Ecofeminism And Climate Change Mitigation

Seminar paper from the year 2016 in the subject Politics - Topic: International development, grade: 1,3, University of Frankfurt (Main), language: English, abstract: The following paper elaborates the unequal affectedness of men and women by anthropogenic climate change and shows how specific male and female consumer- and behavioral patterns change the outcome of assigning individual shares of the climate catastrophe. In a preliminary step, gender-neutral conventional climate change mitigation principles will be presented as developed by Darrel Moellendorf, professor of International Political Theory and Philosophy at Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main, in his essay “Treaty Norms and Climate Change Mitigation” (2009). Afterwards, the central characteristics of the ecofeminist movement will be introduced and furthermore discussed how attempts in climate change mitigation could look like out of a gender-egalitarian perspective. In a third step, a try will be made to reconcile Moellendorfs principles and ecofeminist outlooks and to draft a gender-inclusive approach to facing environmental degradation. Finally, I will show that any climate change mitigation strategy that ignores social inequalities or structural violence repercussions is incomprehensive and cannot count as a fair and anti-hegemonic proceeding. It recently has been acknowledged that women and men in both the global North and South contribute unequally to the negative impact of anthropogenic climate change. Not only does the Western populations’ share of global harmful CO2 emissions amount to 80% of the overall emissions, but there is also strong evidence that women and men’s energy consumption and consumer behavior differ considerably when it comes to determining individual per capita emissions. Furthermore, women are often attributed greater burdens and responsibilities in mitigating climate change although women and children are those who suffer the most from it.

This collection of women's racialized and gendered mappings of place, people, and nature includes the stories of teachers, organizers, activists, farmers, healers, and gardeners. From their many entry points, the contributors to this work engage crucial questions of coexistence with nature in these times of overlapping climate, health, economic, and racial crises.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline.com. Feminist Frontiers in Climate Justice provides a compelling demonstration of the deeply gendered and unequal effects of the climate emergency, alongside the urgent need for a feminist perspective to expose and address these structural political, social and economic inequalities. Taking a nuanced, multidisciplinary approach, this book explores new ways of thinking about how climate change interacts with gender inequalities and feminist concerns with rights and law, and how the human world is bound up with the non-human, natural world.

Why is ecofeminism still needed to address the environmental emergencies and challenges of our times? Ecofeminism has a chequered history in terms of its popularity and its perceived value in conceptualizing the relationship between gender and nature as well as feeding forms of activism that aim to confront the environmental challenges of the moment. This book provides a much-needed comprehensive overview of the relevance and value of using eco-feminist theories. It gives a broad coverage of traditional and emerging eco-feminist theories and explores, across a range of chapters, their various contributions and uniquely spans various strands of ecofeminist thinking. The origins of influential eco-feminist theories are discussed including key themes and some of its leading figures (contributors include Erika Cudworth, Greta Gaard, Trish Glazebrook and Niamh Moore), and outlines its influence on how scholars might come to a more generative understanding of the natural environment. The book examines eco-feminism’s potential contribution for advancing current discussions and research on the relationships between the humans and more than humans that share our world. This timely volume makes a distinctive scholarly contribution and is a valuable resources for students and academics in the fields of environmentalism, political ecology, sustainability and nature resource management.

This book explains how gender, as a power relationship, influences climate change related strategies, and explores the additional pressures that climate change brings to uneven gender relations. It considers the ways in which men and women experience the impacts of these in different economic contexts. The chapters dismantle gender inequality and injustice through a critical appraisal of vulnerability and relative privilege within genders. Part I addresses conceptual frameworks and international themes concerning climate change and gender, and explores emerging ideas concerning the reification of gender relations in climate change policy. Part II offers a wide range of case studies from the Global North and the Global South to illustrate and explain the limitations to gender-blind climate change strategies. This book will be of interest to students, scholars, practitioners and policymakers interested in climate change, environmental science, geography, politics and gender studies.

"Climate change is already under way with unpredictable consequences. Evidence of changes to the earth's physical, chemical and biological processes is obvious everywhere. Greenhouse gas emissions have increased the carbon cycle concentration in the atmosphere. In the past, half of this carbon was stored in forests, while the other half was removed by oceans, but with deforestation and warming oceans, oxygen is at its lowest breathable point.Climate change deepens ethical issues explored and discussed by ecofeminists around the world. This book describes the academic field of material ecofeminism, provides an overview of the land question, and explores how reigning discourses of "sustainable development" have led to a commodification of nature and have effaced the multiple visions, uses, and relationships of local human communities. The articles in this book are spaces of political projects and values that nurture anticapitalist, antipatriarchal, and anticolonial oppressions. We argue that the centrality of resisting the colonization of Mother Earth and Pachamama is supreme."--

Big cities don’t have to mean a dystopian future. They can be turned around to be powerhouses of well-being and environmental sustainability – if we empower women. This book is a unique collaboration between C40 and Friends of the Earth showcasing pioneering city mayors, key voices in the environmental and feminist movements, and academics. The essays collectively demonstrate both the need for women’s empowerment for climate action and the powerful change it can bring. A rallying call – for the planet, for women, for everyone.

Australian feminist philosopher Val Plumwood coined the term “critical ecofeminism” to “situate humans in ecological terms and non-humans in ethical terms,” for “the two tasks are interconnected, and cannot be addressed properly in isolation from each other.” Variously using the terms “critical ecological feminism,” “critical anti-dualist ecological feminism,” and “critical ecofeminism,” Plumwood’s work developed amid a range of perspectives describing feminist intersections with ecopolitical issues—i.e., toxic production and toxic wastes, indigenous sovereignty, global economic justice, species justice, colonialism and dominant masculinity. Well over a decade before the emergence of posthumanist theory and the new materialisms, Plumwood’s critical ecofeminist framework articulates an implicit posthumanism and respect for the animacy of all earthothers, exposing the linkages among diverse forms of oppression, and providing a theoretical basis for further activist coalitions and interdisciplinary scholarship. Had Plumwood lived another ten years, she might have described her work as “Anthropocene Ecofeminism,” “Critical Material Ecofeminism,” “Posthumanist Anticolonial Ecofeminism”—all of these inflections are present in her work. Here, Critical Ecofeminism advances upon Plumwood’s intellectual, activist, and scholarly work by exploring its implications for a range of contemporary perspectives and issues--critical animal studies, plant studies, sustainability studies, environmental justice, climate change and climate justice, masculinities and sexualities. With the insights available through a critical ecofeminism, these diverse eco-justice perspectives become more robust.