“The climate crisis is not gender neutral,” says Katharine K. Wilkinson, co-editor of the anthology Everything we can save: truth, courage and solutions to the climate crisis, a book of essays and poems written entirely by contributing women. “It is growing out of a patriarchal system that is also entangled in racism and white supremacy and extractive capitalism. And the unequal impact of climate change makes it more difficult to achieve a gendered world.”
In the face of this reality, the world must take a feminist approach to tackling the climate crisis, she added. This includes a collective mission to change who leads the way to solutions to the crisis and what the approach will be.
A multiplier of injustice
“The intersections between climate and justice and feminism include the disproportionate impact of climate change and the entire climate continuum on women,” says Jacqueline Patterson, director of the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program. “We are also adding the race goal, of course, and the additional risks that are unique to COPD women, and especially to black women.”
Climate change has developed in an unjust world and is now exacerbating the vulnerabilities and inequalities faced by women, especially those living in rural areas or in the global south and those who are black, indigenous or other people of color. Patterson reflects on this injustice in his essay “At Intersections,” which appears in Everything we can save Collection. She opens with an anecdote about the first time she saw racism, misogyny and poverty clash with environmental issues as a Peace Corps volunteer in her father’s homeland, Jamaica. Later in her career as a human rights activist working internationally to combat HIV / AIDS and gender injustice, Patterson learned the story of a woman who left her native Cameroon as the cultures in her community dried up. , to become a victim of rape. and then contract HIV at the country’s border. “These stories brought tears to my eyes,” she writes. “There is a devastating impact pandemic at the intersection of violence against women and climate change.”
Today, in his work on environmental justice with the NAACP, Patterson is committed to ensuring that communities in “desperate grinding circumstances, communities that don’t even think about it,” such as those without running water or electricity, e.g. , are not left out of the climate conversation. And that means not only their inclusion, but their deliberate prioritization and ensuring their voices are heard at all levels. She asks, “How do we make sure we don’t continue with the evil of the past in terms of assuming that the rising tide will lift all boats?”
“A Feminist Climate Renaissance”
According to Wilkinson, these injustices of the climate crisis also highlight a crisis of leadership. What do we really need, she and I Everything we can save co-editor Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, a marine biologist, writes, is a “rebirth of the feminist climate.” Without it, a just and viable future becomes impossible. “Research shows that women’s leadership and equal participation lead to better results for climate policy, reducing emissions and protecting land,” adds Wilkinson.
Indeed, many of today’s most influential climate leaders are women. On the international stage, Christiana Figueres, as head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, was the architect of the historic Paris Climate Agreement of 2015, which, in its preamble, called for the need to empower women in climate decision-making. . Celebrities like Jane Fonda drew attention to the climate crisis through civil disobedience and Fire Drill Fridays – inspired, of course, by the activism of Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg and the strong Fridays for Future movement she started. Government women also lead the climate. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern recently declared an emergency for climate change and called on her country to become carbon-neutral by 2025. Meanwhile, in the United States, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was the visionary behind the Green New Deal, a plan for the country to move away from fossil fuels and into a clean energy future. And in recent years, groups such as the Sunrise Movement, led by Varshini Prakash, have done critical work by introducing the climate crisis into American public discourse.
Wilkinson and Johnson see four main characteristics shared by leaders like them. First, prioritize change over being responsible. “We have to get over ego, competition and control – all those patriarchal, supremacist, hierarchical things that hinder us, burn a lot of energy and prevent us from collaborating,” says Wilkinson.
Feminist climate leaders also tend to have a deep commitment to justice and equality. You also need to have emotional intelligence. “This is the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced and we will not solve it only from our prefrontal cortex,” says Wilkinson. “We have to get to this as whole human beings. And that means pain, uncertainty, anger, anxiety, but also truly fierce love.”
Finally, feminist climate leaders recognize that community building is a prerequisite for building a better world. The community has incredible wisdom, while “individualism does not have good ideas and certainly a sense of purpose and joy,” says Wilkinson. Strengthening this sense of community in the broad climate movement is often a first step, especially when allies from disparate groups unite. As founder Colette Pichon Battle, founder of the Gulf Center for Law and Politics, recommends, before various groups of women can stand together on the front lines, they must heal relationships and reconcile the unjust social dynamics that exist between their different communities.
The good news is that women are uniquely prepared to take on this social and environmental healing activity. “Women have had to develop a range of caring and caring skills to see the survival of our families,” says Patterson, adding that caring for a family in the worst conditions has been brought into the DNA of black women, who bear the trauma of slavery. “Women just had to,” she says.
For her part, Wilkinson says she sees evidence of the growth and power of the feminist climate ecosystem every time she returns. Climate justice leaders for young people embody these characteristics, and a growing number of women are gaining a seat at the national table (including former NRDC President Gina McCarthy, another Everything we can save taxpayer, who now leads the White House climate policy). “There are a lot of signs that this galloping herd is getting bigger and faster and stronger. And that gives me a lot of courage,” says Wilkinson.
Power and joy
For their nonprofit project All We Can Save, Wilkinson and Johnson developed a vision in 2030 for women who lead the climate to have the power to create transformative change and experience profound joy in their work. Their community approach to resolving the climate crisis prioritizes the collective uplifting of each other’s spirits and helps increase momentum – both serving as an antidote to the darkness that can sometimes consume the only climate warrior. “We are truly into this idea of power and joy,” Wilkinson explains. “Power is what you need for change to happen. And joy is honestly what you have to show every day.”
With climate feminists at the helm, more resources and investment could be procured for the climate transformation work already being done by cisgender and trans women and non-binary leaders – developing solutions, researching and writing, organizing community – often at night or on weekends. These leaders and their teams can also serve as examples and mentors for emerging climate feminists of all genders and ages.
And, of course, men can be climate feminists. “There’s a very important role for men, and I think it starts with listening,” says Wilkinson. “And when we consider the basic approaches of climate management, things like compassion, connection, creativity, collaboration, care, commitment to justice, they are all open to people of all kinds.” She notes that men in positions of power – whether they control funding or platforms or run an institution – may be more intent on helping change the face of climate governance. They can extend invitations to more women and others from diverse backgrounds to bring ideas and lead projects, or they can take a step back and let others make decisions and set their vision.
Such collaborative work is increasingly urgent. “Even now, at 11 o’clock for climate action, so many people in power deny, block and delay or make empty promises about what they will do,” says Wilkinson. “It’s absolutely devastating. But I think the wave is turning. I think we’re going to win.”
She adds that the former and first woman president of Ireland, Mary Robinson, perfectly sums up the situation with the slogan of her podcast Mothers of Invention: “Climate change is a man-made problem – with a feminist solution!”
Reposted with permission from Natural Resources Defense Council.
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