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30 Hastings Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 231 (2006-2007)
A Moral Imperative: The Human Rights Implications of Climate Change

handle is hein.journals/hasint30 and id is 243 raw text is: A Moral Imperative: The Human Rights Implications of Climate Change By SARA C. AMINZADEH* I. Introduction Climate change is increasingly identified as one of the major crises facing the international community in the 21st century.' Even conservative forecasts predict dramatic effects to environments, economies, and people around the world. Although climate change is already understood as an environmental problem, and increasingly as an economic one,2 the social and human rights implications of climate change are given little discussion. Yet climate change threatens food security, public health, property, and the livelihoods and lives of members of affected communities. Like other environmental issues, climate change threatens the human rights of those living in affected communities. * J.D. candidate, University of California, Hastings College of the Law, 2007. 1 would like to thank my parents, Fred and Kathleen Aminzadeh for their support of my interest in international environmental law; Maxwell Pritt for his support in the completion of this note; Prof. Naomi Roht-Arriaza for her guidance; and the Center for International Environmental Law, whose innovative work is an inspiration. 1. Margot Wallstrom, Climate Policy for the 21st Century: Meeting the Long Term Challenge of Climate Change. A European Perspective, in CLIMATE POLICY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: MEETING THE LONG-TERM CHALLENGE OF GLOBAL WARMING (David Michel, ed. 2006); Editorial, Gas Taxes.- Lesser Evil, Greater Good, N.Y. TIMES, Oct. 24, 2005, at A20 (There's no serious disagreement that two major crises of our time are terrorism and global warming); Survey, The Heat is On, THE ECONOMIST, Sept. 9, 2006 (17-page cover story on climate change). 2. The last two major reports on climate change released by states were largely environmental and economic: the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment Report was released by the United States in 2004, available at <www.acia.uaf.edu/pages/ scientific.html> [hereinafter Arctic Report], and the largely economically focused Nicholas Stern Report was released by the United Kingdom in 2006, available at <www.hmtreasury.gov.uk/independent-reviews/sternrevieweconomicsclimatech ange/ sternreview-index.cfm> [hereinafter Stern Report].