Why The Climate Crisis Is Harming Women More Than Men

British Telegraph - Helen Pankhurst

This weekend's International Women's Day is an opportunity for women to take a stance against arguably their biggest man-made challenge

A portrait of Greta Thunberg, painted by schoolchildren and artists in Yorkshire to celebrate International Women's Day. Credit: Ben Lack

Helen Pankhurst Dr Helen Pankhurst CBE is an international development and women's rights activist and writer. She is currently CARE International's senior advisor working in the UK and Ethiopia. Dr Pankhurst is the great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst and granddaughter of Sylvia Pankhurst, who were both leaders in the British Suffragette movement.

Every year, on 8th March, International Women’s Day brings an opportunity for feminists to celebrate how far we have come in terms of women’s rights, to speak out about the most pressing issues rising to the top of the social change agenda – and to work out ways to tackle these together.

Last year, sexual harassment in the workplace was high on the news agenda. That’s why the women’s movement around the world joined together to demand a global law addressing sexual harassment and violence in the workplace. And we succeeded: a new global convention to end violence, harassment and abuse in the world of work was agreed. Work continues in every country to ensure the convention is ratified, to ensure that from now on, there will be nowhere to hide for the Harvey Weinsteins of this world: their time is up.

We achieved this massive victory because thousands, even millions, of women and girls – a global force – spoke up and demanded significant change. It shows that solidarity really does matter, and can achieve great things. And right now, it is this belief that is bringing together people all over the world to speak up and demand action on the biggest challenge facing the world: the climate crisis. In 2020, this is the dominant agenda, the issue emerging as the greatest concern to women and girls worldwide.

No-one can fail to have been inspired by the courage and determination of climate change activists. Their youthful ambition, their clear focus, the magnitude of their reach. They are shaking things up, they are winning hearts and changing minds. Youngsters, right around the world, are teaching adults what matters. Their movement is fresh, their tactics innovative.

And who are the leading voices of this movement? Young people, particularly young girls. Many activists, motivated by the crisis facing our planet, have felt connected to and drawn inspiration from the women’s movement, including from the Suffragettes. They are speaking up on what matters to them, making sure their voices are heard, and making their voices count.

On International Women's Day, Dr Helen Pankhurst is calling for women to work together in the face of the climate crisis

On International Women’s day 2020, #March4Women – the global movement for gender equality – will be bringing the links between feminism and environmentalism to the fore. This is partly because of similarities between the two in terms of activism resulting from frustration with the status quo and lessons around tactics linked to direct action. It is also because women and girls are disproportionately affected by the devastating impacts of climate change.

Women and girls are the ones who trudge further and further, mile after back-breaking mile, to fetch water when their community is ravaged by drought. They are the ones who take responsibility for looking after the young, the old, the disabled.

When pressures increase on a family, it is the girls who miss out on school in order to help out in the home and on the land. Daughters are dispatched to early marriage when there are too many mouths to feed.

When regions are flattened by cyclones and deluged with floods, when families lose their homes and their livelihoods – when all is lost, women and girls are sometimes forced to turn to ‘transactional sex’ to feed their families. It is they who are exposed to the risk of rape and sexual exploitation in the refugee and displaced people’s camps. It is they that human traffickers prey on – their vulnerability increased at times of crisis.

We can argue about the extent to which the climate emergency is man-made or not. And I mean man-made in its literal sense of ‘made by men’ – because we could look at who is making the decisions at a national and international level in the structures of economic, political and social power. However, whether ‘man made’ or not, there is no disputing that the climate crisis magnifies each and every brutal facet of gender inequality. We cannot achieve climate justice without gender justice.

If there is hope for the future, it lies in the voices of those who stand up to say 'this is not good enough and we can do better'. We need to reach a tipping point where those in power move from empty words to deeds. And that exactly is what we must create, and what we are creating, right now.

This International Women’s day – in advance of the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow – we are highlighting that there will be no climate justice without gender justice. We are calling for both climate justice and gender justice – the two go hand in hand. Join us.

Links

• Women Take The Lead On Climate Change
• The Misogyny Of Climate Deniers
• Can Women Save Planet Earth? 4 Women Fighting Climate Change Say They Can — And Must
• From Antarctica To Costa Rica, Women Team Up To Build A Climate-Safe Future
• 25 Female Climate Leaders Shaping 2019
• Birth Control And Books Can Slow Down Climate Change
• 'You Need To Act Now': Meet 4 Girls Working To Save The Warming World
• Women In Climate Change Hotspots Face Greater Burdens When Under Environmental Stress
• Our Young Girls Are Bearing The Burden Of Climate Action. But Should They Be?

(AU) Science Is Already Being Disrupted By Climate Change, And We're Woefully Unprepared

ScienceAlert - Carly Cassella

The climate crisis poses an escalating threat to scientists everywhere and research of all kinds, scientists in Australia are now warning.
The unprecedented wildfires sweeping their nation have been a "brutal wake-up call" to a simple fact: their work is "far from immune" to climate change.
In all its physical and practical glory, science is just as vulnerable as any other industry on this planet. And yet very few universities, institutions or governments are prepared for that reality.
"Academics have analysed the climate change preparedness of almost every sector," the authors write.
"Ironically, this does not include the research sector, about which very little is known when it comes to climate change, despite those involved having privileged access to climate change information."
Today in Australia, scientists are facing a myriad of challenges tied to the climate crisis. Not only are researchers dealing with devastated landscapes, they are also grappling with disrupted services, ruined belongings, insurance costs, and mental health distress.
Many of the fires have wiped out precious ecological field work, and some scientists are now facing the grim reality that many of the habitats and species they once researched no longer exist in the same way.
"As an ecologist," an Australian entomologist recently told The New York Times, "it's a very tragic thing to find yourself having to think about: What if my species is now extinct?"

Researcher Guy Ballard from the University of New England, Australia, in one of his long-term ecological research sites devastated by the fires. (Heath Milne)

Even research untouched by flames have been impacted by the recent fires. Some researchers, for instance, are concerned that the consequences on the surface will seep down and alter the temperature and hydrology of Australia's caves.
Meanwhile, a cataclysmic hail storm that battered Canberra in January damaged 65 greenhouses and destroyed years of experiments and projects kept inside. The storm has not been directly tied to climate change, however, it does show the destructive potential of a future marked by more intense weather events.

Damage to greenhouses and related experiments in January 2020. (Saul Justin Newman)

Still, it's not just extreme cases like these that will cause trouble in the future. Hotter temperatures are already impeding scientific research in Australia, meaning scientists can only do fieldwork at cooler times of the year.
"On the other side of the world, research in the Arctic is being affected directly by warming," the authors add, "with the melting of permafrost leading to some scientific equipment being 'literally swallowed up by the land', and mobile sea ice making some expeditions too dangerous."
What's more, this thawing permafrost can also threaten work on precious archaeological sites, as can rising sea levels.
Still, perhaps the ultimate irony is when climate research is cancelled because of climate change. In 2017, for instance, a multi-year climate study had to be put on hold for a whole year due to extreme ice conditions on the water.
"Researchers are more accustomed to writing about climate change than adapting their work to it," the authors acknowledge.
"But as climate change impacts on the research sector become more evident, rapid adaptation is needed."
This means more universities and research institutions regardless of discipline, location or topic, should consider the risks of climate change in their strategic plans and adapt accordingly.
If we don't, the authors warn, the value of scientific research "will be eroded", including its ability to help us adapt to our uncertain future.
The study was published in Nature Climate Change.

Links

• Nature Climate Change: Research is not immune to climate change
• Indigenous Ecological Survivance: Youth in Community and Cultural Sustainability
• A Scary Year For Climate Change
• (AU) Climate Change Could Lead To Increase In Dangerous Firestorms That Were Once 'Rare'
• (AU) Scientists Sign Open Letter To Australian Government Urging Action On Climate Change
• Top Academics Write To Morrison Government Asking For 'Deep Cuts' To Australia's Greenhouse Gas Emissions
• (AU) Scientists Fear Surge In Supersized Bushfires That Create Their Own Violent Thunderstorms 

(AU) Inside The Liberal State Stepping Into A Low-Emissions Future

The Guardian - Adam Morton

Tasmania’s conservative government is embracing green hydrogen as it positions itself as a ‘renewables powerhouse’

Tasmanian premier Peter Gutwein (right, at a press conference in January) is vowing to kickstart the production of green hydrogen in the state. Photograph: Eddie Safarik/AAP 

This week a Liberal government set an ambitious 200% renewable energy target for 2040, a goal that foresees the creation of an extensive clean export industry.
It vowed support to kickstart production of “green” hydrogen – a potentially revolutionary fuel touted as a zero emissions fossil fuel replacement – with a plant promised for local use no later than 2024, and an export industry by 2030. And it said it would install fast-charging equipment for electric vehicles at 12 sites this year.
The government also announced a review of what would need to be done to reach net zero emissions before 2050.
The Liberal administration in question was not the Morrison government in Canberra, where the climate policy debate remains focused on the cost of acting above all else, but the Tasmanian state government in Hobart.
Peter Gutwein, a long-time treasurer who became Tasmanian premier in January after the surprise resignation of Will Hodgman, used his first “state of the state” address to set out what, by national standards, were a striking series of commitments that could put the state at the forefront of the shift to an emissions-free world.
Gutwein, who has retained responsibility for treasury and also taken on the climate change portfolio, said it was time for the state to “showcase our innovation to the world and stake our claim as a renewables powerhouse”.
“Tasmania has the opportunity to ensure that the most compelling 21st century competitive advantage that industry and consumers want – renewable energy – underpins our economy,” he said.
Tasmania starts well ahead of other Australian states in the shift to low emissions. It mostly runs on clean hydro power and has already reached 100% renewable energy generation in some years. But analysts said, if delivered, the shift in Tasmania could provide an example for others to follow.
Anna Skarbek, chief executive of research organisation ClimateWorks, said the new Tasmanian commitments were consistent with what other countries and jurisdictions that ran on hydro were doing. They are also in line with what analysts have found: that Australia had great potential to be a clean energy industrial hub.
“It is a good example of a government looking at opportunities for future clean energy markets,” Skarbek said. “What we’ve found is, when the intent is signalled, international technology providers are looking for opportunities to invest in other jurisdictions.”
The most fleshed-out element of the Tasmanian commitment is a promise to offer $50m in funding, concessional loans, subsidised power and tax breaks for green hydrogen development over the next decade. Making hydrogen is an electricity-hungry process that involves using an electrolyser to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
With a report for the Australian Renewable Energy Agency having estimated an Australian industry could be worth up to $10bn a year by 2040, Gutwein said hydrogen was “one of the most extraordinary sunrise opportunities Tasmania could ever step into”.
He said the state had already received interest from companies in Japan, Korea and Singapore, and cited forecasts hydrogen produced with clean power would have about a 15% price advantage over fossil fuel-derived hydrogen. “We know that with our renewable energy that we can generate green hydrogen cheaper than what they will be able to on the mainland,” he said.
The other elements Gutwein announced remain little more than dot points. He has promised a renewable energy action plan in April, and a plan in the state budget for the government to have more electric cars in its fleet.
Locally, the commitments received a largely, but not universally, positive response. Politically, Tasmanian Labor said they were welcome but long overdue; the Greens said they were welcome but nothing like enough to take the climate emergency seriously, and said they would introduce a bill that would go further.
Outside parliament, the Wilderness Society described the new pledges as refreshing, while the Australia Institute, a progressive thinktank, said the green hydrogen vision was a “forward thinking plan for the state”.
“It’s great to see the Tasmanian government backing our renewable energy sector by investing in this emerging industry,” said Leanne Minshull, the Australia Institute’s Tasmanian director.
But both organisations had caveats. Minshull said the massive clean energy expansion should be used to drive Tasmania to zero emissions, including by moving the state’s vehicles and farms to running on electricity and attracting further clean industries to the state, before more was exported to the mainland via new undersea cables, including the proposed Marinus Link with Victoria.
Tom Allen, from the Wilderness Society, said the state’s first step in cutting emissions should be to end native forest logging. He said the government still intended to log 226 forest reserves that contained more than 10m tonnes of carbon.
“If this logging happens it would obliterate all the environmental policies he announced this week,” he said. “The quickest, easiest, lowest-cost way to boost Tasmania’s carbon stocks, protect wildlife and provide new, badly needed nature recreation spaces is to permanently protect these outstanding reserves.”

Links

• New Liberal premier of Tasmania Peter Gutwein says we must ‘do more’ on climate change
• 'Extinction is a choice’: Margaret Atwood on Tasmania's forests and saving the swift parrot
• (AU) Ancient Australian Trees Face Uncertain Future Under Climate Change, Study Finds
• Huon Pine Trees Live For 3,000 Years But Climate Change Could Wipe Them Out In The Next 50
• How Much Has Tasmania's Climate Changed In The 100 Years To Now?
• Astounded': Former Fire Chief Unloads On Politicians Over Climate Change Inaction
• Tasmania Is Burning. The Climate Disaster Future Has Arrived While Those In Power Laugh At Us