Sylvia Larsen for NH Senate

February 5, 2010
Cross Posted from the Senate President's Blog

Earlier this winter, I had an opportunity to participate with a group of women who are part of an international effort to address the impact of global warming. The effects of climate change – whether droughts or floods – hit poor women and children hardest.

In many cultures, it is women who are responsible for providing clean water, food and fuel for their families. Climate change and related weather disasters directly affect the poorest families, making them vulnerable to hunger and disease.

Many of my colleagues here in the Statehouse have signed on as ambassadors for the Sisters on the Planet Campaign run by Oxfam America.

As women involved in government, we’ll be advocating for legislative actions that help women around the globe get the education and resources they need to work together to protect themselves and their families. This includes efforts like planting drought-resistant foods, coordinating food banks for times of shortage, erecting tree barriers to protect against erosion and getting mosquito netting into homes to prevent the spread of mosquito-borne illnesses.

Women are naturally the world’s caretakers both literally and figuratively. While we, as the nation's first femal Senate majority, work to protect our most vulnerable families from the worst recession in recent memory, we must also keep focus on leaving a better world for future generations. It makes sense then, as a sisterhood that we work to empower the state, national and global community of women to address the problems of global climate change and its effect on families.