Current Event #2

Jovana Curcic

Mrs. Medenica

ESS 11

9/29/2014

U.N. Women Chief: Climate Change impacts fall hardest on women

http://newsdaily.com/2014/09/24/u-n-women-chief-climate-change-impacts-fall-hardest-on-women/

This article describes the role of women in climate change facts consideration. It also states that the climate change has a more negative impact on female than on male individuals. Did you ever think about that? It’s an interesting and a new point of view for me, definitely.  Climate change threatens to destroy the freedoms that humans have and tends to limit choice, and gender difference results in climate risks. Global warming, as we all know, is the mainspring of many environmental disasters; starting with climate change, glaciers melting, and the effect on weather patterns (floods, droughts, etc.). This is primarily vulnerable to women and children who cannot cope with these changes, mostly because they cannot access to the resources they need, and therefore are more negatively impacted by climate change, as mentioned above. The article says that women represent 43% of the global workforce and 65% of those involved in livestock. When women have less rights and less power in their society, more of them are affected by climate change. Women have less voice and influence than men in making policies. Women in developing countries have limited access to resources; restricted rights, lower social status in most countries, and not having a voice in shaping decisions which makes them highly vulnerable to climate change. Vulnerability varies widely, but climate change will enhance the gender inequality, especially in developing countries where women play an important role in supporting households and communities. In the developing world, women's leadership in natural resource management is often poor and limited. Although, for a long time, women have learned a lot about water, land and food management, their knowledge and experience is often neglected. Through those experiences that they’ve had, women have gained knowledge that might allow them to devote positively to the adaptation techniques… But this is only if they are given the opportunity. In general, the survival of many women  (especially in the developed world) depend only on the natural environment, so the inclusion of them should be much stronger. 

This article has surprised me because I never thought that climate change might have stronger influence on different gender. I always thought that climate change affects everyone equally and there is nobody who is less vulnerable to it than the other. But this article convinced me to think otherwise.  Did you know that men and women have different carbon footprints? Did you know that 62% of women are willing to pay extra for climate-friendly products compared to 54% of men? This tells me that women are more eco-friendly and should have more rights that what they have now. As we know, the results of climate changes are by the things we do in our everyday lives. And since the women are generally more involved in everyday resource management, it gives me the inclination that if women have the same rights as men or maybe more in environment policies and decisions,  maybe the environment would be much healthier than it is.