A very real blog post veiled with hilarious anecdotes by Eve Andrews at Grist made me realise the serious effects climate change will have on indigenous women, especially in developing countries. Indigenous women's livelihoods depend on nature. A quote from the blog on Grist explains it perfectly: “For indigenous women, the relationship with the environment is very important – it has such a high impact on lives,” says Mariana Lopez, program coordinator for the International Indigenous Women’s Forum. “They have a very close relationship with the cycles of nature. But with climate change altering those patterns — well, when nature is unpredictable, it’s very disruptive to their lives.”
So, why are women being subjected to the effects of climate change more than their male counterparts?
Another quote from the blog explains this,
“The damage that corporations are inflicting on natural resources have an impact on the life of indigenous women — a very, very direct impact. We see a lot of sexual and reproductive health problems specific to indigenous women — and not men — that are linked to pesticides, toxins, contamination of water. If environmental rights are not guaranteed, the human rights of indigenous women are not going to be guaranteed, either.” Mariana Lopez states.
So this gives us an idea of just how damaging climate change is to women in developing worlds. For most of us, living in privileged societies, the effects of climate change are serious, but are mainly a future disaster that we are trying our hardest to prevent occurring. But for these women, it is real, it is already happening now! Their lives are being effected by very serious environmental impacts.
Stories from women living the impacts of climate change right now are heartbreaking, but do inspire change! Out of sad story, comes empowerment to make a change!
The story of Ursula Rakova, the executive producer of Tulele Peisa, is just one of these. Due to climactic changes where her home is being submerged by rising sea levels she is now in the process of relocating her family from the Papua New Guinean island of Tulun to the nearby island of Bougainville. Being a woman in her community, her main responsibilities is food: farming, foraging, fishing and preparation. With the rising sea levels nothing can grow there except for rice, which is not part of the normal diet. The land is incurable, thus the shift Rakova must go through.
As stated on Grist, Rakova tells Andrews “Women are now being forced to do more physical work because they’ve got to find food, and when they find the little food that they can, they give it to their children. They go without food almost every day. It is the women on the island who are suffering more of the impact than anyone else.”
These very important issues were discussed at the 2014 Summit for Women & Climate, hosted by Global Greengrants, the International Netowrk of Women's Funds, and the Greengrants Alliance of Funds held in Bali. It's purpose was to bring women's and environmental rights leaders from around the world together in order to tackle the issues regarding women and climate change.
You always hear people say to climate change deniers " What's the worst that will happen if we be more environmentally friendly, we make a better world for ourselves, our children and grandchildren?" And this is so true, but there is even more reason to start acting on climate change, because we can actually SEE the effects in modern day! It's not a distant future, it is happening now, and women are being gravely effected by its impacts!
To finish i'll leave you with a quote from the blog that describes the empowerment of women being imperative to the fight against climate change.
Eve Andrews states "When I asked Bertha Cáceres how she considers the role that women — particularly indigenous women — will play in fighting climate change, this was her response:"
“We have to change the system, not the climate, right? I think that we, as women, are in a very important moment right now, politically and historically speaking. Now is the era of women.”
For more empowering stories about woman tackling climate change read the rest of the blog: Are women our best hope for fighting climate change?