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Thursday, August 25, 2011

Are women victims or the main contributors to climate change?


Introduction
"In climate change induced disasters, it is primarily the poor who have suffered the most, the majority of which are women," this according to Anne Maine of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA).
Africa as a continent is responsible for only 3.8 percent of global CO2 emissions, yet it is one of the regions suffering most from the devastating impact of climate change. And out of the 1.3 billion people living in conditions of poverty worldwide, seventy percent are women. The impact of climate change on the poorest nations on Earth will make them still poorer while at the same time widening the societal divides between men and women. Due to their restricted access to information and resources as well as their limited involvement in decision-making procedures, women are the most victims/vulnerable to the impact of climate change.
Women also play a significant role in facilitating climate change around the world through the various socio-economic activities they are involved in. From food shortages to forest degradation and new and more complex health risks, as well as an increased likelihood of conflict over resources, the impacts of climate change threaten to further jeopardize the lives of women and girls. But just as many women are bearing the greatest burden of climate change because of their role as providers for their families; it is women who are developing the solutions that will save our world from the impacts of global warming.
1.      Women as the victims of climate change
In many climate change forums, seminars, workshops, etc, women are always represented as victims of climate change. Case in point;
In sub-Saharan Africa, women are responsible for 70-80 percent of household food production. It is usually women who gather firewood and drawing water from wells. They also play a predominant role in agriculture. If local natural resources become scarce due to extended drought or flooding there is much evidence to suggest that in parts of the world these activities are now taking much more time. Under the current scenario, women have to work more in order to ensure the food supply of their household and therefore have less access to education. In this vicious cycle, social inequalities increase to the detriment of women. 
The depriving of the girl child from an education might bring about the vicious cycle of poverty, and according to studies, might as well bring about inequality, which will undermine the social capital needed to deal effectively with climate change. 

Women are often faced with culturally grounded restrictions to participation in the public sphere. In some cases, women are not allowed to enter the public spaces without being accompanied by a man. In times of natural disasters caused by extreme temperatures, they have less access to information, be it the weather forecast or early warning systems for disasters. Research shows that the existing economic and social inequalities between women and men lead to more female victim during natural catastrophes. Women and children are 14 times more likely than men to die during a disaster. For example, during the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia, 65 percent of the victims were women. In contrast to men, they were mostly in their houses when the tsunami arrived, and had not received any warnings.
Due to devastating effects of intense heat from the sun rays, water bodies dry up and women are forced to walk long distances in such of water for domestic purposes. Girls are sometimes kept home from school to help gather fuel, perpetuating the cycle of disempowerment. Moreover, when environmental degradation forces them to search farther afield for resources, women and girls become more vulnerable to injuries from carrying heavy loads long distances,9 and also face increased risk of sexual harassment and assault.

What’s more, the risk of contracting serious illnesses is aggravated by environmental hazards caused by climate change. In addition to the reference provided above of climate impacting women’s health through water scarcity and water contamination, an abundance of evidence links the evolution and distribution of infectious diseases to climate and weather. This entails a greater incidence of infectious diseases such as cholera, malaria, and dengue fever, due to the extension of risk seasons and wider geographic distribution of disease vectors.

These examples show that under the current scenario, the impact of climate change will in the long run contribute to an increase in social inequalities. In other words, due to their role in society, women in developing countries are the most vulnerable to environmental degradation. An environmental degradation to which they have little or no influence on.
"When the rural environment becomes unsustainable, it's the women whose lives are most disrupted," says Professor Wangari Maathai, Nobel laureate in 2004







2.      Women as the contributors to climate change

As a result of the roles bestowed upon them in society women have more often contributed towards climate change and the effects currently being experienced. For example, in Ghana, Women who are in charge of the households have no choice than to walk for miles before getting one bucket of water to take care of the home. For some, due to the distance they decide to bring to the water side their dirty clothes, and that of their families, to wash them there, instead of walking for several miles just to fetch a bucket of water, which will not be sufficient for washing only.  According to these women, most of the water bodies they rely on for their domestic chores have turned into dry lands, leaving them no choice than to spend most of the hours of the day in search of water for their families. 

Economic status in the society also is a major factor that contributes to climate change. Women and girls comprise an estimated 70% of the world’s poor. It is a result of this that women end up in deforestation practices for purposes of clearing land for cultivation, acquiring wood fuel for domestic and commercial use, increasing costs of energy, transport, health care, and nutrition are likely to affect women more than men. Hence women resorting to walk to access goods and services, use alternative medication-traditional medicine, poor feeding habits for the women and children. All this combined contribute significantly towards climate change related illnesses like malnutrition, heat stress, cholera, diarrhea, etc.

Women farmers currently account for 45-80 per cent of all food production in developing countries depending on the region. About two-thirds of the female labour force in developing countries, and more than 90 percent in many African countries, are engaged in agricultural work. In the context of climate change traditional food sources become more unpredictable and scarce, and with the women being the main producers they transfer the effects by increasing food prices in the market place which affects the poor people, majority being the women and girls. This is a vicious cycle that women find themselves unable to change.

Women in developing countries have also subscribed to the stereotype that “women are not supposed to be heard, they are there to be seen” and as a result they have decided not to participate in any decision making process involving climate change. When decision are made, their role in society is not actively incorporated, hence being marginalized. For example, In the European heat wave in 2003, the excess mortality for women was 75% higher than that for men of all ages. Similarly, the excess mortality in the 1995 heat wave in Greater London was more pronounced for women, in ways that cannot entirely be accounted for by age. While the explanation is complex, this was largely attributed to women not involved in decision-making processes and as a result neglected the early warning systems.








Conclusion
Women—particularly those in poor countries—will be affected differently than men. They are among the most vulnerable to climate change, partly because in many countries they make up the larger share of the agricultural work force and partly because they tend to have access to fewer income-earning opportunities. Women manage households and care for family members, which often limits their mobility and increases their vulnerability to sudden weather-related natural disasters. Drought and erratic rainfall force women to work harder to secure food, water and energy for their homes. Girls drop out of school to help their mothers with these tasks. This cycle of deprivation, poverty and inequality undermines the social capital needed to deal effectively with climate change.
If policy-makers and development workers do not take into account gender roles and incorporate women’s voices, then their efforts to halt climate change and help communities adapt are likely to exacerbate existing gender inequalities and not be as effective as they need to be.
"When the rural environment becomes unsustainable, it's the women whose lives are most disrupted," says Professor Wangari Maathai, Nobel laureate in 2004 and founder of the Green Belt Movement, in her foreword to the publication. "If we conserved better, conflict over land, water and forests would be far less. Protecting the global environment is directly related to securing peace."
While climate change affects everyone, it does not affect everyone equally. The simple truth is that the poorest people in industrialized and developing nations suffer the worst effects of the build-up of greenhouse gases majority being the women and girls.