The Ecological Crisis and Human Rights: Why We Are All Vulnerable

This paper has been developed from a keynote presentation at the Conference ‘Conceptualizing Vulnerability in a Time of Human Regression’ organized by the Human Rights Centre, University of Padova in Padova (November 13, 2023). It revolves around four topics. First, it analyses the ecological crisis, its impacts on human rights and the inequality in climate vulnerability and climate responsibility across different nations and social sectors within nations. The second part explains why we are all vulnerable to this ecological crisis due to the existential threat that climate change is posing to humanity. Modern society is confronting an unprecedented risk of collapse induced by a cascade of social, economic, and political crises facilitated by the ecological crisis. The third part deals with policies that can confront the ecological crisis and reduce its detrimental effects on human rights and public health, reducing our existential threat. The last part delves into two major barriers hindering policies toward equity, ecological sustainability, and protection of human rights: neoliberalism and economism. The final discussion focuses on the need for an alternative socioeconomic system.