Mother Earth: Women and the Environment

Long before modern climate justice movements and worldwide environmental campaigns, women were at the forefront of protecting Mother Earth and honoring the natural world. However, their stories and expertise too often go unnoticed even though their climate advocacy manifests in everything from sustainability to pollution and beyond.

Gen Z is the generation with the most climate anxiety, which is a huge emotional burden. Considering recent events like the approval of the disastrous Project Willow, stress about the future of our planet weighs heavily on our hearts. As the climate crisis continues to disproportionately impact low-income and communities of color, the role of storytelling is even more important. It’s an essential piece of the climate justice puzzle.

In celebration of Women’s History Month, we’re diving into how women have shaped the history of environmentalism, how they’re using their voices to fight climate change, and how we can be inspired to make a change.

Women and Environmentalism: A Brief History

The concept of environmentalism is as old as time, with some scholars finding evidence of it as far back as the ancient civilization of Mohenjo Daro in what is now modern-day Pakistan. As early as 5,000 years ago, humans were already concerned about their impact on the environment and looking for ways to curb pollution and improve sanitation. Here’s the best part: Women have been there every step of the way since. They’ve been advocating and innovating to find ways to reduce humankind’s negative impact on the planet.

When the industrial revolution swept the world, many companies were quick to adopt new machinery, looking the other way when that meant polluting the environment. Rockstars like Dr. Alice Hamilton, a physician, research scientist, and author, were one of the first environmentalists of their kind, emerging to fight big companies and their impact on the environment. In the early 1900s, Alice led a campaign to stop lead poisoning from leaded gasoline, paving the way for women activists after her. She was also the first woman to teach at Harvard, which is pretty sweet.

Fast-forward to the 1980s, and we saw many of the female trailblazers in environmental science and climate justice emerge, becoming part of an international environmentalist movement. While the concept of environmentalism existed long before, it didn’t become widespread until Black activists across America banded together to protest the dumping of toxic chemicals in their communities. Considering that Black Americans in the 80s were coming off the momentum from the Civil Rights movement, their voices were super valuable because they provided much-needed intersectional context to the fight against climate change during a time when Black and indigenous communities were suffering the largest blow from pollution than any other group.

Marjorie Richard was among many Black women who brought national attention to the high rates of cancer, birth defects, and other serious health ailments their communities faced due to toxic pollution. From this movement, the concept of environmental racism was born, laying the groundwork for an intersectional approach to the climate crisis.

Since the beginning of environmentalism in the United States, Black and indigenous communities have worked together, with women spearheading many aspects of the movement. Take the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991, for example. This gathering of leaders included influential female climate activists like Wilma Mankiller, the first woman to be elected chief of a major Native tribe, and Dr. Mildred McClain, a 50-year veteran of the People’s Movement for Justice and Self-Determination worldwide. Together, over 300 leaders created the 17 principles for environmental justice, which are still used by climate activists today. The summit goes down in history as one of the most important intersectional climate justice meetings of all time and gave women an equitable voice in the movement.

Women’s Voices in Climate Advocacy

Historical summits and nationwide climate protests haven’t been the only place where women have made their voices heard about the climate crisis. There’s a long line of female poets, scientists, journalists, artists, community organizers, and more who have used their voices to advocate for a better future.

Women’s environmental advocacy has resulted in numerous victories, including stopping the construction of dangerous pipelines, enacting laws that hold companies accountable for pollution, and countless other policy changes that help create a safer and more sustainable planet.

Our favorite part? Young women are stepping up and taking the lead on climate justice. Greta Thunberg is one of the most recognizable activists and has been invited on numerous occasions to be the voice of her generation. Seeing her fearlessly take on this role is nothing short of inspiring for young women looking to find their place in the movement.

Another young woman whose activism is making waves is Ayisha Siddiqa, who just landed a spot on Time’s 2023 list of Women of the Year. After enduring multiple family deaths in a short span, she discovered that water pollution in her hometown in Pakistan was the culprit and sprung into action. Since then, she has launched a climate activism virtual course and even uses her poetry to advocate for climate justice. This proves how impactful things like art, music, and poetry can be for advocacy, as they help fuel conversations about climate change in a way that makes it digestible and approachable for all.

Greta and Ayisha are just two of the many young women across the globe who are dedicated to making Mother Earth more inhabitable for all people. They’re following in the footsteps of women who came before them, so that future women and girls can continue the momentum.

Where can we go from here?

We know things with the earth right now are well, not so great. So, where do we go from here? When it comes to making real, long-lasting change, we have the power to take matters into our own hands, just like Dr. Alice Hamilton, Greta Thunberg, and countless other activists. Each of these activists have used storytelling to their advantage in one way or another, whether it was in the form of advocacy for better laws or by writing poetic prose.

The climate crisis has a profound impact on the lives of young people whose stories are worth telling through art, writing, and performance. One way to share yours is through the organization Climate Stories Project, where you can join thousands of others who are opening up about the difficulties they face due to climate change (you can also check out the first-ever “Youth Map of Climate Injustice” which you helped created through our See Us, Hear Us program in 2021)! You can also join a climate justice group in your area, where you can collaborate with other community members and make your voice heard. There are also plenty of other ways to take action against the climate crisis in this article.

Your voice matters. If any of the trailblazing women mentioned above didn’t believe in the power of their voice, we wouldn’t have the honor of learning from them now. The best part of storytelling is that the words you share about your experience are entirely your own–nobody can take that from you. The climate crisis impacts every human on Earth, and the more stories we hear, the better we can understand how to find a solution.