04/22/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 04/22/2024 03:24
The first Earth Day in 1970 gave birth to the modern environmental movement as millions of Americans marched, spoke out, and participated in grassroots actions to safeguard our planet and protect our future.
Today, Earth Day is regarded as the largest civic event on Earth, when billions of global citizens commit to a common goal. This year's theme for Earth Day is Planet vs. Plastics and communities across the country will be holding events and actions-click here to find out more about this year's Earth Day and to find an event near you.
But more attention needs to be paid to how the climate crisis is making the parallel crisis of gender inequality even worse. "Climate change is creating a downward spiral for women and girls," said UN Women's Deputy Executive Director Sarah Hendriks last year at the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference, or COP28.
The UN estimates that by 2050, climate change will push up to 158 million more women and girls into poverty and make 236 million more experience hunger.
Here are five things you need to know about women and climate change, as outlined by the global community Concern Worldwide:
But as Rangita de Silva de Alwis, an expert to the UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has said, "Climate change is a man-made problem with a feminist solution." And a 2023 report from UN Women outlines "Feminist climate justice: A framework for action". It calls for a new vision of feminist climate justice that put puts women's rights at the forefront of the global fight against environmental catastrophe.
The global environmental movement has come a long way since 1970-and so has NOW. NOW members marched in the first Earth Day and we'll be marching, speaking out, and doing our part again today.
Climate change is a threat multiplier that makes existing inequalities and vulnerabilities experienced by women even worse. Climate action and gender justice are intertwined, interdependent, and inseparable from our intersectional feminist agenda.