Many people’s first thoughts regarding the current climate crisis may fall back to the rising sea levels, the higher temperatures or the extreme weather. However, one area not thought about often would be the domino effect it may have upon the many other social and physical travesties that happen in the world, including the gender inequality felt in countries across the world. The UN found that “when extreme weather devastates a community… inequalities worsen: Intimate partner violence spikes, girls are pulled from school, daughters are married early, and women and girls forced from their homes face a higher risk of sexual exploitation and trafficking.” In Nigeria, the weather is becoming hotter and dryer with extreme weather like landslides and flash floods becoming more apparent. These conditions make access to school extremely difficult and makes the classroom unsafe. Along with this, as communities struggle to cope with the extreme weather, they look towards their children to help them either make money or help around the house. Communities who already discourage women from attending school are seeing the remaining girls being pulled out as well.
However, there have been many efforts to improve the condition of education for these communities. The Center for Girl’s Education runs programs in the northern cities in Nigeria, with their main goal being to help keep girls in school and assist communities to cope with the weather.
In Brazil,the Amazon Rainforest acts as a natural carbon sponge, taking in more dangerous carbon dioxide than it emits.The rainforest, however, is under risk as continued deforestation as well as wildfires shrink the large jungle. Along with this, in the northeast of the jungle a group of women make their living harvesting the coconuts that grow on the trees there. Their livelihood, and one of their food sources, are in a dire situation as these many agricultural companies continue to seize the land that they use and restrict their access to others.
Lastly, one of the worst cases of the climate crises affecting gender inequality is in the Philippines. As storms and sea levels get larger and higher, it ends up pushing families further inland into larger clusters of people. In this confusion and chaos, the UN Office of Drug and Crime found that these conditions increase the chances of kidnapping and human trafficking for younger women and girls.
According to CNN, “In the Philippines, the UN found that human trafficking increased in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, which killed more than 6,000 people and displaced 4.4 million”
The Philippines has brought in numerous organizations to help put an end to any human trafficking. However, with the storms getting worse, it is a task that only gets more difficult.
