Posted on 23 February 2020 by John Hartz

Story of the Week...

Climate change leads to more violence against women, girls

Rape, domestic violence, forced marriages: A new study shows the effects of climate change are leading to an increase in violence against girls and women in many corners of the world.

Woman waiting for food distribution in Kenya

Ntoya Sande was 13 years old when she got married — against her will. "I was sent to be married because of a shortage of food in the house," she said. Her parents used to have a small piece of land, but floods wiped out their harvest. "I tried to negotiate, to tell my parents that I wasn't ready, that I didn't want to get married, but they told me that I had to because that would mean one mouth less at the table."

Sande lives in Malawi's Nsanje province. Her story is one of thousands of cases highlighted in a recent study from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Two years in the making, the report is the largest and most comprehensive study to date on the effects of climate change and environmental degradation on gender-based violence.

"This study shows us that the damage humanity is inflicting on nature can also fuel violence against women around the world — a link that has so far been largely overlooked," said Grethel Aguilar, IUCN's acting director general. "This study adds to the urgency of halting environmental degradation alongside action to stop gender-based violence in all its forms, and demonstrates that the two issues often need to be addressed together." 

Climate change leads to more violence against women, girls by Jeanette Cwienk, Environment, Deutsche Welle (DW), Feb 20. 2020

Opinion of the Week...

With every flood, public anger over the climate crisis is surging

The fossil-fuel companies know they’ll face increased social stigma unless they change

Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire. ‘These storms have gone beyond the point of simply being storms now, each blurring into the next to create a strangely end-of-days feeling.’ Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images

Sometimes it has felt as if the rain might never stop.

These storms have gone beyond the point of simply being storms now, each blurring into the next to create a strangely end-of-days feeling. Everything is freakishly sodden and swollen, and while the rural flood plain on which I live fortunately hasn’t flooded anything like as badly as some, the rivers are rising alarmingly. Yet still the lashing winds and biblical downpours keep coming. Suddenly the 40 Days of Action campaign that Extinction Rebellion (XR) will launch on Ash Wednesday (26 February), encouraging people to reflect on the environmental consequences of their actions in a kind of green Lent, feels ominously well named.

With every flood, public anger over the climate crisis is surging, Opinion by Gaby Hinsliff, Comment is Free, Guardian, Feb 22, 2020

El Niño/La Niña Update...

Synopsis: ENSO-neutral is favored through Northern Hemisphere spring 2020 (~60% chance), continuing through summer 2020 (~50% chance).

Source: ENSO Diagnostic Discussion, NOAA' s Climate Prediction Center, Feb 13, 2020 

Toon of the Week...

Coming Soon on SkS...

• How much would planting 1 trillion trees slow global warming? (Dana)
• Can you change your cranky uncle's mind? (John Cook)
• SkS New Research for Week #8 (Doug Bostrom)
• Different Crises: Coronavirus & Climate Change (Climate Adam)
• 'What's the best kind of car for the climate?' (Sara Peach)
• 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #9 (John Hartz)
• 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #9 (John Hartz) 

Poster of the Week...

SkS Week in Review... 

• 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #8 by John Hartz (SkS Original)
• Community choice aggregation: A brief introduction by Bruce Lieberman (Yale Climate Connections Repost)
• Skeptical Science New Research for Week #7, 2020 by Doug Bostrom (SkS Original)
• How deniers maintain the consensus gap by John Cook (Cranky Uncle Excerpt)
• Australia's wildfires: Is this the 'new normal'? by Peter Sinclair, (Yale Climate Connections Repost)
• 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #7 by John Hartz (SkS Original)