The headlines are clear. Human suffering from a changing climate is escalating and projections show clearly how it will worsen. Equally clear is the need for climate action by all sectors - government, business, advocacy and education organizations - action that will first slow down the inevitable, and eventually help to stabilize the change.
As prominent global leader and environmental advocate Wanjira Mathai said in a recent National Geographic article, “Addressing climate change for Kenya, and I dare say for Africa, is a matter of life and death. We don’t have an option, neither do we have much time.” This is fast becoming true for much of the world.
Credit: contributed
Credit: contributed
Often missing from the headlines is the critical role of women in climate change. Multiple reports point to the disproportionate impact of its environmental, health and economic challenges on women. For example, the United Nations Development Programme estimates that 80 percent of people displaced by climate change are women.
Pat Mitchell - author, journalist, and curator of TEDWomen - reflected on these dramatic impacts on women when she coordinated a panel of climate leaders in April 2021. “Gender inequalities are further exacerbated by climate change, as women and girls continue to lack equal rights, power and access to capital.”
Credit: contributed
Credit: contributed
The headlines also leave out how women have been, and will continue to be, the leaders for some of the most promising solutions to climate change. A 2021 Brookings Institute article titled, “Why is girls’ education important for climate action?” concludes that fostering female leadership globally “is strongly linked with better environmental outcomes, including the creation of more protected land areas, the ratification of environmental treaties, stricter climate change policies, and smaller carbon footprints.”
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson underscore this in their introduction to “All We Can Save.” For women climate leaders, they say, “...there is a clear focus on making change rather than being in charge.”
When the students, faculty and staff at Agnes Scott College set out to plan a global women’s leadership conference with a focus on women and climate justice, we wanted to bring to the forefront as many of the voices of women “making change” as possible. We imagined speakers sharing stories, sharing research and sharing solutions. We had not imagined the scale of women’s leadership that we would find. From the self-proclaimed “elders” who have stubbornly championed the need for attention to women and climate for decades, to the amazing young voices quickly coming to the forefront, we found that women’s leadership for climate action is deep and wide.
The resulting conference, “Building a Better World: Women and Climate Justice,” reflects Agnes Scott’s longstanding leadership in sustainability— we have reduced our campus carbon footprint by more than 40 percent and we are on track for our goal of climate neutrality by 2037. And it underscores the transformative impact of our award-winning global and leadership education curriculum. With one of the most diverse student demographics in the country, we know what can happen when creative minds from different backgrounds collaborate on problem solving.
The attention of each of us is needed to take action. Those of us involved in climate change work are often asked “where is it most important to take action and who should lead?”
The answers are, quite simply, everywhere and everyone.
As Wanjira Mathai has reflected, “I always was inspired by something my mother said: ‘Those of us who understand, must take action.’”
Leocadia I. Zak is the president of Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia.
Susan Kidd is the executive director of Agnes Scott College’s Center for Sustainability.
Agnes Scott’s second annual Women’s Global Leadership Conference, Building a Better World: Women and Climate Justice, takes place virtually on September 23-24, 2021. Wanjira Mathai, Pat Mitchell, and Katharine K. Wilkinson are among more than 20 women leaders who will be speaking at the conference.
For more information go to: https://conferences.agnesscott.org/WGLC2021/
