Netherlands Supreme Court: People Have A Fundamental Right To Be Protected From Climate Change

ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS

Why are these Dutch girls so happy?  In truth, they’re probably celebrating their victory in the women’s World Cup soccer championship this year, but it actually might have been their absolute delight with the landmark ruling that just came down from the Netherlands high court. The Dutch Supreme Court upheld a ruling that orders the government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 25% by the end of 2020, “because of the risk of a dangerous climate change that can also seriously affect the residents of the Netherlands in their right to life and well-being.” I.e., urgent action on climate change must be taken to protect the fundamental rights of the people.

I hate to sound like an ignoramus, but I had never actually thought of it that way.  Sure, common sense dictates that a civilization’s exercising self-preservation is a good idea, and that the failure to do so is insane, but the idea that people have a basic human right to live free of environmental collapse had somehow eluded me until just now.