Over the past few decades, Mary Robinson has relentlessly promoted gender equality, human rights and social justice across the globe, both in her role as the former president of Ireland, and as the United Nations’ high commissioner for human rights. But as she admits in the opening pages of Climate Justice, she came relatively late to the public conversation on global warming and environmental sustainability.
That changed in 2002 when she set up Realising Rights. The project sought to advance economic, social and cultural rights for developing nations, making sure that fundamental human rights – such as the right to food, safe water, health, education and decent work – are guaranteed alongside promises of political and civil rights.
The global initiative took Robinson to myriad countries, where she spoke to women who share two commonalities: they predominately work in the agriculture industry and their lives have been crippled by global warming. Their message remained the same: those least responsible for climate change are suffering from its most detrimental effects – namely, droughts, flash floods, rising sea levels and changing weather patterns, which in turn lead to unpredictable harvest seasons. Robinson thus concluded that climate change, human rights, justice, equality and individual empowerment are all inextricably linked. This is the central argument that holds this concise yet insightful and optimistic tome together.
It begins with some basic scientific predictions: if humans remain on our present trajectory of unrestricted consumption our planet will hit four degrees of warming by the end of this century. Such results would be near apocalyptic, Robinson warns. Warming of 1.5C above 1880 levels – when the first records of global temperatures were recorded – would (as reiterated recently in a landmark report issued by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) lead to the loss of 90% of all coral reefs. An increase to the Earth’s temperature of 2C, meanwhile, would almost double current global water shortages, leading to a massive drop in wheat and maize harvests, drastically increasing the risk of poverty for hundreds of millions of people.
Much of the information we glean from this book is really just a condensed version of the story that the Mary Robinson Foundation has been raising awareness of since it was set up in 2010. It was founded upon the premise of merging two ideas together: giving a platform to disempowered citizens whose lives have been drastically affected by climate change, while framing that discussion with the dignity it deserves. Here, Robinson uses both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change as basic guiding principles.
But Robinson takes inspiration, too, from successful female activists who have drastically altered the course of history by advocating social justice and equality. She points to Eleanor Roosevelt’s famous dictum that human rights must begin in small places to have meaning anywhere. We are also introduced to the ideas of Kenyan Nobel peace prize laureate and environmentalist Wangari Muta Maathai, whose work focused on recognising the interconnectedness of local and global problems, while simultaneously empowering grassroots communities – particularly women – to create lasting solutions.
Both figures inspired Robinson to link women with access to power to local campaigners. Her aim was to establish a new kind of climate activism: one that connected developing and rich industrialised nations so they could exchange ideas. She cites numerous examples where this has worked. In April 2013, for example, her foundation teamed up with the Irish government to host a conference, entitled Hunger, Nutrition, Climate Justice, which saw hundreds of climate change activists mixing with EU commissioners, Irish politicians and globally renowned campaigners, including former US vice-president Al Gore.
We also read numerous accounts from innovative grassroots agitators whose impressive results reveal how individuals can make a difference. Small-scale Ugandan farmer and community organiser Constance Okollet explains how she persuaded a council to pass a law to help reduce carbon emissions with little cost: it authorised the planting of five new trees for every tree cut.
US salon owner Sharon Hanshaw, meanwhile, recalls how she spent the summer of 2006 – a year after Hurricane Katrina – uniting activists in East Biloxi, Mississippi, to campaign for government aid for low-income families.
Robinson’s lucid, direct style works because it gives a voice to those who have taken it upon themselves to tackle Earth’s most pressing problems. The book’s central message is a mantra worth repeating: individual local action can grow into a global idea, producing positive change. Put simply: it’s up to us to take immediate action if we want to prevent our planet cooking itself to death in the coming decades.
• Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience and the Fight for a Sustainable Future by Mary Robinson is published by Bloomsbury (£16.99). To order a copy for £12.49 go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99
