Global Climate Change: Can Human Rights (and Human Beings) Survive this Onslaught?

Much has been written and argued about global climate change since its emergence in the late 1970s. From a total rejection to a gradual and rather reluctant acceptance, the debate on climate change has been wrought with controversy. While the occurrence of global climate change is no longer seems to be challenged, the issue now being debated is "how much" and "when". While nature would have contributed to the process, it is no longer seriously disputed that it is a human-induced phenomenon.The human cost of climate change will be astronomical. These range from the very survival of human beings to adapting to different livelihoods, crops, cultural practices, and even a different lifestyle as well as displacement and migration in some instances. Thus, a broad range of human rights can be violated as a result of global climate change.This paper seeks to discuss the impact that global climate change will have on the realization of human rights and the implications for international law. It discusses the protected rights that could be violated as a result of climate change, the response of the international community to global climate change and its adequacy, and how international law must respond to the threat posed by climate change. It also seeks to deal with the new category of people called "environmental refugees" who have become displaced as a result of environment-related causes which are exacerbated by climate change. It is also predicted that some of these environmental problems caused by global climate change - soil erosion, deforestation (and desertification), and lack of potable water - will play a role in increasing the incidence of conflict thereby undermining regional and/or international peace and security. In short, global climate change can give rise to complex, inter-woven issues at the international level leading to unprecedented changes in international society. The paper seeks to discuss whether the present international legal order can cope with these challenges. Given that these concerns cut across a wide spectrum of issues - environmental, economic and social - it would seem that global climate change poses a particular challenge to sustainable development. In other words, global climate change can undermine the very process of sustainable development - a process that was endorsed by the international community at the Rio Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 and reiterated at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002.Key words - Global Climate Change, Environment, International Human Rights Law, Sustainable Development, international peace and security, environmental refugees. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]