Nov 19 2009
Should We Sue The Environment for Ageism?
That’s the logical question one may ask after reading the CNN.com report, “Women ‘bearing brunt’ of climate change.”
Indeed, read through the sexism of this item:
Jaime Nadal, the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) representative in Bolivia, said that Quispe’s situation was far from unusual. “Young people tend to leave these areas. Old women are typically left in the community having to perform harder and harder tasks to keep up the household. We already see mostly old women in many of these communities.”
In a report released on Wednesday, UNFPA warns that it is women in the developing world such as Quispe who are bearing the brunt of the worsening and accelerating impact of climate change.
“Women are on the front lines of many societies buffeted by climate change — and research indicates they tend to be more vulnerable to these impacts,” said the report’s lead author, Robert Engelman.
Sexism! Only, the sexism seems to be from the activists in this case. It’s a rather cheap stunt, we think, to use such a specious argument — either humans are endangered or they are not. But to go to the “women are weak and therefore we must address climate” is so silly.



