TopicS:

1. ESSAY ON CLIMATE CHANGE

2. CV writing

Submitted by:
Muhammad Sohaib Ashraf

Roll no # F19-UO-BS-ES-1021

Submitted To:
Dr. SHAFIQ-UR-REHMAN

University Of Okara
Environmental Science (2nd semester)
 Climate Change
Overview:
Kumi Naidoo, Secretary General of Amnesty International said:

“It is perfectly clear that climate change is already having an impact on human rights. And
that this impact will only intensify in the years to come. "

Millions of people are already suffering from the catastrophic effects of extreme disasters
exacerbated by climate change - from the prolonged drought in sub-Saharan Africa to the
devastating tropical storms that sweep through Southeast Asia, the Caribbean and the Pacific.
During the northern hemisphere summer months in 2018, communities in the Arctic Circle in
Greece, Japan, Pakistan and the United States experienced devastating heat waves and forest
fires that caused the hundreds of people died.

Although we largely understand climate change through the impacts it will have on our natural
world, it is the devastation it causes and will continue to cause humanity that makes it an urgent
human rights issue. It will worsen and amplify existing inequalities. And its effects will continue
to grow and worsen over time, creating ruin for present and future generations. That is why the
failure of governments to act on climate change in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence
may well be the greatest intergenerational violation of human rights in history.

What is climate change?

The planet's climate has constantly changed over geological time, with large fluctuations in
global average temperatures.

However, this current period of warming is occurring faster than all past events. It has become
clear that humanity has caused most of the warming of the past century by releasing heat
trapping gases - commonly known as greenhouse gases - to fuel our modern lives. We do this by
burning fossil fuels, agriculture and land use and other activities that cause climate change.
Greenhouse gases are at the highest level ever reached in the past 800,000 years. This rapid rise
is a problem because it modifies our climate at a rate too rapid for living beings to adapt to it.

Climate change involves not only rising temperatures, but also extreme weather events, rising
sea levels, displacement of wildlife populations and habitats, and a range of other impacts.

What is causing climate change?

KATHARINE HAYHOE, CLIMATE SCIENTIST said:

"We are humans who want the same thing that all other humans want - a safe place to live
on this planet that we call our home. So while our work must continue to be impartial and
objective, we are raising our voices more and more, adding to the clear message that
climate change is real and that humans are responsible, the impacts are serious and we
must act now. "

There is an overwhelming scientific consensus that global warming is mainly of human origin:
97% of climatologists have reached this conclusion.

One of the main drivers by far is our burning of fossil fuels - coal, gas and oil - which has
increased the concentration of greenhouse gases - such as carbon dioxide - in our atmosphere.
This, combined with other activities such as clearing land for agriculture, increases the average
temperature of our planet. In fact, scientists are as sure of the link between greenhouse gases and
global warming as they are of the link between smoking and lung cancer.

This is not a recent conclusion. The scientific community has collected and studied data on this
subject for decades. Warnings about global warming began to make headlines in the late 1980s.

In 1992, 165 countries signed an international treaty, the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Since then, they have held annual meetings (called “Conference
of the Parties” or COP), with the aim of developing objectives and methods to reduce climate
change and adapt to its already visible effects. Today, 197 countries are linked by the UNFCCC.

What are the effects of climate change?

Alicia Rivera, community organizer and climate activist, United States rightly said:

“The Wilmington community is mainly low income, so heat waves are very damaging
because they cannot afford air conditioning. And because they are still close to refineries
and oil extraction, they have to close their windows. ”

The effects of climate change are already being felt, but they are going to get worse. Global
warming has reached around 1 ° C above pre-industrial levels. Every half degree (or even less)
of global warming counts.

It is important to remember that no list of the effects of climate change can be exhaustive. Heat
waves are more likely to occur more often and last longer, and extreme precipitation will become
more intense and more frequent in many regions. The oceans will continue to warm and acidify,
and the global average sea level will continue to rise. All of this will have, and is already
beginning to have, a devastating impact on human life.

The urgent need to tackle climate change became even clearer with the publication of a major
report in October 2018 by the world's leading scientific body for climate change assessment, the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change climate (IPCC). The IPCC warns that to avoid
catastrophic global warming, we must not reach 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels - or at least
not exceed that. The report outlines the massive differences between the 1.5 ° C and 2 ° C
scenarios.

By working to limit the increase in average global average temperatures to 1.5 ° C, the IPCC
says that we could, for example:

➢ reduce the number of people both exposed to climate-related risks and exposed to poverty
to several hundred million by 2050;
➢ protect 10 million people from risks related to sea level;
➢ reduce the proportion of the world's population exposed to increased water stress by up to
50%, or one in 25 people on this planet.

Perhaps most importantly, the IPCC report has given the world a clear deadline to avoid disaster:
greenhouse gas emissions must be halved from their 2010 levels by 2030 to avoid d 'reach 1.5 °
C. Our governments must therefore take immediate action to change course. The more time it
takes to do it, the more we will have to rely on expensive technologies that could have harmful
effects on human rights.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has told states that they must set credible targets by
2020 to stop the increase in emissions, otherwise "we risk missing the point where we can
avoid climate change uncontrollable, with dire consequences for people and all the natural
systems that support us."

Who is most affected by climate change?

Greta Thunberg, climate activist and founder of Climate School Strike:

"You say you love your children above all else, yet you steal their future before their eyes"

Climate change is and will continue to harm us unless governments act. However, its effects are
likely to be much more pronounced for certain groups - for example, communities dependent on
agricultural or coastal livelihoods - as well as for those who are generally already vulnerable,
disadvantaged and subject to discrimination.

Here are some of the ways climate change can exacerbate inequality:
1 Between developed and developing countries:

Nationally, those in small, low-lying island states and less developed countries will be and are
already among the most affected. The people of the Marshall Islands are already regularly
experiencing the devastating floods and storms that are destroying their homes and livelihoods.
The 2018 heat wave in the northern hemisphere made headlines in Europe and North America,
but some of the worst effects were also felt in places like Pakistan, where more than 60 people
died - for most workers already working in intense heat - when temperatures rose above 44 °.
2 Between different ethnicities and classes:

The effects of climate change and pollution linked to fossil fuels also apply according to
ethnicity and classes. In North America, poorer communities of color are mostly forced to
breathe toxic air because their neighborhoods are more likely to be located near power plants and
refineries. They have significantly higher rates of respiratory disease and cancer, and African
Americans are three times more likely to die from air pollution than the general population of the
United States.

3 Between the sexes:

Women and girls are disproportionately affected by climate change, reflecting the fact that they
are more likely in many countries to be marginalized and disadvantaged. This means that they
are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate-related events as they are less able to protect
themselves from it and will have a harder time recovering.

4 Between generations:

Future generations will experience worsening effects unless action is taken now by governments.
However, children and young people already suffer because of their specific needs for
metabolism, physiology and development. This means, for example, that forced displacement
suffered by communities affecting a range of rights - from water, sanitation and food to adequate
housing, health, education and development - is likely to be particularly harmful to children.

5 Between communities:

Indigenous peoples are among the communities most affected by climate change. They often live
in marginal lands and fragile ecosystems that are particularly sensitive to changes in the physical
environment. They have a close connection with nature and their traditional lands on which their
livelihoods and cultural identity depend.

Why is climate change a human rights issue?

Kumi Naidoo, Secretary General of Amnesty International:

“Climate change is a human rights issue not only because its devastating effects affect the
enjoyment of human rights, but also because it is a phenomenon of human origin which
can be mitigated by governments "

Human rights are intimately linked to climate change because of its devastating effect not only
on the environment but also on our own well-being. In addition to threatening our very existence,
climate change has negative effects on our rights to life, health, food, water, housing and
livelihoods.
The longer governments wait to take meaningful action, the more difficult the problem becomes
to solve, and the greater the risk of reducing emissions by means that increase inequality rather
than reduce it.

Here are some of the effects of climate change on our human rights:
Right to life - We all have the right to life and to live in freedom and security. But climate
change threatens the security of billions of people on this planet. The most obvious example is
that of extreme weather events, such as storms, floods and forest fires. Typhoon Yolanda in the
Philippines claimed the lives of almost 10,000 people in 2013. Heat stress is one of the deadliest
impacts. The summer heat wave in Europe in 2003 killed 35,000 people. However, there are
many other less visible ways that climate change threatens lives. The World Health Organization
predicts that climate change will cause 250,000 deaths a year between 2030 and 2050, due to
malaria, malnutrition, diarrhea and heat stress.

Right to health - We all have the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental
health. According to the IPCC, the main health impacts of climate change will include an
increased risk of injury, illness and death from heat waves and more intense fires; increased risk
of undernutrition due to reduced food production in poor regions; and the increased risk of food
and waterborne diseases and vector-borne diseases. Children exposed to traumatic events such as
natural disasters, exacerbated by climate change, may suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.
The health effects of climate change require an urgent response, with unmitigated warming
threatening to undermine health systems and the main global health goals.

Right to housing - We all have the right to an adequate standard of living for ourselves and our
families, including adequate housing. However, climate change threatens our right to housing in
various ways. Extreme weather events such as floods and forest fires are already destroying
people's homes, leaving them displaced. Drought, erosion and flooding can also change the
environment over time, while rising sea levels threaten the homes of millions of people around
the world in low-lying areas.

Right to water and sanitation - We all have the right to clean water for personal and household
use and to sanitation that keeps us healthy. But a combination of factors such as melting snow
and ice, falling precipitation, higher temperatures, and rising sea levels show that climate change
is affecting and will continue to affect the quality and quantity of water resources. Already more
than a billion people do not have access to clean water, and climate change will only worsen the
situation. Extreme weather events such as cyclones and floods affect water and sanitation
infrastructure, leaving contaminated water behind and contributing to the spread of water-borne
diseases. Sewage systems, particularly in urban areas, will also be affected.
Who is responsible for stopping climate change?
Juliana against the United States government, lawsuit filed by Children Against the US
Government

"After placing the plantations in a position of climatic danger, the defendants continued to
act with deliberate indifference to the known danger which they helped to create and
improve. A destabilized climate system poses exceptionally serious risks of harm to the lives
of complainants and their bodily integrity and dignity ”

States:
States have an obligation to mitigate the harmful effects of climate change by taking the most
ambitious measures possible to prevent or reduce greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible.
While wealthy states must lead the way, both internally and through international cooperation,
all countries must take all reasonable steps to reduce emissions to the maximum of their
capabilities.

States must also take all necessary measures to help all people under their jurisdiction to adapt to
the predictable and inevitable effects of climate change, thereby minimizing the impact of
climate change on their human rights. This is true regardless of whether the state is responsible
for these effects, as states have an obligation to protect people from damage by third parties.

States must take action to fight climate change as quickly and as humanely as possible. In their
efforts to fight climate change, they should not resort to measures that directly or indirectly
violate human rights. For example, conservation areas or renewable energy projects should not
be created on the lands of indigenous peoples without consulting them and obtaining their
consent.

In all measures, States should respect the right to information and to the participation of all
concerned, as well as their right to access effective remedies for human rights violations.

However, the current promises made by governments to mitigate climate change are completely
inadequate, as they would lead to a catastrophic 3 ° C increase in average global temperatures
from pre-industrial levels by 2100. The people of countries like France, the Netherlands and
Switzerland are suing their governments in court for their failure to establish sufficient climate
mitigation goals and measures.

Companies:
Businesses also have the responsibility to respect human rights. To assume this responsibility,
companies must assess the potential effects of their activities on human rights and put in place
measures to prevent negative impacts. They must make these conclusions and any preventive
measures public. Businesses must also take steps to remedy the human rights violations they
cause or contribute to, either on their own or in cooperation with other actors. These
responsibilities extend to human rights abuses resulting from climate change.

Companies, and in particular fossil fuel companies, must also immediately put in place measures
to minimize greenhouse gas emissions - including by shifting their portfolios to renewable
energy - and make relevant information on their emissions and their mitigation efforts. These
efforts must extend to all the main subsidiaries, subsidiaries and entities in their supply chain.

Fossil fuel companies have always been among the most responsible for climate change - and
this continues today. Research shows that only 100 fossil fuel companies have been responsible
for 71% of global greenhouse gas emissions since 1988.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the major fossil fuel companies have known the deleterious
effects of burning fossil fuels for decades and have attempted to suppress this information and
block efforts to combat climate change.

Why do we have to stop climate change?

1 Because we all deserve equal protection:

We are all born with basic human rights, but these rights are seriously threatened by climate
change. Although climate change threatens our entire lives in one way or another, people who
face discrimination are among the most likely to be the most affected. We also all deserve to be
protected from this universal threat.

2 Because there is nothing to lose by playing and everything to gain:

The fight against climate change gives us a chance to put the well-being of people first by
guaranteeing the right to a healthy environment. This will give us the opportunity to improve
human rights, for example by enabling more people to access cleaner and cheaper energy
resources and to create employment opportunities in new sectors.

3 Because we have the knowledge, the power and the ability to stop climate change

Many people are already working on creative, inspiring and innovative solutions to fight climate
change. From citizens to businesses to cities, there are people around the world who are actively
working on policies, campaigns and solutions that will protect people and the planet. Indigenous
peoples and minority communities have for centuries developed sustainable lifestyles with the
environments they consider home. We can learn from them and, with their consent, benefit from
their know-how to inform our own efforts to find a different way of interacting with our planet.
What is Amnesty doing to fight climate change?
Chiara Liguori, Political Advisor, Amnesty International

“There is an urgent need to put people and human rights at the center of the conversation
on climate change. For Amnesty International and other human rights organizations, this
means pushing for accountability of states that do not respond to climate change, as we do
for other human rights violations ”

Amnesty International's work on climate change has included defending human rights in the
Paris climate change agreement, contributing to higher human rights standards on climate change
and supporting environmental groups in the presentation of human rights arguments.

Given the urgency of this issue, we will deepen our involvement by playing a galvanizing role
for the human rights community, as it shows how climate change affects people's rights and how
people react to reality and to the threat of climate change.

Amnesty will work with different groups in key countries to put pressure on governments and
companies that hinder progress. Amnesty will support young people, but also indigenous
peoples, unions and affected communities, to demand a swift and just transition to a zero carbon
economy that leaves no one behind. Litigation and the use of national and regional human rights
mechanisms will be additional tools to maintain pressure.

Amnesty International will build on its work on behalf of environmentalists to specifically

facilitate the work of those who protect land, food, communities and people from climate
impacts, fuel extraction and expansion fossils and deforestation. The defense of civic space for
information, participation and mobilization will also help to promote more progressive climate
policies.

Our requests:
Amnesty calls on governments to:

➢ Do everything possible to prevent the global temperature from rising by more than 1.5 °
C.
➢ Reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050 at the latest. Wealthier countries
should do it faster. By 2030, global emissions must be twice as low as in 2010.
➢ Stop using fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) as soon as possible.
➢ Make sure that climate action is carried out in a way that does not violate anyone's human
rights and that reduces rather than increases inequality.
➢ Make sure everyone, especially those affected by climate change or the transition to a
fossil-free economy, is properly informed about what is going on and is able to
participate in decisions about their future.
 ➢ Work together to share the burden of climate change equitably - rich countries must help
others.

Conclusion:
Studies show that the current reality is that CO2 emissions will continue to rise until 2040. This
is largely due to the current energy policy of China, Russia and Canada which, if left unchanged,
will cause global warming above 5 ° C before the end of this century. At 4 ° C, for example, 44%
of vertebrates lose half of their geographic range, plants and insects exceed two-thirds, global
grain yields fall dramatically, the global economy shrinks by 30% and Deaths from excessive
hyperthemia in the United States are increasing by more than 700 percent.

As disastrous as the projections of anthropocene warming are, they have not yet fully taken into
account feedback loops, or the fact that warming temperatures are becoming the cause of new
sources of greenhouse gas emissions. After a certain point, which may be located in less than two
decades, we will have irreversibly switched to self-sustaining or racing global warming or what a
recent and widely discussed essay from the National Academy of Sciences called "Hothouse
Earth". For example, a decrease in the Albedo effect, where less and less sunlight is reflected by
the decrease in ice cover, results in even greater absorption of solar radiation or higher surface
temperatures and a wide range subsequent threats: the warming of the seabed and the melting of
permafrost allow the trapping of methane, an extremely powerful greenhouse gas, to escape into
the atmosphere; the increase in precipitation reduces the absorption of greenhouse gases in the
soil; and reductions in Greenland's ice can alter the ocean currents of the Gulf Stream which, in
turn, accelerate the melting of ice in the southern hemisphere.

The October IPCC report concluded that if the current rate of greenhouse gas emissions were
maintained, temperatures would rise 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels by 2040. To avoid this,
the IPCC has found that greenhouse gas pollution must be reduced by 45% compared to 2010. by
2030 and completely, that is to say 100%, by 2050. The use of coal, which currently represents
40% of electricity production, is expected to drop to almost 1%. Renewable energy sources,
which currently provide 20% of electricity production, are expected to more than triple. The
effort required to transform the global economy, according to the report, is so great "that there is
no documented historical precedent".

American efforts to avoid what the greatest climate scientists increasingly describe as total
dystopia remain anemic. Beyond the damage caused by the president's efforts, recent state efforts
to limit greenhouse pollution through increased dependence on renewable energy, a ban on new
drilling and a carbon tax have failed respectively, in Arizona, in a county of California and in
Washington, largely because of the fossil fuel industry spending over $ 60 million in opposition.
As for Congress, it has not legitimately attempted to fight global warming for a decade. While
the incoming majority in the Democratic House has at least raised the issue, the caucus may be
more interested in questioning Home Secretary Ryan Zinke about his relationship with
Halliburton and investigating ExxonMobil for allegedly deceiving the public about the misdeeds
of fossilized capitalism.

Federal health care regulators are not interested in going beyond the CMS policy update on
"extreme and uncontrollable circumstances" to require hospital providers to demonstrate that
they are are moving towards carbon neutrality as a condition for participating in Medicare. The
health care industry, the second largest greenhouse gas polluter after the food industry
accounting for almost 10 percent of greenhouse gas pollution and supposedly dedicated to the
prevention and treatment of disease caused or aggravated by global warming, remains largely
indifferent. For example, according to the Lancet 2018 Countdown report cited above, in 2017,
the global value of funds committed to fossil fuel divestment was $ 428 billion. Of this amount,
the health care sector was responsible for a meager 0.76%, or $ 3.28 billion.

We stole the planet. It is only a question of how severe or severe the sanction.