At this point, climate change is no longer about speculating "when" or "what if," it is now. According to the IPCC's recent report, the Earth's temperature has increased by 2 degrees Fahrenheit from decades of using nonrenewable energy sources that release greenhouse gases. While the effects of climate change will be experienced by everyone, they are largely caused by men and will disproportionately affect women in the long run.
In Lauren Jackson's article "The Climate Crisis is Worse for Women. Here's Why," she summarizes Katharine K. Wilkinson's book on the climate crisis, specifically the connection between gender and climate change. With climate change comes an increase in extreme weather events and natural disasters, like we have seen over the last several years (fires, floods, earthquakes). Jackson shares that major weather events are linked to "early marriage, sex trafficking, [and] domestic violence" (paragraph 8).
Excerpt from Jackson's New York Times article, paragraph 4:
“The climate crisis is not gender-equal or gender-neutral,” [Wilkinson] said. Men have a larger carbon footprint than women, by 16 percent, according to one study. And the top 1 percent of income earners globally, who are overwhelmingly male, are responsible for more carbon emissions than the bottom 50 percent of earners. According to the U.N., that’s roughly 70 million at the top compared with 3.5 billion at the bottom. Yet it is women and girls who bear the burdens in the wake of more frequent climate disasters. Those burdens include displacement — 80 percent of people displaced by climate change are women — as well as increased homelessness, poverty, sexual violence and disease."
Wilkinson argues that in order for there to be a significant change in the way climate change will affect women in the future, there needs to be a push for the movement of climate feminism. Climate feminism is acknowledging the difference in the impact that climate change has on women versus men and giving women a seat at the table when creating solutions.
For More Information from The New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/24/us/climate-crisis-women-katharine-wilkinson.html
IPCC Report on Climate Change:
With so much going on between the fires, flooding, hurricanes and tornadoes just within the last 3 days.. it is really important to shed light on such an important topic. A lot of people don't look at climate change as a women's issue, and I think it's time to. Your point at giving women a seat at the table when making decisions around climate change is very true when asking the questions "who is most effected?" and "who is impacted first?". I love the theme of your blog and I'm excited to check out more in the future!
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