Empowering women and girls and ensuring their access to education and resources will help them realize professional opportunities, higher wages and greater ability to advance their careers. Education will improve their mortality as well as the mortality rates of their babies. They will also have more freedom from marrying as children or against their will, have lower incidence of HIV/AIDS and Malaria.
The United Nations estimates that in developing countries 43% of the agricultural labor force consists of women. If provided with the same access to resources as men, women could increase the farming production in their countries, but also contribute to the reduction of world hunger. Providing women with appropriate resources results in more sustainable farming, conservation of land, and better adaptation to changes in climate.
Gender inequalities, manifested by inadequate access to decent jobs, work-related segregation, and gender related compensation gaps, are still deeply rooted in many societies. In many countries, women are deprived of access to fundamental education and health care and are often victims of violence and discrimination. In most societies, women are under-represented in political and economic decision-making processes.
According to Worldometer: World Population, as of October 2021, the current world population is 7.9 billion and it is estimated by the United Nations that the human population will reach 10.1 billion in 2050.
Since the human population directly interacts with the major drivers of emissions, the successful implementation and effectiveness of climate solutions depends upon how many people will be occupying the Earth while engaging in their basic actions such as eating, building, buying, using, wasting, farming, and such.
In 2015, the United Nations Member States in its Agenda for Sustainable Development outlined 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These SDG goals became a center of attention and a call for action in the partnership of all developed and underdeveloped countries. SDG goal #5 is to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
The total atmospheric reduction of 119.2 gigatons of CO2 emissions was demonstrated by the Project Drawdown model focused on the effects of family planning compared to no investment in family planning. Talk about return on investment!
Why is it Important?
Project Drawdown indicates that the result from both empowering and educating women and girls makes this the number one solution to reversing global warming.
As estimated, women and girls comprise 51% of the global population. In an effort to achieve the 1.5C target of the Paris Climate Change Agreement and to maintain global warming below 2C, encompassing the needs, perspectives, and ideas of both women and men is essential.
While discussing the global population it is important to raise the highly controversial and often racist topic of population control. People should have the right to choose how many children they should have while ensuring that their children and grandchildren inherit a livable planet.
There are 225 million women in lower-income countries who would like to be able to choose whether and when to become pregnant, but they lack access to family planning and contraception. Similar challenges are observed in some high-income countries including the United States, where 45 percent of pregnancies are involuntary.
Slowing the population growth is directly connected to fertility rates and the advancements we can make to obtain gender equality and improve the overall human well-being. Correcting access to education and reproductive healthcare for girls and young women will decrease the fertility rates, and expand women’s political, social, and economic empowerment. Thus, over time, it will impact the human population around the world.
Women’s rights to voluntary, high-quality family planning around the world would result in positive impacts not only in the health, welfare, and life expectancy of women and their children, but it can also affect Greenhouse gas emissions.
Today, most women in the United States have access to an equitable childhood education, which is not the case in other countries. 130 million girls worldwide are still deprived of their basic right to attend school.
Respecting the dignity of women and children cannot be addressed by governments policies forcing the birth rate down (or up), but rather by the implementation of family planning focused on healthcare, meeting women’s needs, empowerment, and equality.
Studies indicate that countries with high representation of women in decision making and governments have achieved greater results in community building, resilience and strategies to adapt to environmental changes.
Powerful Female Leaders Related to
Reversing the Effects of Climate Change:
- Jacinda Arden: New Zealand Prime Minister, Set Goals to Achieve Carbon Neutrality by 2025
- Angela Markel: Retired Chancellor of Germany, Aggressive Champion of Green Policy Reforms and Environmental Minister, Named “Climate Chancellor"
- Kara Hurst: Vice President, Head of Worldwide Sustainability at Amazon, Instrumental in Designing Amazon’s Climate Pledge
- Elle- Denmark: Retired Prime Minister of Denmark, showed it Possible to Develop a Sustainable Society While Securing Economic Growth and Welfare
- Ellen Jackowski, Chief Sustainability and Social Impact Officer, HP Inc is the Champion of Sustainability Innovations.
- Malin Nordin, Head of Circular Development, Inter IKEA Group, a Leader of Circular Economy Principles Among Retailers
Think Greener, LLC is proudly associated with the Pachamama Alliance whose mission is to “empower indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest to preserve their lands and culture and, using insights gained from that work, to educate and inspire individuals everywhere to bring forth a thriving, just and sustainable world”.
In March 2022, Think Greener, LLC will embark on a 16-day journey into the headwaters of the Amazon rainforest located in Ecuador, where we will visit Indigenous tribes, learn their ancient cultures and immerse ourselves in an expansive way of seeing the world so we can carry the indigenous people’s wisdom and message home.
There are 8,000 Achuar people living in Ecuador of which 50% are women. The women and girls in the Achuar society have a lower social status and little say about the structure of their family and community. The average Achuar woman has six children and has experienced the death of at least one infant. “The Ikiama Nukuri formerly Jungle Mamas” is one of the programs within the Pachamama Alliance. The focus of the program is to eliminate all preventable deaths in pregnancy and childbirth of Achuar mothers and babies, and to improve community health by empowering Achuar women and communities with the tools needed to be their own agents of change.
In our journey to the headwaters of the Amazon, Think Greener, LLC will assist the communities in the Ecuadorian rainforest in their efforts to promote women’s autonomy and leadership so they can make the best decisions for themselves about their health and family planning and to increase their level of self-sufficiency, elevate their place in society and increase community involvement.
