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The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
  • Laurie Mazur, RH Reality Check

    Why Women’s Rights Are Key to Thriving in the Age of the “Black Swan”

    August 16, 2011 By Wilson Center Staff
    The original version of this article, by Laurie Mazur, appeared on the RH Reality Check blog.

    Welcome to the age of the “black swan.”

    The tornado that nearly leveled the city of Joplin, Missouri in May was a black swan; so was the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that rocked Japan in March; and the “hundred-year floods” that now take place every couple of years in the American Midwest.

    A black swan is a low-probability, high-impact event that tears at the very fabric of civilization. And they are becoming more common: Weather-related disasters spiked in 2010, killing nearly 300,000 people and costing $130 billion.

    Black swan events are proliferating for many reasons – notably climate change and the growing scale and interconnectedness of the human enterprise. World population doubled in the last half-century to just under seven billion people, so there are simply more people living in harm’s way, on geologic faults and along vulnerable coastlines. As the human enterprise has grown, we have reshaped natural systems to meet human needs, weakening resilience of ecosystems, and by extension our own. In effect, we have re-engineered the planet and ushered in a new era of radical instability.

    At the same time, the world’s people are increasingly linked by systems of staggering complexity and size: think of electrical grids and financial markets. What were once local disasters now reverberate across the globe.

    So what does this have to do with women’s rights, you may ask? A lot, as it turns out. The great challenge of the 21st century is to build societies that can cope with the flock of black swans that are headed our way. Advancing and securing women’s rights, especially reproductive rights, is central to meeting that challenge.

    Continue reading on RH Reality Check.

    Laurie Mazur is the editor of A Pivotal Moment: Population, Justice & the Environmental Challenge, which received a Global Media Award from the Population Institute in 2010.

    Sources: Munich Re.

    Photo Credut: “Cygnus atratus (Black Swan),” courtesy flickr user Arthur Chapman.
    Topics: climate change, development, disaster relief, environment, family planning, gender, population
    • http://www.centremaps.co.uk Height Data

      I remember the movie black swan because of this topic. Women are remarkable. They can do impossible and amazing things.

    • BigBruiser44

      The age of the "Black Swan" is unfortunately upon us as a human race and to the Earth. The term "Black Swan" is new to me but when looking at the essence of the name and the swan itself, you get an unsettling feeling in your stomach in what it actually entails. This unsettling feeling deals with the way our world is today and where it is going. Laurie Mazur brought up a great point in that we as a world have to make changes and start to get smarter about our environment since we are getting a glimpse of what's to come if we don’t make serious changes. There are a lot more environmental disturbances seen throughout the world in certain places due to the deforestation, water damming, making our resources unsustainable and greenhouse gases. Take for instance the abundance of hurricanes that have been rocking the southeast of the United States for the past decade or the amount of large scale earthquakes around the world. The frequency and magnitude of these disturbances aren’t natural which implies our changing world.

      The idea the author proposed about giving women more rights, more education, and essentially more opportunities around the world would not only save more lives but it will also help save our Earth. Women have always been the key to civilization and to the success of many great people in history. We as a race have never given women the same amount of credit as they deserve since men have always been seen as dominant and the leaders. In reality a lot of man's great successes have come from their female counterparts. Mazur's idea is right because by focusing on getting women educated and getting them involved in this process will turn the ship in the right direction by giving them a say from all over the world. The women who live rurally in Africa or other parts of the world know the secret to life which is to treat the Earth right and it will treat you right. I understand it’s because they haven’t advanced as far as the United States or other parts of the world but they are living off the land and leaving a minimal footprint. By educating these women and others and giving them a chance to speak out could greatly change the way we live our lives and maybe make people realize the state Earth currently.

      I want to say that I know that this process won’t be done in one day but something needs to happen for our world to realize the problems we are facing are real. I mean when reading it’s astonishing to know that over 30,000 species of plant and animal life become extinct due to human’s destruction of the planet. I understand our population is growing and is expected to reach almost more than double in the next 50 years but that should only make us work smarter into combing our earth into what we want. The hardest part which every scientist and sociologist knows is to get everyone on the same page and the only way I see that happening is similar to the movie Armageddon. A natural phenomenon brought the world together to deal with the giant asteroid which made everyone set aside differences and come up with a solution as a team. It’s sad but I feel this is the only way because people don’t understand the fragile state the Earth is in.

    • CRG

      While I cannot argue the fact there has been alot of several disasters in the recent past nor can I argue the importance women's right i do question what women's rights do have to do with getting the human race through natural disasters. Yes it is important for the females to have reproductive rights because it would slow down the population growth, I cannot see how that would help with other disasters. Natural disasters have been happening throughout history and people have always overcome these obstacles. I am not trying to sound like a sexist pig I am just curious as to what other ways more female rights can help with the natural disasters? Is it supposed to slow them down? Or are we saying that if we solve the population growth problem it will solve all of the other problems such as earthquakes, tornadoes, and hurricanes? Whether or not people have more rights I do think that it will never be easy to cope with these horrible events. Again, I am not trying to attack women I just feel as if there is a jump in logic between how women's rights are more important now because of these "Black Swans" as opposed to any other time.

    • Clara Navarro

      CRG-
       Its not only natural disasters but the effects on the population and cost of damages. A natural disaster can only do so much damage depending on the area it occurs. I feel like what this article is trying to say is that if we allow women to have choices such as reporductive rights, we are able to slow down population growth. It is commonly known that the reason some places are hit harder is because of the overpopulation of  humans in very limited land.  It really isn't a matter of coping, but of trying to improve lives by giving women a choice. The "Black Swans" just showing how the Earth's capacity of living people is coming near its end.

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