Former UvA student writes book on climate change and gender inequality
At first glance, climate change and gender inequality seem unrelated. But former UvA student Ralien Bekkers argues the opposite in her book Zo kan het niet langer (This Can’t Go On). “Women worldwide are 14 times more likely to die in climate disasters.”
“I am very concerned about the climate crisis,” says Ralien Bekkers, who studied at the UvA from 2010-2014. When she was 16, she watched An Inconvenient Truth, a well-known film about climate change by former U.S. vice president Al Gore, as a high school student in class. That shook her up, and it eventually led to the book This Can’t Go On, which came out in April. “I was so surprised that this was not a bigger topic in my area. One thing became certain: I wanted to work on this issue.”
She put her money where her mouth is: Ralien has been active in the fight against climate change for more than a decade, in her studies, work, and other projects. She sees that a lot is still going wrong in the field of sustainability. “We still subsidize the fossil industry more than renewable energy,” but she also notices that the climate movement is growing.
“Worldwide, millions of schoolchildren are on the barricades to protest for a better climate. You see a striking overrepresentation of young girls and women, such as the leading role of Greta Thunberg, but also Vanessa Nakate in Uganda and Xiye Bastida in the United States, for example.” Gender inequality and climate change sound like two separate problems, but in This Can’t Go On, Bekkers shows that, in her opinion, this is not so: climate change and gender inequality go hand in hand.
According to Bekkers, we are at a crucial point in the climate crisis. She argues that we are not going to make it with the same old male leadership. And that women are an important part of the solution.
Ralien Bekkers became active at the National Youth Council in 2009, where she became youth representative for sustainable development at the United Nations (2012-2014). At the UvA, she studied Future Planet Studies from 2010 to 2014.
As a follow-up, she did a master’s at Yale (and graduated in 2017), which she funded in part with a crowdfunding campaign. In the United States, she stayed with her work at the NDC Partnership (2017-2023), an international organization dedicated to meeting the goals of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.
What is the link between gender inequality and climate change?
“Women are 14 (!) times more likely to die in climate disasters. For example, in 1991 there was a cyclone in Bangladesh of which as many as 90 percent of the victims were women and children. This was because only men were included in disaster preparedness. They in turn had to notify women and children, but at the time of the disaster, many men were working elsewhere, so women and children did not know about the cyclone in time and could not take cover.”
“Closer to home, 68 percent of households in Europe living in energy poverty due to the current energy crisis are headed by single women. In my book, I deepen the connection between power inequality and climate change using examples like these.”
The second part of the title of your book is “Time for women to solve the climate crisis.” What do you mean by that?
“Women are an important part of the solution because so-called ‘traditional feminine traits’ would help in the fight against the climate crisis right now. I’m talking about traits like caring and intuition. As I write in my book, women often have a greater social and environmental awareness because of those traits, and a greater eye for the whole. Traditionally masculine traits such as competition and individualism are actually counterproductive to solving the crisis. I write that this culture of competition has permeated all aspects of society. This contributes to the climate problem, as it results in our having too little regard for the world and the people around us.”
“I hope that more and more people - especially young women - will (continue to) stand up against the climate crisis. We need everyone.”
Why did you decide to write a book about this?
“I deal with climate change a lot, and have been for a long time, too. I am driven by injustice. I find that the climate crisis is causing a power imbalance, and there are a lot of structural inequalities underlying it. High-income countries produce 92 percent of the emissions that exceed climate limits. Low-income countries, on the other hand, feel most of the consequences of climate change, such as heat waves, crop failures, and floods.”
“As a young woman, I have since gained more than a decade of international experience and developed ideas about this, and I thought others might benefit from it. Of course, there are already many books on the climate crisis, but I think the link I show between climate and gender equality is unique. I hope the book inspires and spurs people to action and makes people think differently on the subject.”
Many people don’t believe in climate change or don’t want to read or hear about it. How do you feel about that?
Bekkers laughs. “When I was in high school, I also thought climate change was big and terrifying. And I know there are people with climate depression sitting on the couch because of the negative prospect of the earth’s future, which is understandable. For me, it actually helped to turn fear into action. I try to look at what can be done, and how I can contribute positively. That’s why I work tirelessly and don’t lose hope. I understand the reflex that people put their heads in the sand, but I also see that worldwide there is an increase in people who are getting involved. That’s incredibly important, so I hope more and more people - especially young women - will (continue to) do that. We need everyone.
Are you worried?
“Absolutely: Only 0.1 percent of global gross domestic product goes to sustainable industry, while 7 percent still goes to fossil industry. Trillions (not billions) have been poured into the fossil economy in recent years since the Paris climate agreement was agreed upon, which is actually exacerbating the climate crisis. This, of course, cannot continue. We are still moving too slowly, but we don’t have time to waste. In the Netherlands, you don’t realize that climate change is already having consequences, although the heat waves, drought, and heavy flooding of recent years are also very much related to it. But some island states in the Pacific Ocean are literally seeing their land being swallowed up. Because of one big wave, everything can suddenly be gone. Not just people’s homes, but an entire culture. You can build a dike around those islands, but if you’re not careful it will become a swimming pool if the sea level rises even further.”
“Global agreements have been made to curb climate change, such as the Paris Agreement in 2015, but implementation often lags behind. Worldwide there are already millions of climate refugees. More action must be taken now. I hope that my book can contribute to that.”
