Australia’s greenhouse gases predicted to put 6 million more people at risk of h
Richard B. Richardson | 01.05.2006 04:36 | Ecology | World
A recent report warned that climate change puts 400 million more people worldwide at risk of hunger. Australia accounts for 1.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions - and therefore is responsible for this percentage of their detrimental effects. The potential consequences of global warming are so grave that blocking efforts to limit human-induced climate change is a crime against humanity.
Climate Change
Climate change caused by humans is increasingly linked to mortality due to extreme weather events such as tropical cyclones in the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico, heat waves in Europe during 2003, and ongoing sub-Saharan droughts. Recently, the UK government's chief scientist warned that climate change puts 400 million more people worldwide at risk of hunger. Earlier, Australia’s Department of Health and Ageing reported that annual flood-related deaths and injuries are expected, by 2020, to rise about two and half times in some regions, whereas that impact on Pacific islands is predicted to be more than 50 fold greater.
Australia and the US are the two major countries opposed to the Kyoto Protocol to limit human-induced climate change. Joining forces, Canada is reported as showing signs of ‘disassembling’ its federal climate change program. Australia is the world’s largest emitter per capita, accounting for 1.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions - and thereby responsible for this percentage of their detrimental effects. By the same reasoning, Canada could cause 8 million more people to be at risk of hunger, and the US nearly 100 million.
Humans are highly social creatures, as are honeybees, ants or termites. Unlike them, we display a large amount of cooperation between non-relatives: moral mind over genetic matter! It is a quintessential human characteristic to care about the misery inflicted on Africans and other innocents by our pollution. On the other hand, it is inhuman to block international efforts to limit anthropogenic climate change.
"Crimes against humanity" are criminal offences above all others, which can be defined as acts so grave, on a scale so large, that their very execution diminishes the human race as a whole. The present and potential consequences of anthropogenic climate change are so detrimental to humanity and other life on Earth that nations or leaders who undermine international efforts to reduce its effects commit the gravest criminal act. The creation of an International Court of Environmental Crime could be a means to judge this wrong.
Please sign the petition urging the UN Secretary-General to acknowledge "Subverting Efforts to Limit Human-Induced Climate Change is a Crime Against Humanity" found at
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/626805650
Australia and the US are the two major countries opposed to the Kyoto Protocol to limit human-induced climate change. Joining forces, Canada is reported as showing signs of ‘disassembling’ its federal climate change program. Australia is the world’s largest emitter per capita, accounting for 1.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions - and thereby responsible for this percentage of their detrimental effects. By the same reasoning, Canada could cause 8 million more people to be at risk of hunger, and the US nearly 100 million.
Humans are highly social creatures, as are honeybees, ants or termites. Unlike them, we display a large amount of cooperation between non-relatives: moral mind over genetic matter! It is a quintessential human characteristic to care about the misery inflicted on Africans and other innocents by our pollution. On the other hand, it is inhuman to block international efforts to limit anthropogenic climate change.
"Crimes against humanity" are criminal offences above all others, which can be defined as acts so grave, on a scale so large, that their very execution diminishes the human race as a whole. The present and potential consequences of anthropogenic climate change are so detrimental to humanity and other life on Earth that nations or leaders who undermine international efforts to reduce its effects commit the gravest criminal act. The creation of an International Court of Environmental Crime could be a means to judge this wrong.
Please sign the petition urging the UN Secretary-General to acknowledge "Subverting Efforts to Limit Human-Induced Climate Change is a Crime Against Humanity" found at
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/626805650
Richard B. Richardson
