Unlike most of you, my internship is in the Fall semester. I have been in Geneva Switzerland for a little more than 1 month now, working for IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). My routine job includes providing the Secretariat, IPCC Bureau, and interested focal points (government members) with a daily media review on IPCC. IPCC assessment report on climate change is released every 6/7 years or so, with the next one due in 2014. Sometimes the news and blogs on IPCC could be controversial as there are many climate change skeptics disproving the research included in the reports or questioning the credibility of the authors and of IPCC itself. It is thus very useful for many IPCC members to be aware of what is being said about the organization., both in bad and good lights, and to give an approriate response when necessary.
The issue of climate change and gender has not been deeply discussed in the climate change debates. However, I read an article today that gives a good glimpse on how events caused by climate change are affecting women more than men.
The article talks about how generally in disasters, the death toll of women is disproportionately higher than that of men. This is proven by the death count in the 2004 Southeast Asia Tsunami, 1995 Kobe earthquake, 1991 floods in Bangladesh, where the number for women could be as higher by as high as 5 times. Arguably, many extreme weather patterns, such as more tornados, flooding, freak snow, that we are seeing lately are due to climate change. In these circumstances, women are less likely to survive as they have weaker upper body strength to climb or cling on to trees, run slower, are less likely to know how to swim, and tend to stay back to look for and protect the children before fleeing. But, much more than that, increasing spread of diseases due to climate change also target women and children the most. In food scarcity conditions, women often get less portion within the family and have to work harder to provide the food, which means going to further places to fetch water and toil the soil. The article also talks about how in acute disasters and social economic disruption, violence and sex trafficking tend to increase, again, with a tendency towards women and girls.
I also attended a movie screening titled "Carbon for Water", a documentary campaigning for the use of LifeStraw, a water filter provided for families in Kenya. In the movie, it is shown that girls as young as 6 years old already have to assume the role of providing food and water for the household. As the draught season becomes more extreme, girls and women have to walk further to find water. Not only, for water, they also have to fetch firewood as fuel to boil the water. Diarrhea and dysentry could be prevalent when unclean water is consumed. These journeys taken daily for water and wood are dangerous as they are susceptible to raping or being attacked by wild animals. The documentary shows how LifeStraws are provided for free to families, with the whole project funded through carbon credit as without cutting trees for firewood and using the for fuel, the carbon print is reduced.
The article and the documentary give a good background and information for me to understand more how climate change effects can be more detrimental to women. I do not, however, believe in striving for gender equality. In its basics, men and women are created differently with different general aptitude and skills. What I do believe in is gender neutrality, that there should be equal opportunity of survival and no difference in honor and respect. Achieving this at the public policy level is still a very blurry subject to me, so I welcome comments from anyone who might know more. But, I'll share more as I learn.
Hope everybody who have been back to the US had a great experience from the internship. Stay safe and stay warm!
