EARTH KEEPERS
It is essential to advocate for policy changes at various levels (sub-national, national, regional, and global) to multiply impact and adequately respond to the climate crisis. Our advocacy efforts focus on both adapting to and dealing with climate impacts after their occurrence, as well as limiting global warming to 1.5°C by quickly reducing emissions. The impacts of climate change are already destroying livelihoods and aggravating economic, political, social, and environmental inequality. Without urgent action, this could make it impossible for poor and marginalized people to reach a wide range of development and justice goals. Our overarching objectives are to empower women in poor and marginalised communities to take action on climate change at all levels and to build knowledge for global change.
Global warming is caused by the greenhouse effect, a natural process by which the atmosphere retains some of the Sun’s heat, allowing the Earth to maintain the necessary conditions to host life. Without the greenhouse effect, the average temperature of the planet would be -180C. The problem is that daily human activities maximize the greenhouse effect, causing the planet’s temperature to increase even more. Global warming is also caused by deforestation and destruction of marine ecosystems as forests and oceans are carbon sinks.
Experts agree that the Industrial Revolution was the turning point when emissions of greenhouse effect gases entering the atmosphere began to soar. The Industrial Revolution was itself borne out of smaller revolutions: agricultural, technological, demographic, transport, finance… creating a new model of production and consumption. From then onward, population growth (in 1750, there were fewer than 800 million people on Earth, whereas now we are over 7.5 billion), exploding resource use, increasing energy demand and production, mainly from fossil fuels, all saw the planet enter into what the scientific community have termed the Anthropocene period, a new geological era characterized by human impact on Earth. The main impact was the increase in the global temperature of the planet, which has risen 1.1°C since this period, although it is estimated that, by the end of the present Century, the thermometer could rise by 2.7 °C even if national commitments to reduce emissions are fulfilled.
The global temperature increase brings disastrous consequences, endangering the survival of the Earth’s flora and fauna, including human beings. The worst climate change impacts include the melting of the ice mass at the poles, which in turn causes rising sea level, producing flooding and threatening coastal environments through which small island states risk disappearing entirely. Climate change also increases the appearance of more violent weather phenomena, drought, fires, the death of animal and plant species, flooding from rivers and lakes, the creation of climate refugees and destruction of the food chain and economic resources, especially in developing countries.
In societies where people are discriminated against based on gender, ethnicity, class, and caste, being a man or woman is often a decisive factor in determining the levels of risk they face from climate change, extreme and uncertain weather, and changes in the environment and economy. Gender inequality is a root cause of poverty. Climate change, in turn, is making poverty worse. This means that the chances of achieving a better life for many women and girls are threatened by a double injustice: climate change and gender inequality. Our goal is to empower women to become decision-makers, advocates and leaders in efforts to address the climate crisis.
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