The Socio-Economic Impact of Climate Change Through an Interdisciplinary Lens: How Does Climate Change Impact Women and Racialized Minorities?

Abstract

This essay analyses how climate change impacts women and racialized minorities,
socially and economically. This research is done through an interdisciplinary lens in
order to understand the consequences of climate change beyond environmental issues.
This research essay is structured according to Repko & Szostak (2017) ten
interdisciplinary research steps and approached from an intersectional perspective
(Crenshaw, 1989). The disciplines integrated in this essay are environmental studies,
equality studies, and social theory. The essay concludes that climate change has greater
effects on racialized minorities and women, both economically and socially. At the
economic level, both groups experience loss of livelihoods, shelter, and sometimes
complete displacement. At the social level, both groups experience loss of their
communities, loss of access to government aid and are less likely to fully recover from
climate events. Additionally, women of colour are the most affected by climate change.
This brings forward the need to develop climate policies that are intersectional and
address systemic discrimination faced by the many intersections of racialized minorities