The Copenhagen Climate Change Conference makes evident potential catastrophic effects of climate change, including its enormous economic and human tolls. It also clearly shows how poor nations in Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America and island states will suffer most from the inevitable floods, droughts and other weather disasters.

But there’s more that needs to be made clear in Copenhagen. If we look closely, there’s a hidden truth with huge implications that we must bring to the attention of conference delegates to ensure that allocated funds actually protect those most vulnerable to these natural disasters.

Studies show that women are 14 times more likely to die in natural disasters. One heart-rending study of a Bangladesh flash flood found that 90 percent of casualties were female. Many factors contributed to this high casualty rate which were all avoidable. A woman’s role in this Southeast Asian nation, as in most of the Middle East and parts of Africa, is one of dependency -- so of course, these Bangladeshi women were not taught to swim. But perhaps the most important factor was that they lived and died in a culture where women are so rigidly controlled that they aren’t permitted to leave their homes without being accompanied by a male family member. When the flash flood occurred, they sadly stayed and drowned.

Click here to read the rest of my article at American Forum.

On September 16, 2009, I spoke before the UN Climate Change Subcommittee, urging governments to measure wealth more appropriately because the care economy, often stigmatized as for females only, is key to the post-industrial era.

Click the link below to hear my call for a new economic map that includes the value of caring.

Credits: Audio courtesy of UN Radio. Special thanks to Bissera Kostova and Diane Bailey. Edited for www.wings.org by Frieda Werden.

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