PART I Rising sea levels and changing salinity pose a serious threat to mangrove ecosystems, like those found along the coast of Los Haitises National Park, Dominican Republic. The Human Rights Implications of Climate Change 1.1 Effects of Climate Change on Human Rights Climate change poses an enormous threat to the lives and well-being of individuals and communities across the world. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) provides a detailed picture of how the observed and predicted climactic changes will adversely affect millions of people and the ecosystems, natural resources, and physical infrastructure upon which they depend.4 These harmful impacts include sudden-onset events that pose a direct threat to human lives and safety, as well as more gradual forms of environmental degradation that will undermine access to clean water, food, and other key resources that support human life. Thus, climate change will have a profound effect on the enjoyment of human rights for billions of people. This is not merely an abstract, future possibility. Climate change is already contributing to drought, ecosystem degradation, and food shortages across the world.5 Some regions are hit harder than others, with more clearly attributable linkages to climate change—for example, sea level rise has adversely affected the safety and livelihoods of many coastal inhabitants,6 and rising temperatures are causing significant changes in the Arctic ecosystems that support many indigenous communities.7 4 5 6 7 2 IPCC, Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, Contribution of the Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Cambridge University Press 2014). Id. See also Oxfam, Entering Uncharted Waters: El Niño and the Threat to Food Security (2015). Anthony Oliver-Smith, Sea Level Rise and the Vulnerability of Coastal Peoples: Responding to the Local Challenges of Global Climate Change in the 21st Century, UNU-EHS Publication No.7/2009 (July 2009). Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Seeking Relief from Violations Resulting from Global Warming Caused by Acts and Omissions of the United States (Dec. 7, 2005) [hereinafter Inuit Petition]. T H E H U M A N R I G H T S I M P L I C AT I O N S O F C L I M AT E C H A N G E Anton Bielousov (2012) CLIMATE CHANGE AND HUMAN RIGHTS