ABC News Blames Increasing Child Marriages On ‘Climate Change’
On July 9th, ABC News Australia published an article claiming ‘the growing intensity of natural disasters across Asia is leading to increasing numbers of child marriages of girls‘
That is certainly an interesting piece of logic, so what do they base their claims on?
The article states:
Advocates are calling for funding and resources around child marriage to be better integrated into climate change response and resilience programs.
Twelve million girls are tipped to become child brides this year, according to Plan International.
Child marriage is a global problem across cultures and religions.
It is often inherently linked to gender inequality, poverty, food insecurity, and social norms and practices, including family honour and dowry payments.
Climate change is now believed to be a leading contributor to more frequent and younger nuptials.
You can believe whatever you wish, but that does not make it a fact.
“Whenever there is a climate change impact … we see a spike in child marriage,” said Plan International’s Tanushree Soni.
“Financial stress is the trigger. The families look to lessen the burden because they don’t consider girls to be part of their own families; they consider girls to be part of their [future] husband’s family. “So investing in girls is not a choice they can afford to make.”
Financial stress is the trigger of ‘climate change’? Anyone who believes that needs urgent mental health treatment.
While climate change is not believed to be increasing the number of tropical storms worldwide, scientists and meteorologists say a warmer atmosphere and rising sea temperatures and levels are increasing their intensity, and the impact they have on communities.
This is partly right. A warmer world produces fewer storms, and those that do form are less intense, not more.
After a natural disaster in Bangladesh, child marriages can surge by up to 39 per cent, according to the International Rescue Committee. South Asia, one of the most vulnerable regions to the impacts of climate change, accounts for most of the world’s child marriages.
I’m struggling to see how child marriages ‘surge’ after natural disasters, and no evidence was presented to back up this claim.
Bangladesh has the highest rate in Asia according to Plan International, with more than 50 per cent of girls married before they turn 18. Getting married meant Runa had to drop out of school to focus on being a wife and, soon after, a mother.
“I did not want to get married. I wanted to continue my education,” she said. “The decision made me feel very sad and helpless.”
But Runa is, in some ways, one of the lucky ones because a few years later her husband’s family allowed her to return to her studies. “It makes me feel happy and hopeful about my future,” she said. “I also want to make sure that my son receives a good education and has opportunities to achieve his dreams.”
Runa wanted to share her story to “help prevent other girls from being married before they are ready”.
El Niño expected to ‘intensify’ child marriage rate
Expected to? That is like seeing child marriages increase after a bad El Niño, and attributing it to ‘climate change’.
You can attribute any event to any cause, with absolutely no evidence whatsoever, and expect people to take it as proven fact.
It is not fact, it is opinion.
Kamrul Hasan Shawon said he too often met girls who aspired to be doctors, pilots or even entrepreneurs lose sight of those goals when they became child brides.
The climate change and resilience program manager for Plan International in Bangladesh said, with the right pathways, these girls would go on to “work wonders” if they were not married off.
Well ban child marriage then, and imprison anyone found breaking that law, but don’t blame it on the weather.
“Making life safe for them is enough,” he said. But Mr Shawon is worried this year’s El Niño would “intensify” the risk of child marriage in the country.
“We are facing climate experiences almost every year and El Niño will affect us dearly,” he said.
What is a ‘climate experience‘?
You cannot say anything is climate unless it happens for 30 consecutive years without a break. Anything less is weather.
This year’s El Niño is predicted to be among the strongest ever recorded. It is forecast to increase rainfall in Central Asia, the southern parts of South America, the US and parts of the Horn of Africa.
A prediction is not a fact.
It could cause drought in Australia, Indonesia, parts of Asia and Central America, and trigger hurricane formation in the central and eastern Pacific.
It could, but that does not mean it will.
“We really need to work hand in hand [with Australia and other countries] because when Bangladesh is struggling … the struggle will eventually reach out to Australia and other parts of the world,” Mr Shawon said.
It will? How does he know? Is he a Seer?
New research from Plan International and the University of Technology Sydney found girls were disproportionately affected by climate change across Asia and the Pacific.
Again, no evidence is provided to back up this claim.
The full report, which is due out later this year, looks at how climate-related shocks and environmental stressors are shaping adolescent girls’ life trajectories in Bangladesh, Nepal and the Solomon Islands.
So until it is published, anything said is nothing more than speculation.
Plan International’s Ms Soni said it was necessary research as governments around the world had been slow to recognise the link while those working on the ground could see a “direct correlation”.
Correlation is not causation.
While the Australian government requires a climate and gender focus in its foreign aid programs, Ms Soni said responses to climate change and environmental disasters still focused more on rebuilding infrastructure and recovery efforts rather than social impacts, like child marriage and violence against women.
A climate and gender focus…..
“We can’t shy away from the fact that there are young people, the future of their countries but also of this global community, that are going to be affected by child marriage,” she said.
“This is a call to action for governments and especially [the Australian] government. Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was committed to ending child marriage and “protecting the rights of adolescent girls across the Indo-Pacific region”.
Get on with it then, instead of spending money on virtue-signalling that reinforces people’s confusion about whether they are male or female.
“Australia is supporting integrated efforts to address the drivers of child marriage, including through strengthening education, child protection, gender-based violence prevention, and sexual and reproductive health and rights services,” a department spokesperson said.
Nowhere on track to end child marriage
No region is currently on track to meet the 2030 target of eliminating child marriage, according to Girls Not Brides. Shreya Ghosh, the organisation’s head of Asia engagement, said child marriage had become a “coping strategy” for families losing livelihoods and income.
Stop talking about it then, and do something.
But she said child marriage was “a solvable issue” and many marriages could be prevented if funding and resources for child marriage were better integrated into climate change response and resilience programs.
Provide your evidence.
“It’s about making sure that we have very strong responses when disaster or a situation strikes. But more importantly, to keep the work going when things are calm … to bridge those gaps, to reduce the inequalities and to increase the resilience of households.”
Ms Ghosh said it was also vital more women and girls with knowledge of their communities were involved in tackling the problem. “They are not there to really speak about how this issue is impacting them and that’s why the policies are not responding to their needs,” she said.
Building climate-resilient livelihoods is “so critical” to addressing child marriage, according to Plan International, that it now runs programs about growing climate-resistant crops and building floating farms in flood-prone areas.
It may be ‘critical’ to Plan International, but I still do not see any connection between bad weather and an increase in child marriages.
It is also teaching girls digital skills to help their families make more money by being able to liaise directly with supermarkets to sell their produce, for example, so they became vital to the household income and less likely to be married off.
In Cambodia, where the organisation has run climate adaptation programs combined with education, digital literacy and women’s advocacy sessions in rural villages, the child marriage rate has dropped in those areas by at least 65 per cent over three years.
“It works. You need to have a community-based approach to really prevent the practice,” Ms Soni said. “Any investment we make on girls, there is generational impact that happens.”
I am glad increasing literacy has reduced child marriage by over half, but it still has nothing to do with the climate.
This is the worst kind of fearmongering, what used to be known in England as the ‘gutter press‘.
I also wonder about the sanity of the author, and the editor who passed it for publication.
Organisations like this should have their broadcasting licences revoked.
See the ABC article here abc.net.au
About the author: Andy Rowlands is a British university graduate in space science and Principia Scientific International researcher, writer and editor who co-edited the 2019 climate science book ‘The Sky Dragon Slayers: Victory Lap‘