WaPo Piece Claims Climate Change Increases The Risk Of Domestic Violence Against Women

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climate change

An article publish this week in the Washington Post claims that climate change is putting women in Africa and Asia at an increased risk of becoming victims of domestic violence.

In the article entitled “Climate Change Puts More Women at Risk for Domestic Violence,” authors Geoffrey Ondieki, Disha Shetty, and Aie Balagtas See cite catastrophic weather events occurring in Kenya, India, and the Philippines, which they claim are linked to climate change. They then attempted to connect them to an increase in domestic violence incidents against women in those countries.

Breitbart reports: To back their claims, the authors used U.N. reports and academics, including Terry McGovern, head of the Population and Family Health Department at Columbia University, who told the Post that the evidence of a link between the two is “overwhelming.”

“Heat waves, floods, climate-induced disasters increase sexual harassment, mental and physical abuse, femicide, reduce economic and educational opportunity and increase the risk of trafficking due to forced migration,” McGovern claimed.

However, McGovern admitted the data “remains limited on some fronts.”

The authors further conceded that “academics, activists and humanitarian workers” say more research is needed to study the links between catastrophic weather and domestic violence.

“Unlike the hard science of climate change, they said, the complex drivers of violence cannot easily be captured in numbers,” the authors wrote.

They also used personal stories of women fleeing abusive situations, such as that of Pilot Lenaigwanai, who escaped her abusive husband in northern Kenya as the severe drought in that region raged.

Although the abuse against Lenaigwanai increased after the family’s 68 cattle died, she told the Post her husband was abusing her before the drought intensified.

The article received criticism after the Post shared it on Twitter.

“Where @TheOnion at? Is this some hidden camera mess?” said one Twitter user. 

“This is not a serious news organizations,” another user replied

“That is a unfollow for me. What kind of article is this,” said another user.

4 Comments

  1. The climate is cooling now so the people of Africa will be indoors more than outside in the elements that will “increase the violence towards women?”

  2. Well beyond ridiculous at this point. This is an example of why Rush always referred to them as the Washington Compost.

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