"Working over indoor fires exposes women to smoky conditions that cause
respiratory and other illnesses. Indoor air pollution is responsible
for more than 1.6 million deaths per year due to pneumonia, chronic
respiratory disease and lung cancer."
U.N. Economic and Social Council
Environment
"More than two billion people in developing countries, particularly in
rural areas, use traditional fuels, such as wood, charcoal and dung
for cooking, and lack basic modern energy services. The lack of access
to affordable energy is a serious barrier to sustainable
livelihoods and emergence from poverty." U.N. Economic and Social Council
"The poor are not living in industrialized countries where the environment is distant - where you have to go out to appreciate it. Our lives depend upon it," said Wangari Maathai, winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. This could not be truer for women. While the destruction of the environment affects each and every one of us, the brunt of the damage falls on women and children. Nuclear waste, the overuse of pesticides, the devastation of rain forests, and the pollution of water supplies are wreaking havoc on women's bodies and lives.
According to the World Health Organization, more than three million children under five die each year from environment-related causes and conditions. And the National Wildlife Federation has found that diseases associated with dirty water kill between 5 and 12 million people a year, mostly women and children. Due to increasing privatization and pollution, more people, especially women, lack access to clean drinking water.
Nearly every one of the United Nations' millennium development goals has environmental implications that concern women.
Child mortality cannot be reduced if we do not attend to the way that breast milk is affected by pesticides and toxins, diseases such as giardia cannot be prevented if there is not safe and clean water; universal primary education cannot be achieved if girls are taken out of school to fetch water or wood. Poverty cannot be eradicated if women do not have access to land.
In 2005, the UN acknowledged women's role in preserving and transmitting indigenous knowledge, promoting biodiversity and managing environmental resources with respect. Economic and environmental justice cannot be achieved without the empowerment of women.
"The poor are not living in industrialized countries where the environment is distant - where you have to go out to appreciate it. Our lives depend upon it," said Wangari Maathai, winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. This could not be truer for women. While the destruction of the environment affects each and every one of us, the brunt of the damage falls on women and children. Nuclear waste, the overuse of pesticides, the devastation of rain forests, and the pollution of water supplies are wreaking havoc on women's bodies and lives.
Nearly every one of the United Nations' millennium development goals has environmental implications that concern women.
