Climate change is going to hurt women more than men. The reasons, as outlined by the United Nations, Oxfam and others, are stark, and plentiful—including that women are more likely to live in poverty just about everywhere on earth. Women are also most often responsible for making sure their families have basic resources, particularly water, that are becoming increasingly scarce. And gendered health concerns, including pregnancy and sexual violence, make women and girls particularly vulnerable when they’re displaced by natural disasters.
As such, it’s crucial that women lead discussions about how to mitigate the impact of climate change (which, by the way, is likely to trigger more pandemics). Here, three podcasts that focus on the female aspect of this monumental issue.
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Mothers of Invention
What: Feminist solutions to a man-made problem. A global array of women—from Kenyan policy-makers to lapsed evangelicals in the American South—discuss tackling climate chaos in their communities.
Who: Hosted by former Irish president Mary Robinson and comedian Maeve Higgins.
Start with: “Lungs of the North,” season 2, episode 7. Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, a Denesuline Indigenous woman in Alberta, explains how the destruction of boreal forests for oil sands expansion is bad for her homelands and the earth.
Drilled
What: Climate denial as true crime, committed against all of us. Eerie theme music precedes a dark tale: the history of oil-industry efforts to refute climate science, foreshadowing the scourge of #fakenews.
Who: Science journalist Amy Westervelt.
Start with: “How the Coronavirus Turned Into Christmas for Big Oil.” Many oil and gas companies were in financial trouble before COVID-19. As the U.S. government pumps billions into an economy in pandemic-related freefall, fracking companies particularly might get a huge bailout it doesn’t really deserve.
Read this next: The Climate Strike Was Awesome and Empowering…But Now What?
No Place Like Home
What: When saving the planet, the personal is political. This is an exploration of intimate issues like whether to have children during a huge global crisis and how to cope with climate-related anger and anxiety.
Who: Activists Mary Anne Hitt and Anna Jane Joyner.
Start with: “Welcome to the Apocalypse! We’re Glad You’re Here,” episode 29. Author Adrienne Maree Brown discusses activist burnout, the need to find joy in hard times and how science fiction helps her imagine a better future.
