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Women are most affected¹ by climate change and should be included in environment talks

Rosanne Skirble | Washington, DC 03 December 2009

Women in a flood-prone community in Gaibandha, Bangladesh, gather once a week to share ideas about how to adapt to worsening climate and rising seas

Putting the brakes on worldwide population growth could help curb² dangerous greenhouse gas emissions³, says a new United Nations report called, The State of the World Population 2009. The report says an effective way to achieve both goals is to empower women with education and reproductive rights.

 

Poor women farmers bear the brunt of climate change

 

The lake is all that remains⁴ of a glacier⁵ near the rural town of Batijlaca, Bolivia. Bolivia's glaciers⁶ are melting rapidly, jeopardizing⁷ water supplies to rural and urban communities

Lead author Robert Engelman says this is the first study in which a U.N. agency connects climate change to the status of women.  He notes that women manage households, are more likely to be poor and live in areas vulnerable to floods, rising seas and storms. 

That makes it harder for them get food, water or energy for their families.  Engelman says the unequal burden they shoulder from climate change has been largely ignored. This hasn't gone unnoticed by women's groups or indeed by the authors of this report, who will be in Copenhagen at this month's U.N. climate summit.

Women can be a powerful force if included in talks

Engelman says any new global warming deal that comes from the meeting must address the special impact of climate change on women, as a matter of equality and human rights. "If they can be at tables, negotiating tables, village councils, whatever, these perspectives can really inform their work on climate change."  

 

The U.N. report describes how women can be a powerful force in climate-change mitigation.  "They produce most of the food in Africa," and Engelman notes, "their own efforts to improve their farm soil and grow the most resilient crops can literally⁸ suck carbon out of the air and put it into soil and in the roots of plants.   

The report finds that where women's groups are most active, there tends to be less deforestation.  Engelman adds, however, that in their role as environmental stewards⁹, women sometimes face major obstacles imposed by their low status relative to men. 

Education and family planning can play a role

A family receives family planning advice at Kivunge Hospital, Zanzibar

Worldwide, 200 million women lack access to family planning services they want or need, says Engelman, who is also vice¹⁰ president for programs at the Worldwatch Institute. 

Decades of family planning research, he says, make it clear that girls empowered with education and access to family planning services, have smaller families when they become adults.  Family planning is not a quick fix to climate change, Engelman says. But he believes educating women and giving them access to health care and reproductive choice are steps in the right direction. 

For government leaders, policy makers¹¹ and climate negotiators meeting in Copenhagen, he says the central message of the U.N. population report boils down to this: "Women – their lives, their status and their human development – matter to climate change, now and in the future.

1 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

2 curb   

n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制

参考例句：

• I could not curb my anger.我按捺不住我的愤怒。
• You must curb your daughter when you are in church.你在教堂时必须管住你的女儿。

3 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。

4 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

5 glacier   

n.冰川，冰河

参考例句：

• The glacier calved a large iceberg.冰河崩解而形成一个大冰山。
• The upper surface of glacier is riven by crevasses.冰川的上表面已裂成冰隙。

6 glaciers   

冰河，冰川( glacier的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Glaciers gouged out valleys from the hills. 冰川把丘陵地带冲出一条条山谷。
• It has ice and snow glaciers, rainforests and beautiful mountains. 既有冰川，又有雨林和秀丽的山峰。 来自英语晨读30分（高一）

7 jeopardizing   

危及，损害( jeopardize的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Plans may also become inefficient in the attainment of objectives by jeopardizing group satisfactions. 用危及群体利益方法去达到目标的计划，也是无效率的。
• That boosted government revenues in the short term, but is now jeopardizing them. Morales将天然气工业，电信业和部分采矿业收归国有的举措吓跑了投资者们。

8 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

9 stewards   

（轮船、飞机等的）乘务员( steward的名词复数 )； （俱乐部、旅馆、工会等的）管理员； （大型活动的）组织者； （私人家中的）管家

参考例句：

• The stewards all wore armbands. 乘务员都戴了臂章。
• The stewards will inspect the course to see if racing is possible. 那些干事将检视赛马场看是否适宜比赛。

10 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

11 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》