UN criticizes Bolsonaro for defending mining in the Amazon

The global warming increases the risk of a "climate apartheid" where only the wealthiest could afford to escape the heat and hunger caused by rising temperHe criticizes the "obviously inadequate" steps taken by the UN itself and governments, non-governmental organizations and businesses, arguing that they are "totally disproportionate to the urgency and magnitude of this threat."

atures, according to a report by the United Nations (UN) .

The document further condemns US President Donald Trump for actively silencing climate science and criticizes Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro for promising to open the Amazon Forest's territory for mining.

Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, said that the impacts of global warming should undermine not only the basic rights to life, water, food and housing but also democracy and the constitutions.

"Human rights may not survive imminent lifting," the expert concluded in his report to the Human Rights Council (HRC).

Despite negative conclusions, Alston also mentioned positive developments in the climate issue, such as the victory of environmentalists in lawsuits against public bodies and fossil fuel companies, the activism of teenager Greta Thunbergand the European movement Extinction Rebellion.

The special rapporteur's study will be formally presented to the HRC in Geneva, Switzerland, next Friday, 28.

"Climate change puts at risk the last 50 years of progress in social development, global health and poverty reduction," the statement said.

Losses

According to the document, developing countries must pay 75% of the costs of the crisis, despite being responsible for only 10% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, one of the most harmful components of the environment.

"The risk of discontent in communities, growing inequality, and even greater hardship among some groups should stimulate nationalism, xenophobia, racism and other reactions. Maintaining a balanced approach to civil and political rights will be extremely complex. "

Alston also talked about the worsening of social divisions with global warming. In a climate apartheid scenario, the rich would pay to escape the impacts while the rest of the world would be "left to suffer."

"When Hurricane Sandy struck New York in 2012, it hurt vulnerable and low-income people without access to energy and the health care system, while large enterprise facilities were protected by thousands of sandbags and powered by its own generator. "

The expert's report further states that international climate treaties are being inefficient and that even after the Paris Accord , approved in 2015 by 195 countries, the global temperature is still expected to rise by about 3 ° C. "The states have ignored all warnings and scientific boundaries and what was once considered a catastrophic warming today is the most optimistic scenario possible."

Alston further argued that the necessary changes in societies and economies can be an opportunity to improve the lives of poor people. "This crisis can be a catalyst for countries to comply with social and economic rights that they continue to ignore, including access to social security and food, public health, shelter and sanitation."