Environmental rights cause more and more attention in many countries nowadays. Same with Canada, people desire to live in a state where the environment is guaranteed, at least, it makes people feel safe. In fact, the ethics contained in environmental rights are not difficult to understand. The so-called environmental rights mean that people live in clean air, the air quality meets standards, and the drinking water is not polluted. And our food, meat, and vegetables, etc., are not contaminated and can be eaten with confidence. This is caring about everyone’s most basic living conditions. However, the population covered is also very wide. Environmental rights include not only the environmental quality of modern humans but also our descendants. However, since the rapid development of industrialization and rapid economic development, people have often sacrificed the natural environment to meet the interests of economic development. People have begun to use large amounts of coal, fossil fuels, etc., and emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases regardless of the consequence, thus, causing global warming and climate change. In addition, the pollutants discharged in the water have gradually reduced the area of water available for people to drink and caused a large number of aquatic life to die or become extinct. Isn’t this a very disappointing thing?
In fact, I am deeply impressed by this matter. In China, the city where I live has a severe haze every winter. Haze has now become a catastrophic weather phenomenon and often appears in weather forecasts. The main cause is the burning of coal for heating in winter, as well as automobile exhaust, industrial emissions, construction dust, garbage incineration, and many other acts that harm air quality. For a long time, people can only wear masks, and homes install air purifiers to protect the most basic air quality. This has also caused many elderly and young children to suffer from cardiovascular or respiratory diseases in winter. Therefore, many people have been deprived of their environmental rights, even though this is our reluctance. Because the environment is a public resource, no one has the right to deliberately manipulate it, and everyone should have a fair environmental right. So I think it is necessary to protect Canadians’ environmental rights through the Constitution’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
And I also agree with David Suzuki’s point of view that ensuring the people’s environmental rights is not to restrict the development of industry and cause economic retreat, but to ensure that the government always regards the people’s health and well-being as the original intention of all actions, and also to make the government and many companies operating in Canada are always moving to maintain the highest standards. Moreover, action to ensure environmental rights have indirectly inspired many Canadian companies to innovate or adopt green technology and advocate other corporate transformations, which is conducive to the further optimization of the social structure and the upgrading of the industrial chain. On the other hand, by protecting the environmental rights of human beings, the medical pressure caused by the Canadian medical system in response to environmental problems can be reduced, and the people will become healthier and healthier. Therefore, to ensure people’s environmental rights become legal, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
work cited:
Baike.”Fog and haze.” (2020). Retrieved from https://baike.baidu.com/item/fogandhaze/731704?fr=aladdin
Suzuki, David. “Canada Has to Join the Environmental Rights Movement.” Huffington Post. Nov. 5, 2014. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/david-suzuki/environmental-rights_b_6103258.html?utm_hp_ref=ca-right-to-a-healthy-environment
Hi Juniper28,
I really enjoyed reading your post and I think you had some very good thoughts regarding the protection of the environment as a human right. We do have a lot to blame on the rapid industrialization of most of the world and the mindless pollution that occurs throughout all societies. You make a point about the dumping of pollution into bodies of water that contaminate it as drinking water and kill off species of aquatic life, and I’d like to mention another issue regarding aquatic resources and the diminishing availability of them. Over-fishing can be tied into the issue of environmental rights, and I’ve noticed that the issues related to aquatic resources are similar to those of the entire environment as they are both a public resource, like you mention later in your post. Aquatic resources are a common-pool resource, meaning it is non-subtractable and non-excludable, much like resources such as air or in general, the rest of the environment. Managing common-pool resources are extremely difficult although I would be inclined to say they are the most important because of the wide-spread impact. Overall, I think you made a great contribution to this topic and your insights on the stress reduction on medical services is a great reason why more people should begin caring about protecting the environment and potentially establishing a clean environment as a human right.
Carter.
Hi, Juniper 28,
Thank you for your efforts. I enjoy a lot on your discussion about Haze in China and the medical pressure point of view. I totally agree that people have a right to enjoy unpolluted food, water, and air. Instead of talking about general industrialization, I would like to add a little bit more detail on a specific project that closely related to Albertans: Tar Sand. Alberta has the second-largest oil reserves on the planet. Here in the world’s most treasured Canadian boreal forest, the world’s largest and most devastating environmental and industrial project is situated (Garth Lenz, 2011). Albertans have all the rights to be proud of the tar sand projects, not to mention the largest dumping trucks are running on the mines (Garth Lenz, 2011). It is also called the world’s dirtiest oil because it consumes more energy, uses more water, and produces more greenhouse gases (Garth Lenz, 2011). However, I am not proud of creating the largest toxic impoundment in the history of the planet. 9000 acres of tailing ponds (which formed by polluted water used during bitumen processes) were present, which would be much more now as the calculation was done in 2011. With 10 times higher rates of getting cancer (than what the rates are in the rest of Canada), with 90% decreased species population (including woodland caribous and grizzly bears), with more indigenous people losing primary food source, we have to think again about are we really proud of what we are doing to the Earth? David listed several significant positive changes through his 78-year experience that he calls for a public realization on protecting “our country and planet, our health and the future of our children, and grandchildren”. People who believe in technology can solve all problems, please use more clean energy. People who are skeptical like me, please realize and act to ensure that all Canadians and the Canadian wilderness have the right to a healthy environment. I do not know if the process will take another 78 years, but better late than never.
Suzuki, David. Canada Has to Join the Environmental Movement, Accessed from https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/david-suzuki/environmental-rights_b_6103258.html?utm_hp_ref=ca-right-to-a-healthy-environment
Lenz, Garth. The True Cost of Oil, accessed from https://www.ted.com/talks/garth_lenz_the_true_cost_of_oil#t-536595