Week 10 Reflections
Climate Justice, Digital Activism, and Gender, Prof. Frances Roberts-Gregory
By Cormac Madden, 3/24/2019
This week's readings focused on international climate policymaking and the role that women and gender play in it. Gender and Climate Change: Impacts, Science, Policy by Joanne Nagel outlines the lack of female representation in international climate change decision-making and argues for increased parity in gender representation. She bases this argument upon what she terms the three E's, arguing that including women is ethical, effective and economical. In "Women Organizing for a Healthy Climate," Irene Dankelman makes a similar argument by highlighting organizations that are fighting for increased women's participation in climate negotiations, such as GenderCC, WEDO, and ENERGIA, as well as organizations of women that are making impacts in their home nations and regions, such as the Chipko and the Green Belt movements. In agreement with the organizations detailed by Dankelman, Nicole Detraz argues for the necessity of including gender in our official discourses of climate change in Gender and the Environment. As Dankelman did, Terran Giacomini also details the attempts of women's organizations at global climate conventions, describing the actions of activists from Ende Gelande, La Via Campesina, and Idle No More.
Two other readings detail other aspects of climate policy. "The Case for Climate Reparations" argues that those who have been most responsible for greenhouse gases and other adverse climate effects must pay for the damage that they have caused. And "10 Principles for Just Climate Change Policies in the U.S." outlines the main points of the environmental justice movement in the US and argues that the United States should be a leader in the global environmental justice movement.
One idea that I found to be incredibly salient from this week's readings was Joanne Nagel's affirmation that, in climate negotiations, women are invisible while men are invisible as men. While women's invisibility is clearly an issue, the latter invisibility is just as pernicious as it allows for the question of gender to not even be concerned in climate change policymaking. I find this idea of men's invisibility as men to be pervasive throughout society, infiltrating our language, policy and worldview. It seems to me that true gender equality will involve not only equal representation for people of all genders, but also a recognition of masculinity as an aspect of gender as well. In this way, men will not be seen as superceding or existing outside of the realm of gender, but rather just as
Key Terms
ENERGIA: Global organization that works for gender equality in energy access.
COP (Conference of the Parties): Yearly conferences that create international climate change policy; held by the UN.
Climate Reparations: The idea that those responsible for greenhouse gases should redress the damage that they have caused to others.
References
Dankelman, Irene 2010. "Women Organizing for a Healthy Climate." Gender and Climate Change: An Introduction. Earthscan: London.
Detraz, Nicole 2017. Gender & the Environment. Polity: Cambridge.
Giacomini, Terran 2018. "The 2017 United Nations Climate Summit: Women Fighting for System Change and Building the Commons at COP23 in Bonn, Germany." Capitalism Nature Socialism, 29:1.
Mark, Jason 2018. "The Case for Climate Reparations." Sierra May/June 2018.
Nagel, Joanne 2016. Gender and Climate Change: Impacts, Science, and Policy. Routledge: New
York.
By Cormac Madden, 3/24/2019
This week's readings focused on international climate policymaking and the role that women and gender play in it. Gender and Climate Change: Impacts, Science, Policy by Joanne Nagel outlines the lack of female representation in international climate change decision-making and argues for increased parity in gender representation. She bases this argument upon what she terms the three E's, arguing that including women is ethical, effective and economical. In "Women Organizing for a Healthy Climate," Irene Dankelman makes a similar argument by highlighting organizations that are fighting for increased women's participation in climate negotiations, such as GenderCC, WEDO, and ENERGIA, as well as organizations of women that are making impacts in their home nations and regions, such as the Chipko and the Green Belt movements. In agreement with the organizations detailed by Dankelman, Nicole Detraz argues for the necessity of including gender in our official discourses of climate change in Gender and the Environment. As Dankelman did, Terran Giacomini also details the attempts of women's organizations at global climate conventions, describing the actions of activists from Ende Gelande, La Via Campesina, and Idle No More.
Two other readings detail other aspects of climate policy. "The Case for Climate Reparations" argues that those who have been most responsible for greenhouse gases and other adverse climate effects must pay for the damage that they have caused. And "10 Principles for Just Climate Change Policies in the U.S." outlines the main points of the environmental justice movement in the US and argues that the United States should be a leader in the global environmental justice movement.
One idea that I found to be incredibly salient from this week's readings was Joanne Nagel's affirmation that, in climate negotiations, women are invisible while men are invisible as men. While women's invisibility is clearly an issue, the latter invisibility is just as pernicious as it allows for the question of gender to not even be concerned in climate change policymaking. I find this idea of men's invisibility as men to be pervasive throughout society, infiltrating our language, policy and worldview. It seems to me that true gender equality will involve not only equal representation for people of all genders, but also a recognition of masculinity as an aspect of gender as well. In this way, men will not be seen as superceding or existing outside of the realm of gender, but rather just as
Key Terms
ENERGIA: Global organization that works for gender equality in energy access.
COP (Conference of the Parties): Yearly conferences that create international climate change policy; held by the UN.
Climate Reparations: The idea that those responsible for greenhouse gases should redress the damage that they have caused to others.
References
Dankelman, Irene 2010. "Women Organizing for a Healthy Climate." Gender and Climate Change: An Introduction. Earthscan: London.
Detraz, Nicole 2017. Gender & the Environment. Polity: Cambridge.
Giacomini, Terran 2018. "The 2017 United Nations Climate Summit: Women Fighting for System Change and Building the Commons at COP23 in Bonn, Germany." Capitalism Nature Socialism, 29:1.
Mark, Jason 2018. "The Case for Climate Reparations." Sierra May/June 2018.
Nagel, Joanne 2016. Gender and Climate Change: Impacts, Science, and Policy. Routledge: New
York.
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