The Anthropology of Global Warming: The Climate, Human Rights, and Global Human Coexistence

Abstract

This paper begins from an argument put forward by a Canadian citizen belonging to one of the country’s indigenous peoples. She argues that global warming, caused by modern economic activities, has had a devastating impact on the natural habitat and consequently the cultural heritage of indigenous peoples. In her view, this establishes a right for her people to demand the regulation of all activities that may intensify global warming. This novel connection between climate change and human rights raises a number of issues not only with political, economic, and even cultural dimensions, but also broader questions related to human rights as well as the very foundations and prospects of human coexistence across the world. In addition to discussing some of these issues to enrich the Arabic scholarship on human rights, this paper puts forward ideas that contribute to the discussion of some problematic aspects of contemporary human rights discourse and its applications.