Abstract
It is a politically controversial but by no means scientifically contentious hypothesis that many of the root causes of contemporary climate change emerge from the profit-seeking activities of multinational corporations – for instance in the oil, coal, deforestation and livestock industries. Contemporary corporatogenic warming of the climate is recognised scientifically as not only having tragic environmental consequences, but also creating significant biosecurity risks. Using the 2008 Dengue Fever outbreak in Northern Queensland as a critical focal point, this article explores the implications of corporatogenic climate change to Australian biosecurity in the context both of Australia’s new federal biosecurity legislation (Biosecurity Act 2015 (Cth)) and the investor-State dispute settlement provisions of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) particularly as they may impact the health and international human rights of Australia’s northerly indigenous populations.
Highlights
The 2008 Queensland Dengue Fever Outbreak The idea that the Earth has moved from the Holocene into a subset of such warming period more appropriately termed the Anthropocene was first proposed in 2002 by Crutzen
Crutzen’s basic idea was that increased numbers of people using more land for agriculture and urban dwelling, depositing their waste into land, sea and air, depleting the fixed resource of the natural environment, were having a deleterious influence on terrestrial, coastal and maritime ecosystems, atmospheric gas composition, nitrogen, carbon and phosphorus cycles, basic climatic parameters, food chains, biological diversity and natural resources [1]. It has become apparent, that the dominant portion of these potentially catastrophic impacts, those that continue to increase despite scientific evidence of their harm to other species and ecosystems as well as human health, are driven by the present legally required dominant focus on profit-seeking by multinational corporations; introduction of the concept of ‘corporatogenic’ climate change and the substitution of ‘Corporatocene’ for ‘Anthropocene’ [2]
Dengue Fever activity is increasing in many parts of the tropical and subtropical world as a result of rapid urbanisation in developing countries and increased international travel, and the decisions of multinational corporations, the oil, coal and gas industries and those benefitting financially from them, to continue burning carbon-rich fuels that atmospherically trap the sun’s heat
Summary
Dengue Fever activity is increasing in many parts of the tropical and subtropical world as a result of rapid urbanisation in developing countries and increased international travel, and the decisions of multinational corporations, the oil, coal and gas industries and those benefitting financially from them, to continue burning carbon-rich fuels that atmospherically trap the sun’s heat. The potential for the Dengue Fever outbreaks is likely to rise in this era of corporatogenic climate change as breeding conditions for the relevant mosquito expand. In such situations the application of Australia’s Biosecurity. Act 2015 (Cth) may create human rights issues not just for medical practitioners employed by public health authorities governed by the legislation, and for indigenous communities in Northern Australian regions. The capacity of Australian governments to taking legislative biosecurity actions against such threats in the interest of public health and the environment itself may be impeded by new corporate investor dispute rights incorporated in agreements such as the CPTPP. Conflict of interests The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare
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