Big Green Purse

Why Climate Change Matters to Women

Solutions to climate change are usually discussed in terms of what's best for business or politics. But what about what's best for those who have the most to lose as climate change worsens: namely, women, especially those living in the poorest regions of the world?

A new report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) says that "women are disproportionately vulnerable to environmental changes." The statistics speak for themselves:

* Women and children are 14 times more likely to die than men during natural disasters (like heat waves, droughts, and hurricanes -- all of which are direct consequences of climate change).

* Hurricane Katrina, which struck New Orleans in 2005, predominantly affected African-American women, who were already the region's poorest, most disadvantaged community.

*  An estimated 87% of unmarried women and almost 100% of married women lost their livelihoods when a cyclone hit the Ayeyerwaddy Delta in Myanmar in 2008.

But notable "natural" disasters like these aren't the only ways climate change takes its toll on women's livesl. 

* Lifestyle: In areas of spreading drought, women must spend more time looking for firewood and trying to coax reluctant crops out of the ground - reducing the amount of time they can spend getting an education or taking care of their kids, and perhaps leading them to turn to early and undesirable marriages as a survival strategy.

* Health: Pregnant and lactating women are more vulnerable to diseases like malaria and dengue fever, both of which are extending their reach into new regions of the world as temperatures rise.

* Children: Kids are spending more time in medical clinics and hospitals as they suffer more cases of climate change-related asthma and poison ivy.

* Economics: Women find it harder to make ends meet as food prices rise to compensate for agricultural shortages due to drought or natural disaster. In developing countries, women may be forced to migrate if their lands become uninhabitable. Yet moving off their land to relocation camps or crowded urban areas makes many women homeless and unable to support themselves and their children.

* Security: While men are more likely to be killed or injured in fighting, women suffer greatly from other consequences of climate change-related conflict, including rape, beating, anxiety and depression. 

UNFPA's companion report, State of World Population 2009, warns, "Unless climate policies take people into account, they will fail to mitigate climate change or to shield vulnerable populations from the potentially disastrous impacts." The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency concurs. The agency issued a report the same day the Copenhagen climate talks began, saying a "thorough examination of the scientific evidence" led it to conclude that "greenhouse gases threaten the health and welfare of the American people," and, presumably, people of other nations as well.

Clearly, women must play a key role in identifying strategies that will help them adapt to the changing climate while very much focusing on solutions to bring climate change under control. Historically, women have not had a 'seat at the table' when such discussions have transpired. Hopefully, that changes this year. Not only is the president of the Copenhagen climate talks a woman - but the U.S. Delegation is populated with high ranking women from the Obama Administration, including Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, Energy "Czar" Carol Browner, and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.  I hope they will act together to keep women's interests front and center; by doing so, they'll keep all people front and center, as well. 

Meanwhile, don't wait for the climate talks to conclude to take action on your own.

* At home, do what you can to save energy and reduce greenhouse gases.  Here's how.

* Get more inspiration from the blogs posted about climate change for this month's Green Moms Carnival (coming December 9).

* And if you need any more arguments as to why you should care about climate change, here are ten.

Control Climate Change to Protect the Environment

If we have any hope of protecting the environment and ourselves, we must get climate change under control. The nations of the world are meeting in Copenhagen in December to try to hammer out international agreements to reduce the greenhouse gases that have caused the world's temperatures to soar, endangering the systems upon which all life depends.

But news reports are discouraging: already, headlines are announcing that major policy shifts are unlikely. We need commitments from every country, but especially the U.S., to reduce our dependence on the fossil fuels whose burning is warming the globe. The worldwide demonstrations tomorrow can show our "leaders" that it's time to follow the will of concerned citizens everywhere, and unite behind concrete plans not simply to slow climate change, but to stop it.

This morning, I received the following letter from Bill McKibben, the founder of tomorrow's International Day of Climate Action. I reprint it here in the hopes you'll participate.

Dear Friend,

Saturday's the day -- October 24, the International Day of Climate Action. So join the nearest 350 actionknowing you'll be part of something big.

Very big, in fact. This campaign has gone viral--there will be over four thousand events taking place simultaneously in over 175 nations. As far as we can tell, you'll be part of the single most widespread day of political action about any issue that our planet has ever seen...

There are too many incredible events to list in one place, but here are some of the highlights:

• In Cambodia, citizens from across the country will gather at the famous Angkor Wat to take a giant 350 action photo.
• In Hungary, hundreds of bathers will jump into the public baths in Budapest and do a 350 synchronized swimming performance.
• In the United States, 350 people will dance to Michael Jackson's Thriller in Seattle -- because if we don't stop global warming, we might as well be undead.

When you're out there marching or rallying, biking or kite-flying, singing or taking part in whatever is going on in your community, take a minute and try to imagine all the other people doing the same kind of things all around the world--every one taking the same basic scientific fact and driving it into the public consciousness.

350 is the most important number in the world--scientists have told us that it's the most carbon dioxide we can have in the atmosphere, and now we're making sure everyone knows...

Onwards,

Bill McKibben

It's Blog Action Day - So Get a Move On!

In honor of Blog Action Day, I'm getting off my duff and doing a few things to protect the environment and my family that I've been meaning to do for a while now: 

* I signed up to attend a climate change rally in Washington, D.C. on October 24, Climate Action Day. Want to do the same? Visit 350.org for details.

* I wrote a letter to Wal-Mart encouraging the company to involve consumers in the new initiative it's launched to establish sustainability standards for manufacturers and vendors it does business with. It matters, because as Wal-Mart goes, so goes the world. Learn more here - and get the link so you can write a letter yourself.

*  I donated to Alaska Wilderness League, a highly effective non-profit organization working to prevent oil drilling in America's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. They need your money. Can you donate, too?

* I'm tweeting all day about the need to act now to reduce climate change. If I'm not following you, let me know at www.twitter.com/dianemaceachern and www.twitter.com/biggreenpurse.

What are you doing to take action and make a difference? Let us know!

Protesters Prepare for Civil Disobedience at Coal Plant with Inspired Songs, Speeches and Poems

More than 1,500 women, men, students, children and babies held hands, sang songs, cheered and stomped their feet last night in anticipation of their march on the coal-fired Capitol Power Plant in Washington, D.C.

Just a stone's throw from the U.S. Capitol building, the power plant has become a powerful symbol for citizens who scoff at the notion of "clean coal" and argue that the world must stop burning coal completely by 2030. Today's march is expected to end in civil disobedience as 2500 citizens voluntarily face arrest in order to garner national attention for the climate change catastrophe facing the world.  

Last night's event, called "Artists for the Climate," was organized by Chesapeake Climate Action Network and by Bill McKibben, the author and activist who organized StepItUp, 2007's national  demonstrations against global warming.

McKibben introduced Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D., MD), who got the crowd going by saying, "It's time to shift power away from the special interests and into the hands of the American people."

"Our policy must be based on scientific facts, not science fiction," he said, referring to the Bush Administration's tendency to discount climate change as a scientific fraud.  "And science says, No More Hot Air when it comes to taking action to stop climate change!"

Van Hollen closed his remarks by asking the crowd, "Are you ready to turn up the heat in Washington, D.C. so we can turn down the heat on Mother Earth?"  "Yes!!!," the audience roared in reply.

McKibben praised the crowd assembled in the Lisner Auditorium on the campus of George Washington University. "For the last eight years, we've had no reason to come to D.C.," he said. "Now, our job is to give the Obama Administration the space it needs to get climate change under control."

But McKibben cautioned, "Just because Obama got elected doesn't mean the job is done."

"We didn't un-elect Exxon," he said. "We have to keep fighting."

Rev. Lennox Yearwood, president of the Hip Hop Caucus, reminded us of the coal miners buried alive in mining accidents last year and the Katrina survivors being evicted from their homes today. "Chertoff (Pres. Bush's chief of Homeland Security) told us how good things were. I don't think so!"

Yearwood got everyone on their feet, holding hands, and praying for the work we need to do together to end global warming and restore health and prosperity to our nation and the world.

Janisse Ray, author of Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, brought the house to a standstill with her eloquent reading that reminded us that what we do to nature we do to ourselves. Laelo Hood, 2007 DMV Rapper of the year for the mid-Atlantic region, riled the crowd back up with his exuberant rap that asked "how many people are ready to make change?"  "Turn the lights down, turn the water off, only use what you need, stop being wasteful, y'all," he chanted as the crowd rocked and rolled.

Gus Speth was perhaps the most surprising speaker of the night. As Dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, I expected him to be low-key, academic, introspective. Au contraire. This former head of the Council on Environmental Quality during the Carter Administration reported that he started conferring with scientists in 1979 about the mounting evidence supporting climate change. "But the science was trashed," Speth lamented, and thirty years later, "we're watching the Arctic melt."

"For 30 years, the public has been purposely confused and bamboozled," Speth said with passion and anger. "We were told we couldn't afford to deal with climate change."

"Well," he said, shaking his fist, "Saving the planet does not cost too much."

Speth's solution? "We need a new national energy agenda based on no new coal plants, no more mountaintop removal, and a federal program that helps coal workers find new jobs."

But that's not all. When the new round of climate treaty negotiations convene later this year in Copehagen, Denmark, "the U.S. has got to lead the charge for a tough climate treaty that will make a difference."  The crowd jumped to its feet and cheered with approval.

In closing, Speth encouraged people to become involved. "What's been missing until now is a huge outpouring of public demand for action...We must make Congress feel the heat...Senators appreciate the issue intellectually but aren't emotionally committed to it. It's time to put a price on political inaction, not just on the price of carbon."

One of the highlights of the evening was the performance of Grammy-winner Kathy Mattea. Mattea's grandfathers were coal miners; one of them helped organize the United Mine Workers. "It's broken my heart to hear the words "clean coal" come out of the President's mouth," she said, referring to Barack Obama's embrace of this technology as a part of his energy platform. Many in the audience glumly nodded in agreement.

Later, when we were all asked to write our Senators and Representatives a letter that CCAN would deliver, I wrote to Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Benjamin Cardin, the Maryland senators who represent me. "Squash the ridiculous idea that there's such a thing as clean coal," I penned. "There's no time to lose."

These Energy-Saving Steps Save More Than Fuel (Think CO2 and $$$)

Saving energy makes sense any time, but particularly now, given our short supplies of oil  and the pollution and climate change we create when we burn any fossil fuel.

Still, you may be among the millions of people who have not yet incorporated energy conservation into your daily routine. Why not? The number one reason for most people is money - not necessarily real money, but definitely the perception that it will require a lot of money to put energy-saving strategies to work in your home.

I say "perception," because that's often what it is. Many consumers are under the generally false impression that adopting 'green' (i.e., energy efficient) technologies is beyond their financial reach. And especially during these economic hard times, even the suspicion that something will cost more is enough to deter its purchase.

That's why the concept of Green ROI - return on investment - is so important. Green ROI offers a way to calculate what the purchase of a green product is worth both in the short term and a longer way down the road. In other words, if you spend xx $$$ on a green product today, how long will it take you to realize a gain - in real dollars - and make the purchase worthwhile?

Well, consider a few of these Green ROI calculations, courtesy of GreenandSave.com, and based on a ten-year performance period:

Programmable Thermostat – Automatically adjust indoor air temperatures to reduce the amount of gas or electricity you use.
Cost: $115
Annual Savings: $180
ROI: 156.5%

 

 

  Standby Power Reduction – Use energy-saving power strips on office electronics and home appliances to reduce energy use
Cost: $20 for two strips
Annual Savings: $24
ROI: 120%

 

 

 

 

 

Compact Fluorescent Lighting - Replace 20 incandescent bulbs that are 60 Watts and have a life expectancy of 1,500 hours, with CFLs that only use 14 Watts and last 10,000 hours.
Cost: $3.00 - $6.00 per bulb
Annual Savings: Each bulb saves on average $4 to $7 per year in electricity
ROI: 133.3%

See how saving energy saves money - a lot of money -- over the long-term? But what about climate change, you ask?

Take programmable thermostats. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which administers the federal Energy Star program, calculates that in 2006, consumers using programmable thermostats not only saved a total of $14 billion on their utility bills; they also saved enough energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking 25 million cars off the road.

Want to know how additional investments will create Green ROI? Click here.

And for more background on climate change, don't miss the Green Moms Carnival, which is tackling global warming in this month's postings.