Effects of Climate Change on Impoverished Women and Children

Climate change is an issue currently affecting societies around the world. These changes are the result of both natural processes and human influence. All humans are affected by climate change; however, those in poverty are impacted more than most (see climate change and poverty). Women and children, in particular, suffer the burdens brought about by climate change. In general, impoverished women and children have unequal human capabilities, as defined by the capability approach, in comparison to men; thus, the harmful results of climate change affect them significantly more. Management of food, water, and illness due to lack of these necessities is more challenging because of the effects of climate change. Alleviation of female poverty and child poverty is consequently even more difficult because negative environmental impacts impede progress.

Effects on Food Production and Consumption

Agriculture

Natural disasters, such as flooding, drought, and hurricanes, have obvious negative affects on efficient agricultural production. Global warming and other shifts in climatic patterns also adversely affect food production (see climate and agriculture). For instance, it is said that reduction in water availability combined with a shift in rainfall could reduce yields by as much as a third by 2050, which would threaten millions of rural villages ^[1]. Women often play an active role in agriculture and unpaid labor around the household ^[2][3]. Additionally, land ownership is a tool used to empower women to produce larger crop yields ^[4] (see also Gender Empowerment Measure). However, with extreme climate changes, surrounding land will not be able to be utilized for effective farming. With a decrease in farmable land, it is unlikely that women will have greater opportunity for land ownership; thus their empowerment and productivity will decrease as well. Rural women also have significant knowledge about the forests and would be very useful in maintaining them and preventing deforestation resulting from human industrial activity ^[5][6]. Unfortunately, due to lack of agriculturally efficient land and continuing deforestation, many impoverished, rural families are forced to migrate to other locations to survive, which can go one of two ways. Though migration sometimes empowers women, since they are given the opportunity to play a key role in their families’ survival and may have a better chance at land tenure, it can also have negative effects. These effects (i.e. lack of healthcare and education) can be seen particularly on children if their mothers are forced to work and the children are less cared for ^[7]. Climate change clearly affects social aspects and norms in impoverished women and children’s lives if it causes a drop in agricultural production. To prevent this, international institutions can implement policies to enforce female land ownership and equality with their male counterparts or other men in their society. This would enable them to have access to land in their communities or in those that they migrate to, without fear that men will be given the useful agricultural and resourceful land unharmed by climate change ^[8].

Malnutrition

When climate change negatively impacts agricultural output, issues of hunger will arise. Though all poor members of society undergo the terrors of famine, children are affected by malnutrition more so than others in the community. As UNICEF points out, droughts, floods, and crop failures undermine the survival children due to lack of surplus to establish income but also lack of food for mere subsistence ^[9]. The natural disasters mentioned above often result from global warming and other climate change and their effects on seasonal weather patterns. Minimal crop yield leads to a lack of nutrition that will greatly hinder a child’s ability to live a healthy life, both in terms physical and mental growth. Consequently, malnutrition, and subsequent impaired growth that children experience, makes attempts to get out of the cycle of poverty far more challenging. Non-governmental organizations (NGO) and similar welfare groups send aid for malnutrition, yet more policies need be implemented in situations where famine occurs as a result of climate change (i.e. development of sustainable farming, better infrastructure improve agriculture in the face of climate change, etc.) ^[10] . Without aid to obtain basic needs, women and children will not be able to escape the poverty trap.

Effects on Water Availability and Sanitation

Water sanitation is extremely necessary for children and women to survive in the developing world. Pollution caused by human industrial activity and climate change brings about more natural disasters (i.e. hurricanes, floods, etc.) and results in the spread of waterborne diseases. These diseases, including diarrhea, dysentery, intestinal worms, hepatitis, and malaria kill millions of impoverished people each year ^[11]. Children in particular are affected by these diseases: there are an average of 3 million children that die each year because of diarrheal waterborne diseases each year ^[12]. In addition, malaria is the third largest killer of children on a global scale ^[13][14]. Additionally, flood and drought lead to necessary migration, as was mentioned in the food production section, because of the lack of clean water that results. Consequently, in regard to natural disasters in particular, impoverished women and children flee to refugee camps and live under dire circumstances (see refugee women and children). Safe water sources are essential for survival in the community, for children specifically; thus, using international aid to build clean water sources (i.e. wells, boiling apparatuses, sanitary filtration, etc.) may be more useful for impoverished communities than giving funds directly to governments. Regulating groundwater extraction would also be useful in maintaining ecosystems and providing a clean water source ^[15]. Additionally, educating the poor about natural disasters and environmental change that impact their livelihoods will also be useful for impoverished women and children to adapt to unpreventable climate change ^[16].

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