Are you a Sister?

Last Wednesday, Oxfam premiered their short film "Sisters on the Planet" at the Prince Charles cinema, Leicester Square. The film features four stories from women in Uganda, Bangladesh, Brazil and England. Each story illustrates different outcomes and methods taken by these women to combat the consequences that effect their families and the local community due to climate change.

Since the premier, I have seen a number of blogs and online articles highlighting various conflicts about climate change being an issue of gender. WEN’s Women’s Manifesto on Climate Change, states that women are indeed more vulnerable to the consequences of a changing climate due to our social roles and status. You can review this by visiting the following site:
http://www.wen.org.uk/general_pages/reports/manifesto.pdf

***We encourage you to read and post a comment on the New Scientist blog where I originally saw the opposition gender and climate change.***

Please visit the following: www.newscientist.com/blog/environment/2008/06/is-climate-change-feminist-issue.html

WEN will soon have copies of Sisters on the Planet for viewing and discussing within your local group. Why not organize a night of local treats, fairtrade drinks while putting into action how you can help make a difference – these four women will certainly make an impact of you!

Please be sure to leave a note on our blog if you have a position on climate change, gender issues and other related ideas to this topic! We'd love to hear from you all!

! Action Alert !

North London WEN Group take action


*photo - www.wvwd.com

‘The Council pop* issue’:

Should I drink bottled or tap water?

To kick off a series of monthly discussion groups, North London WEN met at the start of June to consider the issue of bottled water. By examining ‘The Council Pop’ issue, local group members hoped to reach agreement about whether to drink bottled or tap water. In order to do so, the group considered the environmental costs of packaging and transporting bottled water, together with ethical, health and access issues surrounding tap water. A blind taste test of bottled and tap water revealed subtle differences in preference. Taking all issues into consideration, the group’s verdict was that we should drink tap, rather than bottled, water. Watch this space for a more detailed summary of the discussion, coming soon!

*slang term meaning tap water*