Synopsis:
Greta Gaard is the author of this article, her academic work surrounding eco-criticism and ecofeminism is widely cited by academics and scholars in many disciplines. Gaard’s article provides a feminist analysis of structural inequalities apparent in climate crises. She uses data from many scholarship bodies including The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) to support her argument. Gaard criticizes the current scientific approach to climate change and recommends a gender sensitive climate model that includes relations of species, sexuality, gender and the environment.
Eco feminism as described by Gaard as a feminist analysis of structural inequalities in a climate crisis (2015, p. 22). She argues that our current scientific approach to climate justice fails to include relations of species, sexuality, gender and environment (2015, p. 23); and that by not adequately addressing gender we are ignoring the patriarchal ideology that fuels environmental degradation. A contextualized analysis of climate change reveals that women bear the burden of climate change consequences and that marginalized groups feel the pressure of changing climate conditions before those who are economically and socially able to mitigate the impacts. Through Gaard’s microlevel examination of globalization, exploitation and colonialism she describes the unequal climate change burden carried by the Global South brought on by the planet’s most developed countries in the Global north as “fundamentally flawed” and suggests an intersectional climate strategy (2015, p. 28).
Rationale:
Gaard calls for a re-analysis of the causes and impacts of climate change through an intersectional model to aid understanding of the interconnectedness of global systems and structures of oppression. A transnational feminist analysis of climate change contends that the logic of domination over nature is also responsible for both the oppression of women and the oppression of nonhuman animals. The concept of ecofeminism links patriarchal ideologies with the themes environmental degradation, migration and displacement that we have been exploring in class.
Ecofeminism asserts that the struggles of women and minorities are intrinsically linked to the domination and exploitation of nature; this is critical to the development of a holistic feminist approach to equality that involves ethics, ecology and empathy.
URL/Link: https://www-sciencedirect-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/science/article/pii/S0277539515000321
Keywords: climate change, economy, equality, empowerment, environment
Author: Smiths
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