Financial instability, housing insecurity and greater caregiving responsibilities make U.S. women more vulnerable to climate disasters.
Category: Environment
The Power of Mobilizing Women in the Climate Crisis
Women are by far the group most disproportionately affected by climate change. Yet, they are regularly left out of the conversation on a global scale. The United Nations estimates 80 percent of all people displaced by climate change are women and girls, who make up only 30 percent of global and national climate decision-making bodies.
When thinking about the climate crisis, it is easy to become overwhelmed by dread and feelings of helplessness. But learning about the work of incredible women activists can provide a sense of hope and optimism as we all march forward into the impending storm. If we’re willing to listen to these women, we might actually be able to make it out of this alive. And dare I say, even better than before.
Helping America Rebuild: A Community-Based Effort for Disaster Resilience
With climate disasters increasing drastically, disaster resilience efforts have to adapt. Resilience Force is a new initiative working on providing disaster relief to the most vulnerable—an effort led by women of color.
I’m an Asian American Environmental Educator. White Supremacy Is a Threat to Me and to the Planet
A purely ecological agenda for Earth Day isn’t enough: Racial justice must be prioritized.
Can This Year’s U.N. Meeting on Gender Equality Make a Difference on Climate Change?
As the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) kicks off this week, there may be a chance to address the failures of the U.N. climate change negotiations through the lens of women’s human rights.
Environmental Justice Is An Abortion Rights Issue
As abortion becomes increasingly inaccessible in much of the U.S., many more people may soon find themselves with no choice but to fly or drive long distances to access the care that they need.
People should be able to exercise their bodily autonomy and control their reproductive lives without leaving their communities. Whether people opt to make lengthy drives or to fly in the face of bans and restrictions, the environmental cost of forcing this travel will ultimately impact us all.
The Confining Nature of Climate Change on Incarcerated People
From extreme flooding in Florida from Tropical Storm Elsa in July, to the wildfires that ravaged California last year, climate change is being realized in our everyday lives—with no end in sight. In fact, in the next 30 years, the cost of flood damage is expected to rise by 26 percent.
Those who are incarcerated are more likely to be impacted by climate change and environmental toxicity.
Ogoni Women’s Climate Justice Was Decades Ahead of Today’s Debates
The story of the Ogoni women of Southern Nigeria makes the term “climate change” seem nonsensical. The climate didn’t simply change—someone altered it.
In 1993, Ogoni women in Nigeria launched a movement to defy Shell Oil and protect their community from pollution. Their dedication inspired new generations of Indigenous climate justice activists.
Of Women Who Walk: The Feelings Of Freedom and Fear
Windswept: Walking the Paths of Trailblazing Women acknowledges the concurrent dreams and fears of women to experience the world with the privilege given to men—that privilege of power in the natural world. That privilege to do whatever it is we wish to do, see what we wish to see, for whatever our purpose, in safety, without being limited by our vulnerabilities or worrying for our lives.
The layers of history here arise from Abbs’s perspective that rivets for the richness of her inquiry, her persistence, her interaction with the works of her chosen women—and the fact that she walks their walks.
Harriet Tubman, Astronomer Extraordinaire
Polaris, the North Star, is so named because it always points toward true north. Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman used the North Star to liberate herself—then went South over and over again, using it to liberate both family and strangers.
I cannot imagine a more noble use of astronomical knowledge than to liberate people from the violent horror of chattel slavery. There is a great cosmos beyond the horrors of slavery and its wake. We have always been a part of it, and it has always been a part of us.