Mortality rate for women during climate-related natural disasters 14 times higher than for men.

[jody]

A Little Equality Could Save a Lot of Lives

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 6 (IPS) - When ministers and government officials meet at the end of this year for a critical U.N. climate change conference in Copenhagen, they should bear in mind that the mortality rate for women during climate-related natural disasters is an average of 14 times higher than for men.

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After the 2004 Asian tsunami, the level of women’s mortality was in the range of 55 to 80 percent, with Indonesia the hardest-hit. Meanwhile, recovery grants often went only to male heads of households, since most women didn't own any land.

In 1998, when severe flash floods hit Bangladesh, women's mortality reached 90 percent. "The reasons behind this are that women were not taught how to swim and they were not allowed to leave their households. So when the flood happened and their men weren’t there, they didn’t want to leave their children behind or their culture didn’t permit them to leave their households without their husbands," Pearl told IPS.

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A 2006 study by the London School of Economics analysing disasters in 141 countries found that gender differences in deaths from natural disasters are directly linked to women’s economic and social rights. When women’s rights are not protected, more women than men will die from natural disasters, while when women’s rights are protected, the same number of women and men die from natural disasters.

Women farmers produce more than half of the food worldwide, maintaining seed caches of innumerable plant species. Many times, in droughts or floods, women are the ones responsible for finding new seeds or rehabilitating old ones to ensure that agriculture can continue, and that medicinal plants are available to their families and their communities. Ecosystem changes impact them directly.

[juno jones]

1. K&R! n/t

[skooooo]

2. I started taking swimming lessons last month.

[Lost in CT]

3. Boy this article dances around the obvious...

The culture and religion in those countries caused the womans death... until they improve their culture this will continue to happen.

Good luck with that.

[FLAprogressive]

4. Wouldn't want to "disrespect anyone else's culture" now would we!

[Lost in CT]

5. Not letting a woman own land or leave her house without a male escort is a

stupid ass idea... no wonder you are a backward nation... and hey until you clean up your act and join the twentieth let alone twenty first century you will continue to be a backward ass poor fuck illiterate nation.

You know the Japanese had mandatory education and literacy for girls since 1900... that's probably why in both war and peace they keep kicking your ignorant asses...

I know you like setting woman on fire or stoning them to death but guess what... That is why you are poor and backwards...

I'm tired of being nice to cultures that cut off their own nose and then complain that the west is picking on them.

You live two feet above sea level maybe you should teach women to swim... there is nothing more immodest than a bloated drowned body...

Look it isn't my place to tell you how to run your own country but don't come crying to me when your overpopulated illiterate asses get in trouble again... And for fuck sake don't blame the west... It is your culture that causes these problems everything from a lack of family planning and equal rights to indentured servitude and slave like caste system.

You have incredible human resources that you waste on bullshit... You bring the misery upon yourselves... learn from those that have evolved and get with the program.....

[FLAprogressive]

6. I completely agree.

[ensho]

7. yes, said well - religiously insane men are lethal for women and children

the world's women must ban together, protect each other, and gain power to change are lives for the better.


if we manage to heal the planet before we all die.

[Retrograde]

8. "women and children first"

Maybe there was a reason for that back in Victorian times: let the relatively able-bodied and those unencumbered by dependents look out for those not as able.

Being able to swim isn't going to help much in a tsunami or a strong flood (not that teaching women to swim is a bad idea: many find it enjoyable exercise), but not spending one's entire life confined to the house and being the primary caretaker of numerous youngsters - not to mention elderly parents - does matter. Add garments that impede vision or movement and you have disasters waiting to happen.

There's another factor: women in countries where they have economic and social rights typically have fewer children: it's easier to flee with 2 or 3 than with 7 or 8.

[frustrated_lefty]

9. I'm sure I'll be slammed and told I'm full of crap,

but I think some of the responses in this thread are misguided and ill informed.

I, personally, am still recovering from the aftermath of Katrina. It destroyed everything I owned, and eventually contributed to my divorce. I'm on a heavy SSRI dose to handle PTSD, and on an anti-psychotic so that I can sleep without having nightmares and flailing in my sleep. My point is that I have very personal, direct experience with climate related natural disasters.

There was no universal response among the people who went through it, and some people went to extraordinary lengths to help people other than themselves. There were, however, men in the shelter who just ditched their wives and children to save themselves. They admitted as much. They left their wives and children to fend for themselves.

I try to not pass judgment on any person's actions in a crisis of that magnitude. Leaving your family to fend for itself.....that's just wrong.

It's not a cultural thing, it's not a fundamentalist thing, it's not an Arab thing. I don't know exactly what it is that let's a person do that. But, it exists in our society, in our culture, with our liberties and rights.

I still think about this, and have no answers. But, I know we won't find an answer to this problem by pointing fingers at other cultures. We have to look at our brothers and sisters, our neighbors and co-workers, and figure out how or why they might leave the weak to fend for themselves when they most need support.

For the record, I'm not just blathering. I very nearly died doing it, but I got my three children out of a nightmare. How any man can do less makes no sense. But, it happens, and it happens here, in America.

[dustbunnie]

10. You're right. In times of crisis, people will always be either heroic or swine -

but apparently those stats (Mark Twain's observation notwithstanding) listed above, seem to implicate women's status with their ability to survive.

[FedUpWithIt All]

11. ...

To you and your three children.

[KamaAina]

12. Senior citizens, too

Well over half of the (identified) casualties in Katrina were over age 60.

[frustrated_lefty]

13. You know, it's sad.

This thread shot to the top of the board when it involved pointing fingers. As soon as personal responsibility entered the issue, the topic plummeted to page 3. Ethics and morals, peeps. This is why I don't bother posting more than once or twice a year. Laptop liberals talk a good game, but rarely accomplish diddly.

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. I don't think you can read too much into when replies appear

There were 2 sub-threads - each had 3 people talking part in them.

The sub-thread pointing at cultures was relevant to the article - while you have your personal experience in the USA, the article says "when women’s rights are not protected, more women than men will die from natural disasters, while when women’s rights are protected, the same number of women and men die from natural disasters."

[jody]

15. I'll drink to that.