Why climate feminism is exactly what we need

October 12, 2020 10:38 AM

Eunice Newton Foote rarely gets the credit she’s due. In 1856, she theorized that changes in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could affect the Earth’s temperature, arriving at her breakthrough through experimentation. With an air pump, two glass cylinders, and four thermometers, she tested the impact of “carbonic acid gas” (the term for carbon dioxide in her day) against “common air.” When placed in the sun, she found the cylinder with carbon dioxide trapped more heat and stayed hot longer. From this simple experiment, Foote connected the dots between carbon dioxide and planetary warming—and she did it more than 160 years ago. Elle excerpts a book edited by Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Dr. Katharine K. Wilkinson on climate feminism.

Her paper, “Circumstances Affecting the Heat of Sun’s Rays,” was presented in August 1856 at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and then published. That was three years before Irish physicist John Tyndall published his own more detailed work on heat-trapping gases, work typically credited as the foundation of climate science. Did Tyndall know about Foote’s research? It’s unclear, though he did have a paper on color blindness in the same issue of The American Journal of Science and Arts as hers. In any case, we have to wonder if Eunice Newton Foote ever found herself remarking, as so many women have: I literally just said that, dude.

Doctors Johnson and Wilkinson have a new book out together called All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis. Heated newsletter author Emily Atkin has an interview with them in her latest edition.

A few highlights from previously:
1. Racism is Killing the Planet
2. The Case for Climate Rage
3. Existential Climate-Related Security risk
4. Final Call to save the world from climate catastrophe

posted by Bella Donna (18 comments total)

Thanks for this. Not only do we need more women in leadership roles, we need to understand that we will not “technology” (masculine) our way out of this mess. Technology—renewables like solar and wind, and these hi tech super expensive carbon capture machines are big money/part of a continued capitalist system. BUT “ecological/nature-based” systems (feminine) can draw down carbon levels quickly—for a VERY LOW COST—which does not fit into a hyper capitalist money money system. It is humble, quiet, and accessible to many people.
posted by tarantula at 11:08 AM on October 12, 2020 [3 favorites]

Thanks for your comment, tarantula! I have never entirely gotten over a techbro typ of economist who told me maybe 10 years ago that he wasn't worried about global warming because we would all ultimately end up living under the oceans. He told me this with a straight face, and by "all" he meant himself and his 1% buddies. That said, this is not meant as a bash-men kind of post or kind of comment. It's more like I was unaware that climate feminism is a thing and am super excited to learn about it.
posted by Bella Donna at 11:13 AM on October 12, 2020 [1 favorite]

ha. yes Bella Donna—the techbro/moneybro dudes are remarkable. I was recently a mentor for the Al Gore Climate Reality Training (pretty technology heavy) and there was a guy yelling in a break out group that EVERYONE should own a Tesla, no excuses. LOL. His rage was real.

(Read Robin Wall Kimmerer if you have not discovered her yet)
posted by tarantula at 11:31 AM on October 12, 2020 [3 favorites]

Thanks for the tip, I haven't read anyone. I am so late to the party, but that is not especially new for me. That outraged Tesla guy reminds me of how many reduce-reuse-recycle ideas are aimed at middle-to-upper class folks, at least in the US. Like, I am working to stop buying new things to the greatest extent possible. But you know who doesn't have time or energy for buying used stuff? Working poor people with more than one job or people (of mostly any income) with several young children or disabled folks, or, or, or.

I mean, I get that individual purchasing decisions won't save the planet. It is a global challenge that needs a global response. But it only occurred to me over the weekend just how much privilege is required to be able to buy stuff second-hand. You need the time and energy to find what you want along with the ability (or money) to get it to your home/place of business and the luxury of being able to wait until both of those things can happen to get what you need. Anyway, thank you so much for your reading recommendation.
posted by Bella Donna at 12:28 PM on October 12, 2020 [2 favorites]

I recommend Heated for great reporting and thinking about climate issues. It requires cultural and institutional response.
posted by meinvt at 12:41 PM on October 12, 2020

I want to make it clear that the article does not call technology "masculine," nor nature "feminine." It's about the need for female leadership.
posted by The corpse in the library at 1:11 PM on October 12, 2020 [9 favorites]

Thanks, The corpse in the library. I should have noted that.
posted by Bella Donna at 1:18 PM on October 12, 2020 [1 favorite]

Corpse, the masculine/feminine is a conclusion that I have come to after almost 35 years working in climate/ecology issues. Understandably these are archetypes and there is a spectrum. But the techbros/moneybros are a real phenomenon 😬
posted by tarantula at 2:26 PM on October 12, 2020

The techbro involved in this particular case was John Tyndall, now widely regarded as the "father of climate science"; as a man, he was obviously a "real" scientist while Foote was "merely" an amateur.

Science Friction has the story.
posted by flabdablet at 3:36 PM on October 12, 2020 [1 favorite]

humble, quiet, and accessible to many people

are among the defining attributes of the Soft Path.
posted by flabdablet at 3:46 PM on October 12, 2020

Thanks for posting Bella Donna, unfortunately there have been many voices silenced. I'm constantly frustrated where we (all humans / normal people) are forced into binary language to defend our planet - leading to this-or-that 'tidy' solutions. Wilkinson and Johnson are tow people I need to read more.

"We need feminine and feminist climate leadership, which is wide open to people of any gender.". Could.not.agree.more

All problems are solvable through culture and biology. Long term - and immediately - these are the only solutions in a finite system.

Problem is that corporate capitalism feeds off large-scale processes; things that can be sold by the sack/drum/freight-container, and financialized or created as services. Real solutions are about helping people change behaviour; true near-100% recycling; and natural materials - none of these are able to be 'packaged' in a way that attracts investment.

So often I find whole areas of study, even what looks like whole institutes run by women with no male researchers involved (especially 'soft'-approaches to hard problems).
posted by unearthed at 5:12 PM on October 12, 2020 [3 favorites]

The techbro involved in this particular case was John Tyndall, now widely regarded as the "father of climate science"; as a man, he was obviously a "real" scientist while Foote was "merely" an amateur.

Given that Bella Donna mentioned Tyndall and the "foundations" of climate science in her post, this comes across rather ironically as another instance of a man repeating something a woman literally just said, dude.
posted by jacquilynne at 5:36 PM on October 12, 2020 [2 favorites]

The more that particular piece of history gets repeated the better, as far as I'm concerned. Others likewise. And let's throw in the history of computing while we're at it.

I am personally really fucking annoyed that the only notable woman of science my high school education thought worth a mention was Marie Curie.
posted by flabdablet at 8:04 PM on October 12, 2020 [3 favorites]

while my primary worry is that nothing whatsoever will be done about climate change, a close secondary worry is that something will be done but only for those who already hold advantages in society. so, i very much appreciate posts like these that point out the disparities in effects we'll see from the ongoing climate disaster
posted by davedave at 10:10 PM on October 12, 2020 [2 favorites]

Nemonte Nemquino speaks on behalf of her people on the climate and ecological crisis: This is my message to the western world – your civilisation is killing life on Earth
posted by progosk at 12:23 AM on October 13, 2020 [1 favorite]

[Nemonte Nenquimo, errata corrige.]
posted by progosk at 3:27 AM on October 13, 2020 [1 favorite]

(oh, and also: postvious Nenquimo FPP.)
posted by progosk at 3:40 AM on October 13, 2020 [1 favorite]

Thank you for posting this Bella Donna, and unearthed, thank you for referencing that quote from the interview about being wide open to people of any gender. One of the pernicious untruths about feminism is that feminists are saying men are inherently bad and women are better, when in reality feminism, as expressed by myself and people I know, is about gender equality.

The issues we have are with patriarchy and misogyny and rape culture and a society that prioritizes the voices and views of people that embody a narrow idea of masculinity, that includes forcibly dominating other people, other people's bodies, and the natural world, not with men intrinsically.

My feeling is that being a climate feminist is about understanding climate change and other environmental issues including how people whose access to power and resources is further constrained by their gender identity and presentation are more impacted. It's about addressing the ways that patriarchy accelerates climate change and undermines other environmental work. Climate change, like most widespread issues, whether environmental or not, hits women, BIPOC folks, trans folks and other marginalized and oppressed groups and communities harder than people with systemic privilege.

Anyway All We Can Save looks like it has so many interesting and amazing stories, essays, and other work
(touched on later in the interview) so definitely going to pick it up!
posted by Chrysopoeia at 12:20 PM on October 13, 2020 [6 favorites]