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Climate change and gender


Climate change and gender is concerned with gender differences in the context of climate change and the complex and intersecting power relations arising from it. By altering the ecosystems of the planet, climate change, and more specifically global warming, directly impacts the human race. These effects vary for different segments of the population, specifically for people of different genders. In many cases, women are more vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change because of their lower social status in most countries. Many impoverished women, especially those in the developing world, are farmers and depend on the natural environment for subsistence and income. By further limiting their already constrained access to physical, social, political, and fiscal resources, climate change often burdens women more than men.

Locally and globally, both governments and non-governmental organizations respond to climate change. Some of these efforts focus on mitigating the effects of climate change while others aid societies in adapting their lifestyles to changes in their environment. Most policy responses in the late 20th and early 21st century either did not focus on the social effects of climate change or did not consider gender in these efforts.

Analysis of gender in climate change, however, not only means applying a binary male/female system of analysis on sets of quantitative data but also scrutinizing discursive constructions that shapes power relations connected to climate change.

Climate change is a lasting variation in the global climate in response to natural and/or human factors. Climate change, and more specifically global warming, can cause glaciers to melt and sea levels to rise, pushing saltwater into freshwater systems. Significant changes like the salinization of water push species to new locations, directly impacting global ecosystems. Climatic changes affect weather patterns, increasing the frequency and intensity of floods, droughts, and extreme weather events. These types of conditions also result in natural disasters. While climate change is not solely destructive, the negative impacts of global warming on health and agriculture are greater than the benefits for the majority of the world and increase as global temperatures rise. A two-degree rise in temperature threatens 25 percent of all plant and animal species on the planet with extinction. These climatic changes cause the most harm for the most vulnerable populations or those who lack the ability to cope with and adapt to climate change because of a lack of access to essential resources. Marginalized groups like women, children, the elderly, and the impoverished have less access to and control over resources and therefore are more negatively impacted by climate change.


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