“Come what may.” Women Power in Environmental Protection 

Fr Ricopar Royan, SDB

Month of March always reminds us of influential role the women play in our society. In the following paragraphs, we shall see about few convincing women personalities in environmental protection.

 Gauri Devi

 “Forest is like our mother’s home, we shall protect it come what may,” voice upraised by Gauri Devi of Chamoli as a weapon. This inspiring lady is known for Chipko Movement (chipko meaning hugging). She organized the women to hug the trees and prevent their cutting. She was the head of the Mahila Mangal Dal, at the Reni village. The day the lumbermen were to cut the trees, Gauri Devi led 27 women to confront. She initially tried to talk them out of it, but soon the lumbermen resorted to abusing and threatening. The women thus decided to hug the trees to stop them from being felled. They guarded the trees all night until the lumbermen surrendered and left. News of the movement soon spread to neighbouring villages and people joined in. Same acts were repeated in other parts of Uttarakhand and thus women were seen as providing environmental solutions. The real roots of the Chipko movement go back to 1730, when Amrita Devi led the movement to resist soldiers from cutting down trees, on the orders of the Maharaja of Jodhpur. In the ensuing violence, 363 members of the Bishnoi tribe were beheaded as they hugged the trees to prevent them from being cut.

Rachel Carson

 On June 4, 1963, less than a year after the controversial environmental classic “Silent Spring” was published, its author, Rachel Carson, testified before a Senate subcommittee on pesticides. She was 56 and dying of breast cancer. Senator Ernest Gruen¬ing, a Democrat from Alaska, told Carson at the time, “Every once in a while in the history of mankind, a book has appeared which has substantially altered the course of history.” “Silent Spring” presents a view of nature compromised by synthetic pesticides, especially DDT. Once these pesticides entered the biosphere, Carson argued, they not only killed bugs but also made their way up the food chain to threaten bird and fish populations and could eventually sicken children. “Silent Spring,” which has sold more than two million copies, made a powerful case for the idea that if humankind poisoned nature, nature would in turn poison humankind. Carson knew that her target audience of popular readers included scores of housewives. She relied upon this ready army of concerned citizens both as sources who discovered robins and squirrels poisoned by pesticides outside their back doors and as readers to whom she had to appeal. The writer and scientist Rachel Carson was an uplifting leader who inspires generations through her unique courageous character. Ultimately, Rachel Carson became the “Mother of the Modern Environmental Movement” through her book, Silent Spring, by pushing for environmental policies that would protect human health and the environment.

Wangari Maathai

 Wangari Maathai's devotion to the cause of saving the forests of Kenya led to death threats, whippings and beatings, but in 2004 her work was rewarded when she became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. In her acceptance speech Maathai, who has died at the age of 71 after a long struggle with ovarian cancer, said that the inspiration for her life's work came from her childhood experiences in rural Kenya, where she witnessed forests being cleared and replaced by commercial plantations, which destroyed biodiversity and the capacity of forests to conserve water.

Maathai called forest clearance a "suicidal mission." In 1977 Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement with the aim of planting trees to prevent environmental and social conditions deteriorating and damaging the lives of the impoverished people, especially women, in rural Kenya. At least three times during her activist years she was physically attacked, including being clubbed unconscious by police during a hunger strike in 1992. Wangari Maathai’s work is a great vision of how instigating peace between nature and people improves the peace amongst themselves, allowing them in turn to shift more energies and resources toward conserving the environment. If you want to save the world but don’t know where to start, take a cue from Maathai—plant a tree.

Greta Thunberg

 When Greta first learned about climate change at about eight years old, she was shocked that adults didn’t seem to take the crisis seriously. She became depressed. She didn’t eat, go to school or speak for months. Her need to fight for the climate became her motivation. She made the decision never to fly, to dairy, or to buy unnecessary new things: a “shop stop”.

Greta saw that she needed to use her voice to do more. She sat down in front of Sweden’s parliament on August 20th 2018 with a home-made banner: school strike for climate. No other children had joined her. But she was determined to see it through and sat down, alone. She wrote on Twitter: “We children usually don’t do as you tell us to do, we do as you do. And if you adults don’t care about my future, neither do I. I will school strike for the climate until election day.” The media took an immediate interest, and Greta’s climate strike made the news.

Thunberg has begun travelling to spread her message outside Sweden. Speaking at the United Nations climate conference in December 2018, she berated world leaders for behaving like irresponsible children. Greta shows that children are at the heart of the fight for a more sustainable future. Climate change is violating children’s rights to life, health and peace, and children are now taking action into their own hands. It’s time for the adults to listen and learn.

These powerful women leave us two important messages for rest of us: the value of collective protest and the compelling role of women in local and global resistance.