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The climate crisis: Why women and women’s movements need to be up front
As I write this in mid-August 2016, Iranians are struggling to deal with temperatures reaching 60 degrees Celsius, while across the Middle East temperatures are reaching the point where scientists are saying climate change may severely impact the ‘habitability’ of this region, home to 600 million people.
We are facing a climate emergency. Over the past fourteen months, we have seen fourteen consecutive record highs for global temperatures. The war in Syria is the first major conflict that has been directly associated with climate change. This is just one of the contributing factors. But at the moment, fear is dominating the conversation. Fear of Muslims, fear of the West, fear of political correctness, fear of poverty.
In this series of articles, GenderIT.org is joining millions of other groups and individuals in building hope in the face of this fear. At this point, we cannot let fear paralyse us. Nor can we let institutions and individuals of power and privilege dictate the solutions. It is worrying that one of the few places in US government that climate change is taken seriously is within the National Security Department.
In this series of five articles, I will look at the intersections between gender, ICTs and climate change, from the production of technology to the disposal of waste to how we’re managing and affecting the impact of climate change. First, in this article, I identify the problems; why climate change and the contributions of the ICT industry to climate change have a gender dimension, and why gender and ICT policy needs to build in climate awareness. In other words, just like gender, climate change is a cross-cutting issue that should be taken into account in all policy initiatives.
Read the full article in GenderIT.org .
