Per June Zeitlin executive director of the New York-based Women's Environment and Development Organisation (WEDO):

"Women and children are 14 times more likely to die than men are during a disaster."

In the 2004 Asian Tsunami, 70 to 80 percent of overall deaths were women. And in the 1991 cyclone disasters that killed 140,000 in Bangladesh, 90 percent of victims were women. And even in industrialized nations, the same results exist, e.g.,during the 2003 European heat wave.

Ms Zeitlin argues: that women make up the majority of the world's poor, and in particular the world's rural poor, and are largely responsible for securing food, water and energy for cooking and heating.

Women and children bear the highest degree of effect from disasters caused by climate change. But, they also have the least ability to effect decision-making power in the greater public sphere.

This must change. Empowering women will result in fewer deaths. And as climate change continues with the effect of more and more bizarre weather, the time is now.

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen

From Red Jenny