Women
and climate change – most affected and least heard
In a study published recently
in Germany on Climate and Development, we find the following statements:
“Poverty affects many, too many people – and it affects
men and women differently and in different numbers. Most of the
poor are women, as poverty research has shown, and this is bound
up with the fact that in many countries women and girls continue
to suffer legal and social discrimination: They have poorer access
to education and health care than boys and men, and they do not
have the same economic opportunities, be it because their ability
to act is curbed by legal restraints, or because they are unable
to move freely, or for other reasons.”
The study adds that “There
is good reason to believe that one result of the political and
social discrimination of girls and women is that they are affected
differently than men by the impacts of climate change, a circumstance
that exacerbates the poverty and other risks they face.”
(1)
One of the good reasons for believing that this is true is the
fact that most of the people affected by the worst climatic disasters
that have happened over the past few years are poor and in their
vast majority women. For example, in Indonesia during the
tsunami, for various reasons more women were drowned than men:
because they did not know how to swim, because they stayed to
look after their children until the last moment, because they
were locked in, because they found out too late, because their
long dresses did not enable them to move fast, because their food
reserves were so low that they could not make the effort required
to save themselves, etc.
In an article on “Women and Climate Change,” Kellie
Tranter, an Australian lawyer describes some of the causes of
death, such as those mentioned above and shows that during so-called
“natural” disasters, more women than men have died:
90% of the 140,000 victims who died during the cyclone that hit
Bangladesh in 1991 were women, more women than men died during
the heat-wave that struck Europe in 2003 and in the Indonesian
tsunami in 2006, 3 to 4 women died for each man. (2)
In a study carried out with women in Germany, Bolivia and Tanzania
in 2009 (3), it was revealed that women are more burdened with
their daily activities due to climate change. An example of this
is shown in the department of Oruro, Bolivia, where “at
times of heat-waves the water sources dry up and the remaining
water becomes increasingly brackish and less potable. Strong winds
sweep away loose earth and dry it. There are also new species
of parasites. There is a sort of bug that is causing great damage
by attacking the root of the alfalfa plant and killing this forage.”
Furthermore, with the change in temperature, crops that used to
grow easily don’t grow anymore and the continuous frosts
and rains cause losses. The cattle are also decreasing because
of the lack of pastures and because of the appearance of “a
new and aggressive type of mosquito that attacks human beings
and animals. In short, climate change makes the already gruelling
working life of Bolivian women even harder.”
Very similar stories are told by the women of Dodoma, Tanzania.
Continuous droughts oblige women to “go increasingly far
away to get water and sometimes they are forced to buy it... crops
have dropped off in a catastrophic way. This is the cause for
the worrying lack of food in the whole village.” Women must
use different strategies to survive. Gladis, for example tells
us how “...we can no longer count on income from agriculture...I
also have a vegetable garden and breed pigs and hens. Also I sew
school bags...I make local beer and do occasional jobs.”
But they too ask not to be the only ones who make sacrifices.
They demand that the government must avoid the continuous logging
of trees and burning of forests that are worsening water supply
and the climate, while also demanding that the industrialized
countries change their lifestyle.
Women cannot continue to be the victims and must take a leading
role when climate change policies are being designed. Although
some formal recognition has been achieved, it is not reflected
either in the proposals or in the structures of the United Nations
Convention on Climate Change.
On the one hand, most of the policies proposed as (false) solutions
for addressing climate change further exacerbate the situations
described above. For example the promotion of large scale crops
to be used as fuel and monoculture tree plantations as so-called
carbon sinks, have been shown to have negative impacts on forests,
soil and water and also on women.
On the other hand, women have serious difficulties in being taken
into account, even within the structure of the Convention, contradicting
its own statements. In December 2007, in Bali, international
leaders declared for the first time that “gender issues
are pertinent to climate related policies.” In 2009, the
Convention formally recognized the participation of gender and
women’s groups. However, recently the UN Secretary General,
Ban Ki- moon announced the creation of a “high level”
group tasked with no less than investigating potential sources
of revenue to support developing countries in their efforts to
cope with the impacts of climate change and the shift to low-carbon
development pathways. (4) The group is composed of 19 members.
All men. The destiny of humankind may be in their hands (5)
Declarations about “gender equity” must be reflected
in deeds. Time has run out. Women, while suffering most from the
effects of climate change are also essential when seeking solutions.
The solving of gender inequality is a question both of justice
and of survival.
