CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE WORLD'S POOR

A WOW! e-Brief

Work of Women program @ World Neighbors

April 2007

 

Overview

Earth Day is now the world’s largest secular holiday, celebrated around the globe. In the United States and 174 other countries, April 22 is a day for raising awareness and promoting activism around environmental issues. This April is extra special because of the release of an important portion of the most comprehensive review to date of the science of climate change. The United Nations Security Council also recently debated the topic of climate change and global security for the first time. Is global warming fact or fiction? What would the climate change that scientists now confirm is currently underway really mean to us, and to women around the world?

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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released major reports this year on the physical science related to climate change and the impacts of these changes on the earth’s systems and people’s capacity to adapt to these changes. Scientists are in wide agreement that climate change is occurring, and that the majority of the change is due to human causes. The major findings of the reports released thus far indicate that the global climate system is already warming, sea levels are rising at an increased rate and climate warming is due in large part to increases in greenhouse gases from human activities. The effects of this warming will vary by region, and include greater precipitation from heavy rainfall, more areas affected by drought and heat waves, and increased tropical cyclone activity. A third report on potential responses and solutions will be released on May 4, 2007.

What does this mean to the poor of the world, and especially to women? Poor people—especially those in developing countries—are more vulnerable to the negative consequences of climate change for a variety of reasons. In addition, they often have less capacity to adapt to the changes for a number of social and economic reasons. For example, poor communities in the developing world tend to depend for their livelihoods on the natural resources immediately available to them, and when those resources become harder to access they feel the impacts immediately and more severely.

Because women make up a significant amount of the poor globally, they will make up the majority of the poor affected. In addition, women will experience other effects based on their traditionally lower status and special biological situation. For example when income needs to be found in alternative ways, women’s greater illiteracy rates and lower education levels mean that they are less likely to have access to many types of employment, or to be effective negotiators in some market situations. Because women often eat last in the family, they get less food when supply is short. They also routinely work more hours and have stresses on their physical health due to pregnancy and breast feeding. The anticipated rise in diseases like cholera and malaria that spread through poor quality water and by “vectors” such as mosquitoes and parasites will likely impact women especially hard because of marginal health. In traditional situations when women often have restrictions placed on their mobility within and outside of the community. They often cannot speak openly nor share problems of a personal nature, which restricts their access to quality healthcare.

Because of women’s roles in poor, rural communities, their workloads are likely to increase in response to some of the effects of climate change. For example, one of the impacts anticipated is that in areas where water is now in short supply, it will likely become even scarcer. Since women are the ones largely responsible for finding and transporting water for the household, the increased effort and time needed to access it will add to their workloads. As family members become ill from water- and vector-borne illnesses, their care will mostly fall to women as the primary caregivers. Firewood will also become scarcer in many areas, and as the traditional gatherers, women will be forced to devote more hours and energy to this task as well.

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As common natural resources in certain areas dwindle, the economic pressures will likely fuel increased migration of men and sometimes women to other locations in search of alternative income sources. When women are left behind, they are often forced to assume the work traditionally carried out by their partner, but usually do not have the corresponding resources and freedom to make decisions and otherwise carry out those responsibilities. Some of this migration leads to abandonment, which also carries a host of economic and social issues, only one of which is significant loss of income and other supports.

The consequences of climate change can greatly slow sustainable development work. For example, as women’s workload increases due to increased time needed to gather common resources such as water and firewood, or care for sick family members, they will be less able to involve themselves in community activities. They will also be less able to participate in income producing activities. Women are also more likely to feel forced to pull girls out of school to assist in dealing with these burdens.

But sustainable development can reduce the vulnerability of people and their communities to some of the negative effects of climate change. By strengthening families’ economic situation and communities’ social inclusion and collaboration, individuals are more likely to be able to adapt to change and withstand short periods of hardship. Communities are also more inclined and better able to reach out and care for members who face special struggles.

Photos in this issue brief by Natalie Elwell.

 

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