I recently debated Gerd Johnsson-Latham of the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs on her assertion that men are primarily responsible for global warming. Johnsson-Latham authored a 2007 study called Gender Equality as a Prerequisite for Sustainable Development. The carbon footprint diagram to the right--can you guess which carbon footprints are male and which are female?--is from the report. 

Our debate was taped for a UK documentary called The Greener Gender.  To learn more, see my recent blog post Glenn Debates Swedish Official Who Claims Men Are Primarily Responsible for Global Warming.

Johnsson-Latham makes several questionable assertions in her study. Some of the headings in her study include:

"Women give priority to others – men invest more resources in themselves."

"Women suffer more from lack of time than men – in other words, men have more leisure time than women..."

"Women have only a limited range of options – men have a wider range..."

"Women are poorer than men – in other words, men are richer than women..."

She also writes:

"A Norwegian study by Nyberg and Sto shows that a global ‘consumer class’, primarily middle class, is to be found worldwide, displaying similar preferences and consumption patterns – and gender specific differences.

"Like other groups, this large group of middle-class consumers is constantly influenced by commercials and by popular culture such as soap operas that are screened all over the world and that show what is expected of ‘a real man’ and ‘a real woman’ in terms of relationships, lifestyles and consumer choices.

"As it is vital to human survival to be socially accepted, we as individuals are prepared to confirm our affiliation, e.g. in the shape of gender. This means that we constantly reaffirm our gender roles, in our gestures, our clothing, our behaviour etc, on a daily basis, several times a day, as Judith Butler and others have pointed out.

"For men, it is often a question of affirming one’s masculinity in terms of power, authority, skills, risk-taking, and the potential use of violence etc.

"For women, it frequently involves being attractive and caring etc, and not questioning or being viewed as a threat to male authority."

This entry was posted on Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 11:25 am and is filed under Feminism/NOW, Global Warming, Environmental Issues. You can trackback from your own site.