It's all your fault, boys. Flash floods, melting ice caps, and rising sea levels are all caused by men. I am not trying to drown the messenger. A Swedish study found that men's spending habits result in 16% more greenhouse gas emissions than those of women. Men spend more money on petrol, which seems to be the biggest difference. Another major difference was that the men who were surveyed purchased more meat than the women. This is how the world ends. It's not with a bang but with too many burgers.Although I don't know how many articles in the Journal of Industrial Ecology have gone viral, this paper has received a lot of attention. This is due to the fact that its findings are a delicious clickbait like Men Are Worse For Climate Change Than Women because They Love Meat and Automobiles. Fair enough, the study did not go into gender war territory as you might expect from the headlines. The title of the paper, "Shifting expenditures on food, holidays and furnishings could lower greenhouse gases emissions by almost 40%" didn't mention gender.Climate change is a feminist issue. Climate change is a major factor in increasing inequality, and women are more affected than men by it. UN data shows that women account for 80% of those affected by climate change. While gender is an important aspect of the climate crisis conversation, and an integral part of its solution, it is not useful to focus on gender-based spending habits among ordinary consumers. It seems futile to place the responsibility of mitigating climate changes on individuals, regardless of gender, as corporations and the 1%, which are the main drivers of global warming, do what they want. While I don't think we all have to do our bit, it is obvious that we all do. It is a shame to be told the negatives of flying, while billionaires are laughing at themselves for shooting into space.It is easy to blame men for the poor state of the world. But it is impossible to ignore the fact that women living in wealthy countries (myself included), are more responsible for generating emissions than their male counterparts in poorer countries. It's not that some men spend more on meat and motoring than their female counterparts. The problem is the obsession with economic growth at all costs. The sowing is done by the rich, and the reaping is done by the poor.Look at Madagascar. Global warming alone has caused a famine that is threatening the lives of more than a million people. An executive from UN World Food Programme said last week that this is an area of the globe that has done nothing to combat climate change. However, they are now the ones who are paying the most.We cannot fix the climate crisis by making largely powerless people feel bad or encouraging men to eat more plant-based burgers in the west. It can only be solved through systemic changes.It's easier to see the end of capitalism than the end for the world. This adage is more true every day. While we plebs are constantly told to change our habits but the masters have made it clear that they don't intend to change theirs. Worse, billionaires and corporations want us to believe that our greed is not destroying the world. Jeff Bezos has stated loftily that we must go to space in order to save Earth. The problem is not emissions, but greenhouse gaslighting.
