Women against climate change
Since 1979 the Arctic sea ice coverage has been shrinking every decade by 3.5 to 4.1 per cent while sea levels have been rising by 3.4mm each year, their fastest rate in 2,000 years. Oceanic waters today are 26 per cent more acidic than at the start of the Industrial Revolution, which is threatening marine life. The ‘lungs of the Earth’ and major ‘carbon sink’, the Amazon, is facing a serious drought risk, which might degrade its rainforests, pouring their colossal carbon stores into the atmosphere; two-thirds of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has been severely damaged; over the past 40 years wildfire seasons have lengthened, with devastating consequences for land and wildlife; by 2030, the number of people exposed to flooding each year will have rocketed to 54 million; by 2100 global temperatures may escalate by seven degrees Celsius. Grim news? How can women take action before it’s too late? Osprey Orielle Lake, Founder and Executive Director of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) International has a solution.
When did you become a campaigner for the environment?
Until I was eight years old, I lived in San Francisco. But then, my parents divorced and my mother moved my sister and me to the small coastal town of Mendocino in northern California and I suddenly found myself a country dweller, knowing very little about nature. It took me several years to venture out of the house and into the forest. I mention this because walking in the majestic and ancient redwood forests and along the rivers of Mendocino was a big part of my healing as a child. So you can imagine how devastated I was in high school when I learned that the redwoods along the river that had become my friends and solace were going to be logged. I knew what that would mean because I had seen clear-cut forests before
