Arctic ice chunks float in water.

Climate

Studying the effects of climate change, recommending solutions to decision makers, and investigating attacks on environmental defenders

Open Source Investigations

We have completed several environment and climate-related projects through our Investigations Lab. We’ve worked with our sister Labs at UC Santa Cruz and UCLA through the University of California Digital Investigations Network (UCDIN) to create a guide for researchers that demonstrates how open source investigative methods can be useful for investigating environmental crimes and the impacts of climate change. We also partnered with UCDIN and Cultural Survival to document the killing of Indigenous land defenders of the Amazon; explored the health impacts of mining on children in Peru with the Center for Climate Crime Analysis and SITU Research; mapped the rebuilding of homes after wildfires in Northern California in 2016 and 2017 with Earthrise Media.

Aerial view of a rainforest and river.
View of Flutuação Rio Sucuri in Bonito, State of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. Image by Paulo Freita via Unsplash.

News

An orange wildfire burns with brown and black smoke shrouding the sky above.

December 5, 2023

Climate candor: Ridding climate cases of questionable science

HRC in the News — Open Global Rights: Climate candor: Ridding climate cases of questionable science, authored by Alexa Koenig and Baiboon Sakulkarunaarree.

A view of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Reservation from the bank of the Missouri River in Forest City, South Dakota. Nearby, there are three oil worker man camps. Kristina Barker

January 8, 2021

A crude virus: How man camps can cause a COVID surge

Commentary — High Country News: A crude virus: How man camps can cause a COVID surge by Kalen Goodluck, Lucy Meyer and Anjali Shrivastava (a collaboration with the Human Rights Center).

Image by NOAA on Unsplash

October 19, 2005

Human rights researchers find widespread problems after 2004 tsunami

HRC in the News — Berkeley News: Human rights researchers find widespread problems after 2004 tsunami, writing about the report “After the Tsunami: Human Rights of Vulnerable