Thursday, November 12th, 2009 - 2 comments

Al Gore speaks about climate change and family planning

Women are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Al Gore speaks about how to empower women and make a difference.

Climate change affects people all over the world, but in particular, it negatively impacts the lives of women, who are particularly vulnerable to crop failure or natural disasters. At the same time, empowered women can be agents for change.

Former U.S vice-president and An Inconvenient Truth author Al Gore recently was interviewed by non-profit media organization National Public Radio (NPR). Gore spoke about his new book, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Global Climate Crisis, and emphasized that family planning and empowering women are among the best ways of fighting climate change.

Listen to the interview here.

Family planning: A means and an end

According to Gore, reducing family size is key to preventing climate change, and family planning is the best way of doing so. He also refuted the belief held by many social scientists that carbon-producing economic growth was one of the key factors responsible for smaller families. Moreover, a key part of promoting family planning means involving women. Gore listed some of the crucial elements in the fight against climate change:

• Educating girls.
• Empowering women.
• Giving women the ability to space the births of their children.
• Higher child survival rates. Gore concluded that “…when parents have a high level of confidence that their children will survive, the natural preference for smaller families takes hold.”

A bigger carbon footprint?

Climate change activists speak of the amount of carbon dioxide (that leads to climate change) produced by people or organizations as a “carbon footprint.” They urge everyone to make efforts, like recycling or not using unnecessary electricity or heat to reduce their carbon footprint. Related to this issue, interviewer Robert Siegel asked whether a married couple in China who have only one child but who move to a city will have a bigger carbon footprint than several farmers. Despite their small family size, will they be consuming more goods and producing more pollution than a bigger rural family?

Gore replied that in many developed countries, an urban lifestyle can be even more energy efficient, depending on the technology available. Electric cars and mass transit, for example, can make the urban lifestyle even more environment friendly.

UN Climate Change Conference 2009

Gore also spoke about the Copenhagen summit this December. Heads of states and delegates from all over the world will be attending to discuss issues relating to climate control. Gore expressed that a strong U.S. presence at Copenhagen was so necessary because the United States is both a global leader and one of the biggest producers of global pollution. Highlighting the belief that Obama should be at Copenhagen, Gore said, “Unless the United State plays its customary leadership role it would be impossible for the world to resolve this crisis.”

What do you think?

Let’s pick up where NPR left off and continue the discussion. Though Gore’s views are interesting, they do not necessarily reflect my own personal ones. What do you think of his ideas?

• Can urban families and lifestyles be energy efficient?
• How are women affected by the climate change crisis?
• Can we empower women by dealing with climate change?
• Should President Obama attend the summit in Copenhagen?

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldeconomicforum/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Guest Editor

Mahnaz Dar

Editorial intern, UNFPA

About

I am currently an Editorial Intern in the Media and Communications Branch at United Nations Population Fund, where I work on editing and writing stories. I have experience working at several NGOs (such as the Center for Reproductive Rights and Family Care International), writing/editing as well as fact-checking and translating.