Extreme weather events kill more women than men
The current climate inaction is costing women their
livelihoods and their lives:
by Hilary Bambrick
In the run-up to December's crucial Paris climate talks, some of the
clearest calls for climate action are coming from familiar quarters:
public health and environmental groups such as the World Health
Organization, Doctors for Climate Action and No New Coal Mines.
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But there is yet another compelling reason to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions: the fact that the current climate inaction is costing women
their livelihoods and their lives.
Skewed effects
The impacts of climate change are set to hit the world's poorest
countries far harder than the wealthy ones. And the bad news for women
in those societies is that the effects are not gender-neutral.
While rich societies are better able to deal with the economic costs
and health consequences of climate-driven events such as floods or
heatwaves, poorer countries are not so lucky.
Poverty is associated with poor health, limited infrastructure, and
ecosystem degradation, all of which increase vulnerability to climate
impacts. Climate change is especially bad for women, largely because
they are overrepresented among the world's poor and are thus more
exposed to these dangers. What's more, climate change will itself make
it harder for people to escape poverty.
Extreme weather events kill more women than men globally - the more
extreme, the bigger the gender gap. Among the 150,000 people killed by
the 1991 Bangladesh cyclone, 90% were women.
Survival in a disaster is influenced by social circumstances:
poverty, social restrictions, roles in decision-making, even things as
basic as knowing how to swim. Even if they make it to an emergency
shelter, women and girls are at increased risk of violence.
Women are also more likely to be exposed to mosquito-borne diseases
through their daily activities; water collection and food harvesting
puts them in close contact with mosquitoes.
Warmer temperatures, especially when combined with higher humidity
following flooding, enhance transmission of diseases such as malaria,
dengue and chikungunya. Women who are pregnant are especially at risk
from malaria, as are children. During a disease outbreak, it is women
who typically provide care, which also erodes their economic
productivity.
Increasing food insecurity also disproportionately affects women and
girls. Women have greater requirements than men and boys for some
nutrients, even before their hard physical labour is considered.
In some cultures, women and children do not eat until the men have
had their fill, further risking their health when food is scarce. As
food becomes increasingly scarce and expensive, women forego other
essential items such as medicines, to feed their family.
Water scarcity means travelling increasing distances to collect heavy
loads. Not only is this physically damaging, it reduces women's
participation in income-generating activities and education, further
limiting opportunities for gender equality. Warmer temperatures also
directly limit capacity for physical labour.
Increasing scarcity of resources - food, water, land - will trigger
conflicts and enforced migrations. Violence against women and girls
increases under such situations of social disruption.
Importantly too, some key drivers of climate change also directly
damage the health of women and girls. Burning biomass fuels such as wood
for cooking creates dangerous indoor air pollution, to which women and
girls are most exposed. Pollution from cooking stoves causes nearly 4
million premature deaths a year, and contributes to poor lung function,
tuberculosis, and pneumonia.
The way forward
Fortunately, there is quite a lot that richer nations can do to help.
As well as reducing their own emissions, thoughtful development projects
in vulnerable communities can simultaneously enhance adaptation,
alleviate poverty, improve health, mitigate climate change, and empower
women.
Projects might take the form of teaching sustainable farming
techniques, or providing infrastructure for household water harvesting
and solar power. One technology with multiple benefits is the biogas
digester, which simultaneously provides sanitation and animal waste
management, a free, cleaner cooking fuel alternative, and produces
organic fertiliser.
Biogas systems directly improve health (gastrointestinal, trachoma,
respiratory), and reduce carbon emissions and deforestation.
They can also alleviate poverty by generating new income through
improved agricultural practices and food production - roles that are
frequently the domain of women.
There are endless opportunities to implement such life-changing
initiatives in partnership with local communities. The health and
economic benefits to women and their communities are immediate, and
there are other, longer-term gains in emission reductions and building
community resilience.
With the Paris summit and the chance for a meaningful global
agreement just around the corner, it's high time to dump the world's
reliance on (increasingly unmarketable) coal, and commit instead to
clean energy and a healthier, more prosperous, and gender-equal future.
- Third World Network Features.
The author is
Professor and Chair of Population Health, Western Sydney University.)
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