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Washington,
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The solutions to climate change must recognize the disproportionate impact of climate change on the world's poor and the important role of women in managing key resources, including forests. This was the message delivered by Nobel Laureates Wangari Maathai and Jody Williams in meetings yesterday with US legislators and a public dialogue that brought together more than 400 environmental activists, researchers and representatives of international development groups.
“As long as the
US refuses to commit to leadership on climate change, other countries will hide behind it,” said Maathai, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work linking environmental conservation to peace and human rights. “The
US is the world’s biggest polluter, and has a responsibility to help developing countries and women in particular deal with the impact of global warming.”
“This is a question of justice,” added Maathai. “Women are most impacted by the floods, droughts and widespread hunger caused by climate change.”
The Nobel Laureates asked US legislators to support and improve upon proposed
US legislation, including a Senate bill expected to be voted on in June. The proposed legislation, co-sponsored by Senators Joseph Lieberman and John Warner, includes a provision which provides funding for developing countries to adapt to the impact of climate change.
Williams and Maathai also called upon legislators to fund forestation efforts in the developing world including programs that pay local communities for not cutting down trees and support clean alternative energy sources such as wind and solar power.
“Nuclear energy is not the solution to the climate change crisis,” said Williams, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work on banning landmines. “It is dirty, expensive and dangerous. The real alternatives are within our grasp and will not put people’s lives at risk, or leave a legacy of contaminated waste for future generations.”
Barbara Lawton, Wisconsin’s Lieutenant-Governor, joined the Nobel Laureates in their meetings, telling US legislators that there is grass-roots support in the US for taking a more just approach to solving climate change.
“There is no state and national security unless there is global security,” said
Lawton, who has worked with her colleagues in the National Lieutenant Governors Association to build bi-partisan support for action on climate change at the state and national levels.
“The time has come to address climate change head-on. Business understands this, the people of the country understand this—we are more than ready."
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Tuesday's public dialogue, Creating a Climate of Change, was hosted by the Nobel Women’s Initiative, in partnership with the Green Belt Movement, Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), Friends of the Earth, Oil Change International, Action Aid, U.S. Climate Action Network, Feminist Majority Foundation, Heinrich Boll Foundation, and International Forum on Globalization.
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