Feminists Against BP

As every day passes with the BP oil spill continuing to gush out thousands and thousands of gallons of toxic waste into our precious oceans I become more and more enraged.

Does BP not recognize or even care that the entire world lives in a watershed, including CEO Tony Hayward? All life forms rely on water to nourish and take care of our basic needs. Yet water continues to be abused all over the world. Often times with little to no regard of the consequences.

One can see where priorities lie when the technology to drill has increased leaps and bounds, but yet oil companies are still using 30 year old technology to clean up spills! In fact over the last 3 years, even though BP has grossed over $58 billion dollars, they have not spent one dime what so ever on oil spill response research!!!

As BP and other sources fight to keep us all in suspense on the actual amount of oil spewing forth from below, estimates are showing that BP may be upchucking as much as 100,000 barrels a day; that's equal to the entire amount of oil that was expelled during the Exxon Valdez oil spill every 2 1/2 days!!! On top of all this the U.S. District Court Judge Martin Feldman ruled to block President Obama's six month moratorium on deep water drilling. Apparently the biggest oil spill in the history of the world is not worrisome enough to hold off on more plundering of Mother Earth's womb. Drill baby drill right.

We need desperately to get clean and give up our addiction to dirty energy practices and policies. But as Jon Stewart pointed out, our last 8 presidents have all stated this exact thought and yet here we are reliant on oil more than ever before. It's way past time to do something about our dependence on oil. We as activists must demand that our leaders create active change otherwise we'll just continue to hear the mumbling and see no action occurring.

It's easy to think that the problem is too daunting, or that there is nothing we can do to stop this atrocity. Not true! We are strong and powerful people who can create change!! The FMF Choices Campus Leadership Program is currently working on a women and climate change campaign specifically addressing the connection between women and water issues. As Feministing has reported some ingredients in oil are endocrine disruptors, one in particular, Benzene, can cause infertility! We cannot and will not stand for the continuing degradation of our water ways, our precious planet, and our health. We are feminists, and activists and we have the power to raise our voices and demand for clean water.

Take action on your campus by starting a photo campaign, where you and your fellow feminist friends photograph yourselves with signs demanding action regarding water management and send them into your representatives. Or host a screening party for the Sierra Club film "Beyond Oil". Spread the word about the BP protest and get students on your campus to sign the pledge to protest BP as well. Organize a letter campaign and use your voice! If your not in school right now and have time to volunteer check out these options as well.

We can make a difference, so lets get out and there and create the change we want!

Empowering Women and Addressing Climate Change: Solutions for Ethiopia

The following post was submitted by guest blogger, Cassie Gardener

Like many developing countries, Ethiopia suffers from vast reproductive health challenges that are linked to a vicious cycle of poverty and gender inequality. 35% of women want to prevent or space their births, but don’t have access to family planning services and information, and only 10% of births are attended by skilled personnel.

What is more, these challenges will only be exacerbated by climate change impacts. As resources dry up, women and girls will have to walk farther to collect fuel wood, water and food, and the increased spread of diseases like malaria will make it even harder for people living in poverty to get ahead. Although they’re the least responsible for growing CO2 emissions, it’s the world’s poorest—women and girls—that will bear the brunt of the impacts.

As part of my two-month internship with the Population, Health and Environment (PHE) -Ethiopia Consortium, I recently had the opportunity to visit rural communities in the Bale Mountains of southeast Ethiopia, to witness not only these challenges, but what young women are doing to take action.

The little-known Bale Mountains are national and global treasures of biodiversity, teeming with dozens of endemic mammal, bird, and plant species. The rivers and streams in the Bale watershed flow to more than 12 million people in southern Ethiopia and western Somalia. As in many parts of the country, rural communities in Bale face grave livelihood and health challenges, and their unsustainable use of land to eke out a living is threatening long-term conservation efforts. Due to diminishing agricultural land and an average total fertility rate of 6.2 children per mother in the region, people are increasingly forced to cut trees for fuel and timber in order to feed and house their families.

PHE-Ethiopia’s member organization, MELCA, has been working to protect the region’s biodiversity and culture since 2005. Project Manager Tesfaye Teshome told me that if deforestation and impending climate change dry up Bale’s precious watershed, drought and famine could lead to the displacement or death of millions of Ethiopian citizens.

In March 2008, with funding from Engender Health and the Packard Foundation, MELCA launched an integrated population, health and environment (PHE) project that provides culturally sensitive training at the community, school, and government levels. I was impressed that after just seven months of raising awareness, I met dozens of community members who strongly believe in the benefits of family planning and girls’ empowerment for improving livelihoods and building local resistance to climate change impacts.


For example, I visited Finchaa Banoo Elementary School, where MELCA’s training sessions inspired the nature clubs, women’s clubs, and anti-AIDS clubs joined together to form new “PHE Clubs.” Hundreds of students greeted me with a PHE song, wearing traditional costumes with PHE banners strewn across their chests. Two female club leaders named Fatiye and Rose led me to their nursery site where their club had planted 60,000 indigenous tree seedlings for distribution to the community.

Fatiye, a 21-year old PHE club leader in 8th grade, proudly told me how their club uses dramas, songs and poems to educate their peers and community members about the importance of family planning. She said, “Before the coming of PHE, I knew only about biodiversity and culture. But now, I clearly understand health and population issues, including HIV/AIDS, taught to me by my peers. By having the integration of clubs, we’ve strengthened our power to accomplish more.” She told me that she will use family planning when she’s ready, and has even convinced her grandmother to use a fuel-saving stove, to improve her health and protect the environment.

I am so inspired to know that despite the vast challenges they face, women and girls in the Bale zone of Southeastern Ethiopia are working together to ensure a healthier, greener and more prosperous future for their community, and all Ethiopians!

For more information about PHE-Ethiopia, please contact phe-ethiopia@gmail.com or visit their website at http://www.phe-ethiopia.org. For more information about MELCA, please contact melca@ethionet.et or visit their website at http://www.melca-ethiopia.org.

Taking Action for Women this Earth Day

Earth Day is right around the corner this month - are you ready? Here at FMF, we think the environment is a feminist issue. If you haven't already planned an event for campus, have no fear, there's still time. Get started by taking a minute to check out FMF's Women and Climate Change Campaign!

According to experts, water will be the first resource majorly impacted by climate change. Though we all feel the effects, the world's poorest populations have to face the stark reality of our environmental crisis on a daily basis.

Did you know that women are disproportionately affected by lack of water access? Because many water-related tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and laundry fall to women in the developing world, lack of access to water or poor water quality have negative impacts on women first. Environmental factors like water-borne illnesses and drought contribute to keeping the world's poorest populations trapped in a cycle of poverty and inequity.

So What Can You Do?

This Earth Day, take the opportunity to make sure your community is educated and taking action. A great way to focus your activism is to concentrate on the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Call or write your lawmakers and ask them to support a renewed commitment to meeting the MDGs by 2015. While all the goals need to be a priority, here's some key talking points on a few of them in case you aren't familiar:

• Goal #3 promotes gender equality and empower women
• Goal #5 would improve maternal health - a critical need today. Check out our new global materials about maternal mortality for more information!
• Goal #7 ensures environmental sustainability, access to safe, potable drinking water and sanitation.

Our Women & Climate Change action ideas (available on the web and in PDF) pamphlet has some fun ways that you can call attention to climate change and put a feminist spin to it. Here's a few highlights:

• Use a poster campaign near water sources to remind people how much we take for granted our access to water! A simple sign like: "The average woman walks 6-9 miles to get to water. And then has to carry it back." by the drinking fountain will make people think twice.
• Walk for Water Access – Have people physically walk and carry water (or an equivalent weight) a representative distance on campus. To make it more fun and interactive, host a race and challenge people. See how long it takes them to make the trek and subtract points for water lost en route.
• On-Campus Conservation – Start a campaign on campus to conserve water and get your campus to “go green.” Meet with administrators and different offices on campus with specific goals and develop a plan for meeting them!

Again, for more suggestions on how to bring an Earth Day event to your campus, check out the whole list of action ideas. Contact your campus organizer if you need help planning your event, and let us know how it went! We'd love to get your feedback.

photo courtesy of wwworks on flickr.

This article was featured in our April 2010 monthly Choices eZine. Sign up for our alerts to stay up-to-date with the latest feminist news and to receive the monthly eZine!

Copenhagen Talks, Birth Control & the Environment

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) produced a report on the state of the world population as it stands in 2009. The report “urged world leaders to take into account improved access to family planning services in future discussions like next month's UN climate change summit in Copenhagen.” (earthtimes.com) It noted that there is still time to work on issues regarding reproductive health, gender equality and how thinking “creatively” about the two and its effect on population could aid in a more sustainable world in the future.

As our faithful readers know, I have been blogging about the Copenhagen talks and of the level of commitment various world leader have said they will or will not commit in reaching long term agreements in the December climate change summit. Currently as it stands, President Obama acknowledge the US would not enter in any binding agreements at Copenhagen, that it would be “impossible.” (Expect Delays—Not a Good Enough Answer) But, other world leaders have said long term commitments through agreements and legislation is possible by December. We will have to wait and see.

Despite various world leaders saying they will or will not enter into agreements…There are more equally pressing issues left that need discussing other than the depletion of natural resources and carbon omissions that affect climate change, such as the effects of an ever growing population on the environment.

UNFPA executive director, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, said that in order to help mobilize women against climate change they have to be empowered. CLIMATE CHANGE AFFECTS EVERYONE, although the news is currently filled with stories of climate change affecting poorer populations (especially women)... they are only the first of all of us to experience the detrimental impacts.

Although there is no empirical evident in the report that explains how population control would affect climate change, one only needs common sense to realize that the more people there are in the world, the more consumption of resources, the more waste, and the more greenhouse gasses there will be. A worthwhile discussion in Copenhagen would definitely be to consider the impact of birth control and overall health education on environmental preservation.

For more information about women and climate change, check out FMF's Global Campaign website at http://feminist.org/global/womenclimatechange.html

Photo Credit: Jealously on flickr.com

Expect Delays--Not a Good Enough Answer

During the past few weeks, rumors have been circulating about the delay of creating any formal agreements or legislation at the international climate change negotiations in Copenhagen. However, not all countries are eager for the delay. UN environment chief Achim Steiner warns that such delays would have a “human cost” as well as harm the planet as discussed in yesterday's Guardian.

This past weekend, President Obama acknowledged that the US would not enter in any binding agreements at Copenhagen, that it would be impossible. But there is still hope, despite a lack of formal agreements or legislation positive outcomes are still possible. Even negotiations can set time limits requiring further action.

Gridlock in Copenhagen would have big risks economically and socially. More and more people are being affected by climate change… and the lack of formal agreements only furthers these problems which adversely affects women more than men.

Check out the Feminist Majority Foundation’s Women & the Environment campaign. Information can be found at http://www.feminist.org/global/womenclimatechange.html.

Photo Credit: Estherase on flickr.com

NBC's Green Screen

It's widely understood that the images and ideas that we see on TV have an effect on us, though there are disagreements on the extent of the effect. Watching ads about toothpaste encourage us to believe cavities are the modern equivalent of the black plague; the Twilight movies have turned every human being (as well as some pets that have unfortunately been exposed to the material) into Emo Goths that want to shag vampires (alas, we all doomed to perpetual sexual frustration!); and Gossip Girls' portrayal of a threesome is OBVIOUSLY meteor-cultist propaganda encouraging all preteens to go have one.

But if the fairies hiding in every TV box were to use their magical powers of persuasion to encourage environmental responsibility?

Next week, the TV station NBC is going to be incorporating "green themes" into many of their TV programs, according to the Associated Press. 30 Rock will have a cameo with Al Gore, and Alec Baldwin's character will tell his staff they need to cut their carbon footprint. The show "Heroes" will feature a recycling truck. Dwight from "The Office" will don the awe-inspiring title of "Recyclops". Even "The Biggest Loser" will get in on the green game, as they will tell the contestants to eat organic food and bring their own mugs to coffee shops.

So what do you think? Can NBC brand "green" as cool? Will next week's shows act as the harbinger to a happy hippie apocalypse? Or will viewers not be tricked by the blatant environmentalist propaganda? (Being a happy hippie feminist who knows that climate change has a disproportionately negative effect on women's well-being and rights, I'm rooting for the propaganda).

Photo Credit: stringberd on flickr.com

Is Climate Change a Feminist Issue?

OF COURSE! Women are more affected by Climate Change then men, because they make up the majority of the world's poor. However, linking population control to climate change is not the only thing that links climate change to feminist issues, as an article in yesterday’s Guardian pointed out.

It notes, “everyone stands to suffer if climate change is allowed to spiral out of control, of course, but a gender analysis of both the impacts and causes of climate change shows that globally women contribute less to the problem and yet are likely to be hit especially hard.” The world’s poor are the first impacted by climate change and women are 70% of the world’s poor. However, this issue is not limited to the developing world. A study by the Swedish government found that the levels of women's and men's energy consumption was significantly different confirming that men have better accessibility to resources then women.

Want to know more? Get involved with the Women & the Environment campaign with Feminist Majority Foundation! More information can be found at http://www.feminist.org/global/womenclimatechange.html.

Photo Credit: JohnLeGear on flickr.com

Climate Change in Bolivia

The Inter Press Service did a great piece last week discussing Climate Change in Bolivia and the resulting negative effects which primarily affect women more than men. What use to be the world’s highest ski run as melted away revealing the rock and soil underneath. The once snowy mountain, Chacaltaya, is now an example of a dead glacier.

Psychologist Daniela Leytón, head of gender issues with the campaign 350.org in Latin America (a group which is pushing the December climate change summit in Copenhagen to adopt a treat limiting the allowable CO2 concentration levels) noted the adverse affects this one example of climate change had on women due to their low socioeconomic status. Women are being pushed to the limit attempting to feed their families in a time when subsistence farming families are barely able to survive. Unfortunately, climate change will not be stopped with the current lack of treaties expected from the December climate change summit in Copenhagen as expected by the New York Times and previously blogged about.

Want to help? Get involved with the Women & the Environment campaign with Feminist Majority Foundation! More information can be found at http://www.feminist.org/global/womenclimatechange.html.

Photo Credit: RLuna on Flickr.com

The Gendered Impact of Climate Change

Check out my post on Feministing on the gendered impact of climate change!

As we work on expanding our own campaign on the issue, start getting your campus motivated today. For more information, check out FMF's global toolkit!

Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai

Hey all! The forecast for this weekend predicts thunderstorms, so if you’re hanging out and looking for a good movie, check out Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai. I recently saw the film as part of the American University Human Rights Film Festival and thought it was incredibly well done.

Some background- Wangari Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her political and environmental activism in Kenya. The film depicts her journey as an advocate and the beginning of the revolutionary Green Belt Movement, as well as the stories of the women she empowers along the way.

Wangari is a woman whose husband divorced her because she was too “self-sufficient” and “strong-minded,” leaving her to raise their children alone AND inspire and create some of the most significant environmental and political change Kenya has ever seen. She was beaten, slandered, and detained by the Kenyan government, and not once did she give in. I could go on for days about how amazing she is and what her work has done to change the lives of so many, not just those in Kenya, but I’ll let you find out for yourselves.

Photocredit: flicker.com

Lack of International Climate Treaty Affects Women

Time is running out for the international climate change negotiations in Copenhagen. As the New York Times points out, it is unlikely a global climate treaty will be reached by December.

The US and other major polluting countries have decided it is better to take smaller but important steps towards global climate change rather than creating a weak, hard to enforce treaty. Negotiators cite the divide between rich and poor nations as “just too wide” saying that final legislative action should not be expected until the better part of next year.

However, a global climate treaty is necessary to force the world’s countries to take more proactive steps towards halting climate change. Climate change adversely affects women more than men, as women make up nearly 70% of the worlds poor and it is the poor who are affected worst and foremost by this issue.

Want to help? Get involved with the Women & the Environment campaign with Feminist Majority Foundation! Information can be found at http://www.feminist.org/global/womenclimatechange.html.

Photo Credit: Find your Feet on Flickr.com

Irina Bokova will become first woman to lead UNESCO

Just last week, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) voted in Irina Bokova as the new head of the organization, The Guardian reports. Though the organization is 64 years old (according to the UNESCO website), Irina will be both the first woman and first Eastern European to lead the organization,

The opposition candidate, Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosny, had been the favorite until critics pointed out Egypt's history of censorship and a comment Hosny had made about burning Israeli books that insulted Islam, the The Huffington Post reported.

Some Egyptians considered the opposition to Hosny as anti-Muslim and anti-Egyptian; others, however, blame Hosny for stifling the Egyptian cultural scene and consider him far too dictatorial (as reported by the Huffington Post)

Bokova is currently the Bulgarian foreign minister to France, and helped Bugaria enter the European Union. (Guardian reports.) Her resume is extremely impressive; she is fluent in four languages (English, Russian, Spanish, and French), and helped draft the Bulgarian constitution, among many other achievements (resume available at her personal website) She intends to get UNESCO more involved in the international talks about "hot topics" such as global warming and solving the international financial crisis (reported the Huffington Post)

photocredit: amirjina on Flickr

Increasing Women's Access to Birth Control Could Slow Climate Change!

Just when you thought there couldn't be more global benefits to increasing women's access to family planning, we've got one more for you: fighting climate change!

A new study by the British medical journal, The Lancet, just published this report which states that if women, particularly in the developing world, had increased access to contraception, it could "slow population growth and reduce demographic pressure on the environment."

Experts estimate that there are currently 200 million women around the world who wish to either delay or prevent pregnancy, but lack access to contraceptives, resulting in millions of unintended pregnancies, 76 million according to The Lancet. Additionally, hundreds of thousands of women die every years from from botched abortions and pregnancy related complications.

Keep in mind that these numbers are just estimates and that many deaths unfortunately go unreported, thus making the actual figures higher.

Amongst the many interesting connections the report makes, it also points out that family planning is five times cheaper (!!) than the technologies normally used to combat climate change: every $7 spent on family planning could cut the world's carbon dioxide emissions by over one ton.

Of course we at the Feminist Majority Foundation already knew this! :) That's why earlier this year, we launched brand new Women and Climate Change Campaign with our partners Sierra Club and WEDO.

Check it out, see all the ways you can get involved and bring awareness to your campus. Join the movement today!