CLIMATE CHANGE HITS WOMEN HARDEST

Women will suffer the worst effects of climate change

Sarah Milner-Barry, April 23, 2015 (Quartz)

“…It is a particularly unpleasant reality of climate change—that those societies that have emitted the most greenhouse gases are not going to be the ones to bear the brunt of its destabilizing effects…What is often missed in these analyses and forecasts however, is the fact that women make up more than half of the world’s impoverished population…[and] will be more affected…The majority of these women work on the land, and are providers of food and water for their families. These practices are disrupted by obstructed access to natural resources caused by climatic changes—leaving women more susceptible to food insecurity than men, who are more able to work, and eat, outside the home…

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“…[Another particularly sobering finding was that after the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004,] an average of 77% of the fatalities recorded were women, some of whom drowned as a result of not being taught how to swim…[S]tudies have shown that women are at increasingly greater risk of gender-based violence due to higher temperatures, and shortages of natural resources…[They also become] more vulnerable to domestic violence, and in the aftermath of disasters there has been a marked increase in the rates of sexual and domestic abuse towards women…This is not to say though that women in the developing world should be seen primarily as victims…There are countless examples of women in the world’s poorest communities who have recognized their specific vulnerabilities in these instances, and subsequently taken action…” click here for more

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