Post Five

Climate change has everything to do with human rights. It impacts some of our most essential rights to health, to food, and to a decent standard of living (Greenpeace). The rising heat is the cause of many natural disasters, with droughts and floods ruining the agricultural output for many struggling nations. Tiny impoverished island nations such as Banaba and Niue have experienced issues with high ocean levels, and Australia is in the middle of a climate-spurred bushfire crisis. Fossil fuel companies choose profit over human rights and will often place factories in impoverished countries who will put up with poor working conditions. 

According to The Encyclopedia of World Problems & Human Potential, an endangered culture is one of the 15,000 remaining cultures on Earth that is at risk for disappearing due to possible issues such as “erosion of cultural integrity, loss of habitat and environmental quality, and the ravages of disease and socio-economic infections”. Endangered cultures are the main focus of anthropologists Dr. Elizabeth Lindsey and E. Wade Davis of the National Geographic Society. Lindsey argues that we should keep cultures from going extinct for the reason that it is important to document indigenous knowledge and perspectives. I think she has a valid, hard-hitting argument when she compares our desire for money to our desire for a human connection with our heritage. She urges people not to abandon the tradition and wisdom of indigenous groups in order to make a profit. This situation reminds me a lot of the Cheslatta indigenous land being flooded due to the greed of the Rio Tinto company.

Davis discusses the variety of indigenous cultures and argues much like Noor that we need a “multicultural, pluralistic world where all of the wisdom of all peoples can contribute to our collective well-being.” He talks about how a person from the Andes has a spiritual connection to a mountain that an American could classify as just a pile of rocks. Davis speaks on his experiences with many tribes such as those in the Amazon, Ecuador, and Colombia, and the detail he goes into makes it clear how much different homogenous Western life is from the vast amount of unique cultures. Overall, it is obvious that Western societies cannot simply live in a bubble and ignore or paint over the completely valid viewpoints of indigenous communities.

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “Eurocentric” as meaning “centered on Europe or the Europeans, especially reflecting a tendency to interpret the world in terms of European or Anglo-American values and experiences”. Farish Noor is a political scientist, professor, and historian who writes about looking beyond Eurocentrism and defines a need for a multicultural understanding of human rights (Dealing with Human Rights, Chapter 3). He condemns the fact that most of the leaders in world economy and politics are Western men. He doesn’t think that Eurocentrism is as essential as the world makes it out to be, and quotes philosopher Jurgen Habernas who thinks that “Western democracy is not an ideology that can be taken out of its socio-historical context and simply exported to other parts of the world”. Noor spends a significant amount of time talking about Asian culture, where he claims that Asia is more aware of human rights and liberties than the West thinks it is. He talks about the Asian activists and freedom fighters of the 20th century and the impact of religions that came to Asia such as Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. He describes two main obstacles to Asian cultural revivalism as the following: (1) that Asian elites only use Asian values for political/economic ends and (2) that Western elites think that the Western way is the only way to guarantee equal rights. I agree with most of his points, and I believe that Asia deserves more respect for its ancient tradition and culture.