China, Climate Change, and Human Rights

Flooding in China is rampant, as exemplified in Lanxi in 2011.
photo courtesy of Time

Human rights and climate change are linked together.  All over the world our eroding environment is impacting our lives significantly.  There are few places where this is better on display than that of China. 

Climate change in China has the ability to endanger their food supply, their safety, and their children’s futures.  For example, the 0.7 degree Celsius in mean annual temperature between 1961 and 2000 has resulted in between 22% and 33% decrease in rainfall for Northwest China.  Less rainfall, naturally, reduces the regions ability to support crops.  This impacts our “right to live” as outlined in the 30 UN sponsored human rights.  More directly, this impacts number 25 of the 30 human rights that includes “the right to food.”

Additionally, the Tibetan and Himalayan glaciers are also disappearing due to a 3 degree Celsius increase in average temperatures.  This has resulted in a 700% increase in floods on the Changjiang River and its counterparts throughout the country.  Flooding can cause significant damage to one’s home and endanger countless civilians.  As recently as August 10, at least 17 people were lost due to flooding in the provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang.  The economic losses were estimated at approximately $1.29 billion.  In terms of human rights violated by this flood, “the right to life” was violated, “the freedom to travel” was inhibited, the right to “own things” was literally washed away, the “right to relax” was postponed, and the “right to housing and food” was damaged. 

To expand on the idea of economic losses due to climate change, The Diplomat reported that in two 2014 instances alone, a Grain producer lost $1.2 billion to drought while $839.8 was lost due to a flooding in a different region.  Climate change is impacting China’s ability to grow economically and thus impeding its ability to improve its standards of living.  China recognizes these issues and as a result has recently agreed to an emissions cap deal that will reduce its emissions by 60-65% from its 2005 levels in 2030.  China understands also that in order to fully secure the safety of its environment, it must also work with other nations to reduce emissions.  The recent China-US climate talks saw the US agree to work toward 32% emissions decrease from the 2005 levels by 2030. 

The main ideas of Beyond Eurocentrism by Farish Noor are multiple.  The first is that the West cannot simply export its ideologies to the rest of the world.  Asia, specifically, lacks the cultural context needed for such changes to occur.  Additionally, the western system or government is far from perfect given the rampant inequality and racism that can be found there.  Additionally, the notion that Asia values do not lend themselves to human rights is false.  The text goes into detail about how the spread of Islam through south Asia actually brought a greater sense of autonomy to the average worker in terms of their rights.  The West must realize, therefore, that it lives in a multicultural world that cannot and will not be dominated by any one set of values.  It must learn to adapt to its inability to lead and understand its hypocrisy.