Green | March 07, 2012 | 19 comments

International Women's Day: Women are the true face of climate change

source: http://www.climatecentral.org/news/women-are-face-of-climate-change-and-its-effects//

JanforGore
While the cumulative effects of rising global temperatures have already caused dramatic changes to our planet, those changes often seem distant and it's hard to put faces to them. But as climate change becomes more disruptive to daily life around the world, it’s more likely than not that the faces of that disruption will be those of women.

With the world celebrating International Women’s Day on Thursday, it’s a good time to reflect on just how vulnerable women are to the effects of climate change.

If you’re surprised to hear that gender makes a difference, you shouldn’t be. After all, we’ve long known that some groups are particularly threatened by climate change; the world’s most impoverished people are the best example. Millions of the poorest people live in regions that will be increasingly struck by rising sea level, extreme storms, droughts and famines. Women make up a shocking 70 percent of people living in poverty around the world.

The gender imbalance of climate change is about more than just numbers, though. During natural disasters and extreme storms — of which many are increasingly linked to our carbon-loaded atmosphere — women often lack the physical strength needed to pull themselves to high ground or to run for safe cover. If this physical barrier isn’t enough, women are usually responsible for children and relatives and in extreme conditions, they have the added burden of moving everyone out of harm’s way.

It’s this universal role as caregiver — one that we would rarely change if given the chance — that increases women’s vulnerability to our changing climate. With motherhood comes the responsibility of providing food, water, shelter, protection and transportation for children. In a warmer world, these are increasingly challenging tasks.

The World Health Organization estimates that of the nearly 150,000 people already perishing around the world each year because of climate change, nearly 90% are children. And the threats for children, and thus for women, are continuing to mount. More frequent and longer droughts will lead to food shortages for millions, and particularly those in poverty. Similarly, extreme storms and rising sea levels threaten drinking water supplies for millions worldwide. For women, this means traveling further and working even harder to provide for the basic needs of their families and communities.

These climate-related pressures aren’t unique to poor women living in developing countries. Here in the United States, the same social dynamics apply and women are overwhelmingly responsible for caregiving. Here, too, the changing climate is a growing liability to our families’ health.

For example, rising temperatures are severely reducing air quality, particularly in America’s biggest cities, and this triggers health problems for millions of people with asthma. Heat waves, which are already more common in North America, take a particular toll on children and the elderly. In many parts of the country, earlier and longer spring seasons exacerbate allergies. And in all these examples, women disproportionately carry the weight of protecting their children and providing care when family members are sick.

Knowing all the ways in which they are likely to feel the negative impacts of climate change, it’s no wonder that women — whether they are mothers are not — are more concerned about climate change than men.

On the plus side, this gender divide presents opportunity. Empowering and educating women worldwide gives them the resources to continue to provide for their families, even in the face of dramatic environmental changes. In places like Africa, where women are acutely aware of how crop yields and water supplies are changing, they may also be more likely to adopt local adaptation measures. In the U.S., women have the ability to rally together over their growing concerns, which can drive more substantial policy initiatives.

“What we learn from talking about women’s vulnerabilities is that we all have vulnerabilities,” said Kim Knowlton, a scientist for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “No one is immune to climate change.”

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19 comments // International Women's Day: Women are the true face of climate change // Video

  • BRAVATRAVELS
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  
    • BRAVATRAVELS:

      Yes, we should also not forget the men of this world who show us respect, love and support us for our hearts and minds... and who work with us to make this world what it was meant to be. Thank you. I hope we make it.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
  • chew_chew
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  

    • http://water-is-life.blogspot.com/2010/02/water-is-life-women-waterbearers-of.ht...

      Water Is Life: Women, Waterbearers Of Life

      My first blog post in a series regarding the important subject of women and water:

      " It is hard for many in this world of plenty to relate to the lives of women who must struggle for all they have and who are denied their identity and their dreams. For us, getting up in the morning and turning on our showers or our taps is something we don’t even think about because the water is always there. We don’t think of the water used for cooking or bathing, or washing, or doing other tasks that people in these countries wouldn’t ever have a chance to do. While we waste water on golf courses, in pools, and to build desert resorts, water is gold to those who live in countries where there isn’t even enough for the basic necessities of life.

      Which is why in this age of climate change, global warming, population increases, and agricultural challenges, the plight of women in regards to water and how it relates to global poverty and injustice must be addressed in order for us to begin to see the solutions to the social ills that have plagued all of us for so long to bring us true freedom. It may be hard to think that a toilet or a water pipe could be the key to such freedom. Perhaps that is because it is so simple, so easy, so logical, and so morally right.

      No one should go without the basic human right of water, and particularly no one should have to work so hard every day risking death to obtain it. My hope is that in this century, we can finally realize our true potential as humans, and finally recognize why we are here and see the day when no woman has to risk her life to have the basic necessities to live and not just survive."

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  

    • http://water-is-life.blogspot.com/2010/04/water-is-life-woman-and-water-new.html

      Water Is Life: Women And Water: A New Beginning

      "We are living in a time when Women's voices must be heard, considered and respected at every level. Recognizing women's vital role in the environment...is essential for a future of security and peace."

      Dr. Wangari Maathai
      Nobel Laureate
      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

      In the previous instalment to this series, the struggles and dangers women face regarding collecting water and living in water stressed areas was illustrated. This entry deals with the solutions and one specific group, the Global Women's Water Initiative that is doing something wonderful to tackle this crisis and to provide the training, skills, networking and funding needed to generate water service projects across Africa.

      Women not only play a vital role in the environment but also in the social and economic fabric of the globe. When women are given the tools to lead, change comes. The solutions to many of our world's most challenging crises rest on giving women those tools. Clean water leads to education, which leads to economic freedom, which leads to progress, health, food, and peace.

      This uplifting video shows the beginning steps of what should spread like wildfire across our planet...turning stories of hopelessness and struggle into stories of hope and triumph.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  
    • Image

    • http://current.com/groups/culture/93482164_nobel-peace-prize-awarded-to-three-wo...

      The last Nobel Peace Prize went to three women's activists

      "OSLO, Norway — The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to three champions of women’s rights in Africa and the Middle East on Friday in an attempt to bolster the role of women in struggles to bring democracy to nations suffering from autocratic rule and civil strife.

      The Norwegian Nobel Committee split the prize between Tawakkul Karman, a leader of anti-government protests in Yemen; Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman to win a free presidential election in Africa; and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia, who campaigned against the use of rape as a weapon in her country’s brutal civil war.

      By picking Karman — the first Arab woman to win the peace prize — the Norwegian Nobel Committee found a way to associate the 10 million kronor ($1.5 million) award with the uprisings sweeping North Africa and the Middle East without citing them alone, which would have been problematic.

      After a popular uprising at the height of the Arab Spring, Libya descended into civil war that led to NATO military intervention. Egypt and Tunisia are still in turmoil. Hardliners are holding onto power in Yemen and Syria and a Saudi-led force crushed the uprising in Bahrain, leaving an uncertain record for the Arab protest movement.

      Prize committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said it was also difficult to identify the leaders of the Arab Spring among the scores of activists who have spearheaded protests using social media.

      “We have included the Arab Spring in this prize, but we have put it in a particular context,” Jagland told reporters. “Namely, if one fails to include the women in the revolution and the new democracies, there will be no democracy.”

      He called the oppression of women “the most important issue in the Arab World” and stressed that the empowerment of women must go hand in hand with Islam.

      “It may be that some still are saying that women should be at home, not driving cars, not being part of the normal society,” he told The Associated Press. “But this is not being on the right side of history.”

      He noted that Karman, 32, is a member of a political party linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist movement sometimes viewed with suspicion in the West. Jagland, however, called the Brotherhood “an important part” of the Arab Spring.

      No woman or sub-Saharan African had won the prize since 2004, when the committee honored Wangari Maathai of Kenya, who mobilized poor women to fight deforestation by planting trees. She died last month at 71. The 2005 prize went to the International Atomic Energy Agency and its head Mohamed ElBaradei of Egypt."
      ~~~~~
      Funny, when this was posted it got no response. When Obama won all we saw was talk about it. And these women actually deserved it.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  
    • Image

    • http://www.pbs.org/wnet/women-war-and-peace/full-episodes/pray-the-devil-back-to...

      Pray The Devil Back To Hell

      "Pray the Devil Back to Hell is the astonishing story of the Liberian women who took on the warlords and regime of dictator Charles Taylor in the midst of a brutal civil war, and won a once unimaginable peace for their shattered country in 2003. As the rebel noose tightened around the capital city of Monrovia, thousands of women – ordinary mothers, grandmothers, aunts and daughters, both Christian and Muslim – formed a thin but unshakeable line between the opposing forces. Armed only with white T-shirts and the courage of their convictions, they literally faced down the killers who had turned Liberia into hell on earth. In one memorable scene, the women barricaded the site of stalled peace talks in Ghana and refused to move until a deal was done. Their demonstrations culminated in Taylor’s exile and the rise of Africa’s first female head of state, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Inspiring and uplifting, Pray the Devil Back to Hell is a compelling example of how grassroots activism can alter the history of nations."

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  

    • "The World Health Organization estimates that of the nearly 150,000 people already perishing around the world each year because of climate change, nearly 90% are children. "

      But yes, you go ahead Heartland Insititute and sell your putrid lies for the fossil fuel industry. You have blood on your hands.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  

    • I also think that women in this country should be just as outraged that Rush Limbaugh and his ilk spread lies about climate change as they are about his piggish remarks regarding other women's issues. Climate change directly affects women and the children they so desperately want us to have through health, environment and economy. He should lose sponsors over that!! But then again, sex sells and this is considered ho hum...the most important crisis our species now faces.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  

    • Women And Climate Change

      70% of those living in poverty around the world are women. Empowering women in developing countries through many of the examples I noted below would not only work to pull them out of poverty but also work to make the world sustainable for future generations. However, many men who are in power politically feel threatened by the strength and wisdom of women (and unfortunately, some women do as well.) Perhaps that is part of the impasse regarding real progress on addressing climate change, particularly in the U.S.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
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