the heart of science, health and politics. There are signals that too many among us are happy to concede to ‘the new normal’ –a kind of accepting whatever you want, including the feeling of doom. To me that is the path to social, HR and environmental breakdown, so this path is not for me. I reject all of it and I hope that we all do not accept the current state of climate, health, HR and political disfunction as the norm. We must keep advancing for the changes needed now and for future generations, regardless of well-funded shout-outs to the contrary. (all the above from David Zakus)
Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City
Your comments are welcome at schuftan@gmail.com
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