Time for women to lead

Climate change not a myth

“According to the US Geological Survey, mountain snow is critical for balance in the natural water system, because the snowpack acts as a natural way to store water. Without this natural balance in the system, dry spells last longer, crop yields suffer and there is less water available for public use. [See photos of the stunning Sierra Nevada mountains]” written on http://www.livescience.com/52265-california-snowpack-shrinking.html . This is just one example among thousands about climate change for our common home “Earth”. I just wanted to tell readers that there many scientific facts (for people who rely on scientists) which show that our planet is on slippery slope toward climate catastrophe. For those who believe by signs read this “In only 10 days, the death toll is reported to have reached around 1,800, a 20-year high. The brunt of the burden has fallen on the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, where 1,300 people have died, the highest loss of life due to heat the state has known, according to officials. By comparison, 447 people in the state died from the heat last year” at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/31/the-heat-and-the-death-toll... . You can read also about the drought increase in Kenya at http://reliefweb.int/disaster/dr-2014-000131-ken. I’m wondering why people, countries and even the United Nations still hesitate about this real threat to human being “climate change”. Countries are forming alliances to fight terrorism, to deal with immigrants and to weaken rebel groups but when it comes to reduce green house gases from industries and fighting deforestation, every country speaks it own language. It’s time to face the reality and tell the truth to earth’s population about the real threat of climate change.

Solution centered approach

By December in Paris will be the famous COP21 where governments, leaders, scientists, activists and politicians will meet and discuss the issues around climate change. This is not new; it has been like this for so long time. Meetings, conventions, treats, laws, strategies, goals, etc; but to stop the production of green house gases, nothing is done. May be rich people and multinational companies won’t abandon their industries? May be the idea of green energy is not going to work? In fact, everything concerning climate change issues is centered on humans; their lifestyle, their consumption behavior and their interactions with natural environment. But more strange is to see leaders partnering with the destroyers of environment and hoping to find solutions of climate change. It is time to focus on successful solutions rather than problems; it’s time to learn from indigenous communities all over the world how they managed to live in harmony with their environment. It’s time to change our consuming behavior and start consuming responsibly while thinking about future generation.

Time for women to lead

As above mentioned, we have heard about many meetings around the world, governments signed a lot of laws about protection of environment but no change is being observed and climate change is getting worse and worse. This is because a big percentage of earth’s population (Women) has been left out in the process of seeking solutions to climate change. Women constitute the majority in every country; women provide food for their families and therefore women are every day in direct contact with the environment. In my community women are in charge to look for drinking water, collection of firewood for cooking and growing crops. When there is no firewood to give good fire for man and no good yield for crops, woman is blamed and considered to be lazy. Therefore, climate change is only worsening women situation in my community because we are experiencing long drought and crops are affected which in turn reduce crops yield. Also because of deforestation it is now very hard to get firewood for food cooking. In situation like this women are suffering a lot. Currently we have started community mobilizing for trees planting in deforested land in Itombwe. Women should have others sources of firewood and need rain to grow their crops for the survival for their families; this is the purpose of trees planting being done in Itombwe with support of www.wecaninternational.org and SAFECO. As the big number of world’s population in everyday direct contact with the environment, women should lead the decisions making in the process around climate change.