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Contraception Access Key to Climate Change Adaptation
Nov 9, 2009
From Reuters Alertnet 16 Oct 2009
Written by: Kathleen Mogelgaard
Much of the focus leading up to the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December is on reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change: who should have to cut, by how much, and in what time frame.
We hear a lot about cap and trade, clean energy, promoting energy efficiency, and other technological solutions. For years, reducing emissions has been the focus of efforts to address climate change.

But we know now that reducing emissions is not enough. Millions of lives are being upended by the effects of changes in climate - food scarcity, water scarcity, vulnerability to natural disasters and infectious diseases, and population displacement. Women and children are the most vulnerable groups to climate change.

So how does reproductive health fit into this picture? A new study by the UK-based Optimum Population Trust and the London School of Economics shows the connection between contraceptives and climate change.

The study concludes that universal access to reproductive health could be one of the most cost effective ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

A Population Action International report from May detailed how population dynamics, not just overall growth, contribute to climate change.

This helps to broaden our thinking around the diversity of strategies that will be needed for meaningful and lasting solutions to climate change as world leaders try to hammer out a new global climate treaty.

Investing in contraceptives and reproductive health is about more than reducing emissions. It is also a critical piece of reducing vulnerability and building resilience to the impacts of climate change.

This is true from a demographic perspective, as well as at the individual and household level.

VULNERABILITY HIGH WITH RAPID GROWTH

Rapid population growth can exacerbate existing vulnerability to the impacts of climate change.

Population growth rates in highly vulnerable low-elevation coastal zones in Bangladesh and China are nearly twice as high as national averages.

In Ethiopia, the combination of rapid population growth and climate-induced declines in agricultural production will heighten food insecurity.

At the household level, a woman with access to reproductive health services is healthier and has healthier children. She has greater opportunities to diversify income sources. And she is more likely to be able safeguard herself and her family in the event of disaster.

 

All of these things contribute to resilience in the face of the impacts of climate change.

 

Slowly but surely, the larger reproductive health and rights community is paying attention to these important linkages in the lead up to Copenhagen.

 

Last month, Population Action International's Karen Hardee participated in an event hosted by U.N. Population Fund to highlight this critical but often overlooked aspect of climate change.

 

Karen spoke of the link between meeting needs for reproductive health and fostering resilience in countries hard hit by the effects of climate change. She highlighted a recent working paper that examines national climate change adaptation plans for 41 least developed countries.

 

Not surprisingly, the vast majority of these plans identify rapid population growth as a factor that exacerbates vulnerability in their countries. Unfortunately, only two propose adaptation projects that include aspects of reproductive health.

 

In a world where 200 million women have an "unmet need" for family planning, increasing access to contraceptive services can and should be one of the tools for addressing the impacts of climate change.

 

As heads of state gather in Copenhagen, they should broaden their view beyond the technological fixes that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and remember the human face of climate change - a face that is frequently female, and in need of fundamental support that will enable her to take care of herself, her family, and our world.
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Posted: Nov 9, 2009 3:51am
LEBANON -- IT'S REALLY ABOUT THE WATER
Jul 16, 2006
World War III will not be about oil; it will be about WATER; an ever-scarcer commodity as the world population of human beings rises and Global Warming interferes with the water cycle and Global Pollution ensures that less and less of the water supply is clean and fit to use.
THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT WE ARE SEEING HERE. It is not the big deal being made of who did what to whom; who "started" what and how and why.
It is not at all surprising, that the Global War over Water should start in the dry Middle East.
As was stated in the article by Dahr Jamail, ISRAEL WANTS SOUTHERN LEBANON'S WATER SUPPLY. Because of irrigation of desert areas and increasing SALINITY and dropping of the water table.
Any old excuse would do. Kidnapping of a few soldiers, as good an excuse as any. They were just WAITING for it.

It is all very well to pray for peace; but that will not bring peace. Sorry.

The ONLY THING that could POSSIBLY bring peace, is, a control and drastic lessening of the world's over-population of humans.
That means, universal access to the means of WOMEN having control over their own bodies and fertility.
Unfortunately, in the Middle East as elsewhere, every side is trying to "out-populate" the other. Women are PRESSURED and sometimes REQUIRED by strict religious order -- of VARIOUS religions -- to produce as MANY children as possible; i.e., SONS who will grow up to be soldiers and help the ruling powers grab land, oil, WATER, whatever is in scarce supply.
This is TOTAL INSANITY but there seems NO way of stopping it.
I believe that if women ran things, ways and means of co-operatively sharing Earth's resources would be worked out.
THIS IS ALL ABOUT THE MILITARY {i.e. MASCULINE} CONTROL OF EARTH'S LIMITED RESOURCES. Yesterday it was land; today oil; tomorrow it will definitely be water.

This is not at all to say that there are not millions of men who WANT PEACE! {Or women who are caught up in the War Fever!}
But, I DO blame ALL Patriarchal Religions -- which are both a cause, and a SYMPTOM, of the testosterone-syndrome that, as was so well put in the article, "Benefits only the EXTREMIST groups". The groups that, not co-incidentally, oppress women the MOST {Fundamentalisms of ALL kinds; Islamic, Jewish fundamentalism, and Christian.}
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Posted: Jul 16, 2006 12:21pm

 
 
 
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