May 09, 2012

More power for women means less climate pollution, study suggests

Grist reports: "According to a new study in Social Science Research, 'controlling for other factors, in nations where women’s status is higher, CO2 emissions are lower.' ” Hmmmm...

"Here is yet another indication that women are greener than men," writes Lisa Hymas in an April 2, 2012 posting at the Grist website...

"Study coauthors Christina Ergas and Richard York, sociologists at the University of Oregon–Eugene, write:

even when controlling for a variety of measures of “modernization,” world-system position, and democracy, nations where women have higher political status — as indicated by the length of time women have had the right to vote and women’s representation in parliament and ministerial government — tend to have lower CO2 emissions per capita. This finding suggests that efforts to improve women’s political status around the world, clearly worthy on their own merits, may work synergistically with efforts to reduce CO2 emissions and avert dramatic global climate change.

"Ergas and York say they can’t explain why this correlation exists, but, among other potential reasons, it’s “possible that women make different decisions than do men when placed in positions of power.” Like, say, not giving away the family store to oil barons, not building a massive, leak-prone, climate-screwing pipeline right down the middle of the country, not squandering $4 trillion on two simultaneous, senseless wars." …

Read full article here