What Women Can Do In The Climate Change Issue and Why?

Earth is warming up at a faster pace. The main cause of this is the rise in human-caused greenhouse gases, which has begun to affect health, ecology, and everything around us!

Climate change was not a familiar word to most of us a couple of decades back. Right now we all have experienced it in some way. As floods, wildfires, drought, storms, landslides, unexpected rain, extreme winters, and summers, etc. Evidently it is one major crisis faced by the whole world. We recently heard about the wildfires in Australia, Amazon, floods, and landslides in Kerala, and more every day. Still, people, as well as authorities, ignore the matter without taking any proper solution so far.

Many investigations reveal that 80 percent of people affected by climate change around the globe are women. Also, women are more likely than men to endure poverty and have less socioeconomic power than men, making rehabilitation from extreme weather phenomena more complicated.
The conveniences of our everyday life, most of them, cost our own and our future generation’s life. How long our planet can continue to hold the hurt we give to it. We all hear the young girl, Greta Thunberg who started a strike skipping her school. The one girl is trying to open the world’s eye into the issue. A child, a girl has initiated a need for action. Don’t you think women can do something in climate change? I really do believe it!

I remember how raw my childhood days were? Instead of plastic bags, used papers were employed to cover groceries from shops, butchers and fish sellers used big leaves to pack their products. Maybe it is because we had the privilege of having lived in the village. Every household used to have a pit in their backyard corner to put the decompose wastes. That was it. Now I wonder how much waste every tiny family produces. Plastic wastes, food wastes, clothe wastes and other miscellaneous wastes. A huge pile is disposed of on a daily basis.

And just think about our buying culture? How much we buy these days! It’s not the requirement that makes us buy, instead, its a hobby, its weekend time pass, its a therapy, and then comes the different occasions which require everyone to be in particular attire and all! Nonsense it is, isn’t it? We are making each other insecure and pulling us to acquire more and more.

Now lets come back to the point, now do you think women can do something in climate change. Women are good at bringing initiations and keeping things in constant.
Before that let’s see,

Why women should be a part of climate change revolution

Women can act better if they are convinced about the uncertain future their children are going to get. They experience climate change more viciously than men, especially in developing countries. Women are good decision-makers, teachers, carers, etc across many areas and achieve success. Hence long-term solutions to climate change also can be accomplished through them.

1) Involvement of The Total Population is Needed

Half of the whole world population is comprised of girls and women. Among the indigenous population around the world, women have experienced the impacts of climate change for ages and have been pioneers and masters in environmental conservation. They might be doing it in a different way. But the fact is that their knowledge and expertise contribute greatly to creating resilience to climate consequences and to cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The age-old inherited skills and knowledge that women possess about natural resource management in areas such as innovation, waste, and energy can be converted to influential tools in climate action policies.

2) Empowering Women Means More Effective Climate Solutions

Across the world, the consequences of climate change affect women and men distinctively. Women are often responsible for gathering and producing food, collecting water and sourcing fuel for household activities. With climate change, these responsibilities are growing more complex. Extreme weather events like droughts and floods have a greater influence on the poor and most vulnerable. Despite women being disproportionately afflicted by climate change, they play a significant role in climate change compliance and alleviation. Women have the awareness and perception of what is required to adapt to changing environmental conditions and to come up with effective solutions. But they are still a mostly untapped resource. Limited land rights, lack of access to economic resources, education, and technology, and limited access to administrative decision-making spheres often restrict them from playing a full role in stopping climate change and other environmental hurdles.

Studies show that countries with a high representation of women in parliament are more inclined to sanction international environment agreements.

3) Within Communities, Women are More Capable to Make a Difference

Communities do great in raising strategies when women are also associated with planning. Women do share information about community wellbeing that is essential for resilience to adapt to environmental changes since their family lives are affected. Additionally, women are first among the community to respond to natural disasters, leaders in disaster risk-reduction and commit to posting improvement by addressing the early recovery requirements of their families and establishing community structure.
Now,

What Women can do in the Climate Change Issue?

Women are considered the natural care-takers, starting from her own child, family to society. Climate change is affecting everyone and hurts women more. Pollution, rise or fall in temperature and many such incidents are putting health into question.

We all know how women help in weaving a good society, her home! So let’s see how women can evidently be part of the new revolution to keep our planet our home to many many many more generations a beautiful home. With smaller steps beginning from their homes and then taking it to society.

1. Arrange Climate Awareness Conversations

Working on climate change requires teamwork. We can’t do that without gaining common ground with those who may not share our view.

Since people often trust friends, family, and other close ones more than they trust specialists, scientists and environmental groups. So women should do that part making awareness among their own people.

2. Spread Awareness about Plastic Pollution

We need to spread the harmfulness of plastic as soon as possible. It is really a panic situation. Plastic has already engulfed our lives as they are lightweight, cheap and durable. But the fact that the space occupied by a plastic object in the earth cannot be replaced or cannot be used by living things including trees generation and generations after the user. Many are not aware that the production of plastics requires fossil fuels! Land, water, and air are equally suffocating due to plastics.

But at houses, we can make differences. By totally avoiding its usage. We should push the authorities to stop its production in our own way. It might appear impossible but just think a couple of decades back even our parents lived happily absolutely without this material. So we too can.

The picture above may not be as soothing as a normal blog picture but the fact is that our beautiful planet is already like this!

3. Make your Commute Green

Carbon emission from transportation accounts for 24% of climate-polluting emissions, a close second to the oil and gas industry. The many ways to overcome your transportation emissions will also make you healthier, happier and save you a few bucks. Whenever and wherever possible take public transport, ride a bike or advocate for bike lanes in your community, make use of carpools, Switch to an electric or hybrid vehicle, Fly less.

4. Buy Less, Reuse and Share More

The clothing sector draws about 3% of the world’s global production emissions of CO2, often because of the use of energy to create attire. The restless pace of fast fashion adds to this figure as clothes are abandoned or fall apart after short periods.

As I said in the beginning, our generation has turned into complete consumers. We use too much, buy too much and we don’t share it very well. But that’s not the way things once was. So together, we can create a society based on sharing, reusing, and repairing. Women can initiate such a society. Spending time in nature, being with loved ones, Sharing, making, fixing, upcycling, repurposing and composting are all good places to start.
Light up your responsibility to the people and places you love by acting every day on the understanding that we are together with nature.

5. Fund in Renewables and Reduce the Use of Fossil Fuels

Even if you can’t place solar panels or a wind turbine, you can still be a part of the clean-energy economy. try to be part of such initiatives, maybe in the future, you can also directly have its benefits.

6. Support climate movements

Young people have the most stake while thinking about climate change. Their future is on stake if we can’t resolve the current global warming issues. All over the world, kids, teenagers, and young adults are taking matters into their own hands in motivating ways. Help them grow their action by joining and supporting them however you can. Women can arrange a group in your home community and ask how you can assist.
If you’re an adult, do not show off to take over instead be humble, listen. and let them lead. Fridays for Future lead by Greta Thunberg is one such campaign with a voice.

7. Finally, Vote Thoughtfully

Although it’s necessary to take action to reduce our own carbon footprints, we also need to concentrate on changing the larger system. That’s where we have the largest possibility to reduce emissions.
Vote for leaders at all levels of government who take climate change sincerely. They should make science-based objectives to decrease dangerous carbon emissions, achieving clear plans to reach those targets, modifying to climate change condition and shifting to a clean-energy economy.

As a group of women helping women, Ayoti is empowering them in many ways, our programs allow women to learn self-defense techniques and stay safe, learn first aid and other life support skills, enable professionals to stay at home and earn, improve the visibility of their business through Artisa and lookatme and also we help corporates to fill up their talent requirement from our pool of experienced women. It’s just a brief note on what we do to know more check it out here.