This story was first published by the Guardian. It is reproduced as part of a collaboration with Climate Desk. The women, most of whom were in their 70s or older, climbed the mountain with a dogged grace. They clacked their hiking sticks against the sun-cooked stones, set sure feet on shaky rocks and held hands as they crossed slippery streams. They knew that the heat and strain would be a problem.
This article, which was first published by the Guardian, is being reprinted these as a part of the Climate Desk partnership.
The women, who were mainly in their 70s, ascended the mountain with tenacious grace. They set certain feet on wobbly stones, clamped their hiking poles against sun-cooked rocks, and held hands to cross treacherous streams. They were apparently particularly aware of the risks associated with the heat and strain, but they had no intention of letting it affect their lives.
Pia Hollenstein, 73 years older, said, brushing away the hand I extended to assist her in descending a large rock. I’m capable of managing.
When discussing those who are at the forefront of the climate crisis, most people do not consider Switzerland’s KlimaSeniorinnen, or top climate women. One of the richest nations on Earth is home to the group’s 2,400 members. They will only experience a small portion of the severe weather that their generation’s children and grandchildren will experience because of their age—the youngest is 64.
However, these retirees are among those who are making the most effort to have a decent future. The women are suing the Swiss government in the highest court in Europe for violating their human rights with actions that do n’t do enough to prevent the planet from baking. Their case is based on two straightforward facts and has the potential to shock courts across the continent. As more people burn fossil fuels, heatwaves are becoming hotter. And when temperatures soar, women, especially older ones, are more likely to pass away.
Hollenstein, a retired nurse and past Green party member of parliament who serves on the board of the KlimaSeniorinnen, said,” When they asked me to join, I thought European politics were hopeless.” However, this is a crucial lever.
I went for a hike around the Göschener Lake in the Alps with Hollenstein and some of her co-plaintiffs on Monday morning in August. We gazed out at spectacular scenery, alpine wildlife, and a hydroelectric dam high in the mountains, which are an integral part of Switzerland’s identity and the foundation of its tourism and energy sectors. To demonstrate what would be lost as the glacier melted, the women had selected the location.
Annemarie Ulmi-Klieber said, pointing at the sweat dripping down her face,” I have the same problem as the glacier.” ” I’m melting.”
The weather was what they had n’t decided on. The zero-degree line, the point at which temperatures fall below freezing, had reached its highest point but that morning, according to European scientists. The national weather service had issued heat warnings for the majority of the nation two days prior. A meteorologist was interviewed about weather alerts in a journalistic newspaper. It issued a warning on its front page,” The heatwaves are really getting started.”
The news had caught the KlimaSeniorinnen’s attention, but they had not been deterred by it. They arrived with water bottles, trekking poles, and practical footwear. Artist Beatrice Braun revealed to me that she had knitted the colorful hiking socks for her feet. Although the women were aware of their physical limitations, they claimed they preferred the great mountain air to the oppressive heat of the city. Only occasionally did the sun’s warmth and the strain of the hike raise questions. Annemarie Ulmi-Klieber said, pointing at the sweat dripping down her face,” I have the same problem as the glacier.” ” I’m melting,” she said.
Doctors warn that heat is much more risky than people realize. Some victims pass away while working or living outside during warm weather conditions. Some more pass away in nursing homes and hospitals, their frail bodies weak from the elements and able to combat illnesses that harm the kidneys, lungs, and heart. According to the most recent analysis of mortality and temperature data, heat killed an additional 70, 000 people across Europe final year. The death toll this year, the hottest on record, may turn out to be even higher.
Older women are especially prone to heat, according to Ana Vicedo-Cabbrera, head of the climate and health team at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine in Berne, who summarized the state of science for the court. She stated that the causes are unknown, but” changes in the circulatory system brought on by menopause or the fact that older women are typically more effective than men have been proposed as potential causes.”
” The climate has been severely damaged by our generation.” We have an obligation.
In that regard, the KlimaSeniorinnen’s case is a corporate one. It was first put forth ten years before by Greenpeace campaigners and addresses a problem that has hindered climate litigation globally: if courts accepted every case brought by people against large polluters, they would be overburdened because the climate crisis affects everyone rather than just one person or group.
The Swedish attorneys required a group of individuals—the narrower the better—who could contend not only that their right to life was being violated by rising temperatures, but also that they were overwhelmingly impacted. Researchers from all over the world have demonstrated that older people and women both suffer more from heat-related illnesses. Vicedo-Cabrarera and her associates discovered that in the summer of 2022, older women in Switzerland died from heat at the highest rates. According to their calculations, a world without the climate crisis would have prevented 60 % of deaths.
However, I was shocked to learn that the KlimaSeniorinnen had no filed the case for their own gain as I sweated up the European Alp’s slopes trying to keep up with women who were more than half my age. Rather, they were more focused on individuals my age.
” Our generation has contributed significantly to the destruction of the climate. We have a duty, Hollenstein said. ” Everyone benefits if we can persuade Switzerland to do more [to stop ]”
The KlimaSeniorinnen have taken their case to the European Court of Human Rights after years of failures in local and national courts that threw the case out on legal grounds. The European case, along with similar cases from a European mayor and many Portuguese teenagers, will be heard by the court earlier in the following year. The court has no formerly ruled on government climate action. If governments throughout Europe do certainly follow the rulings, the outcomes will open the door to cases in different nations.
Experts were optimistic that the process would enshrine milestones that pushed governments into more strict climate policy through human rights guarantees, according to Charlotte Blattner, a researcher at the University of Berne who specializes in climate law. The likelihood that the KlimaSeniorinnen will prevail in this case on all counts, she continued,”is quite improbable.”
The Swiss government claimed in a statement to the court that it was “perfectly reasonable” for citizens to urge states to take more action to combat global warming, but that the system centered on the European Convention on Human Rights had not been designed to serve as the final arbiter of national policies to do so. The government, parliament, and people of Switzerland are responsible for defining and selecting the policies that will be implemented.
The government also pushed up on the case’s main points, arguing that women in retirement were inherently more vulnerable to heatwaves.
They are now gradually beginning to take us significantly as a result of what is going on around us.
Not every member of the KlimaSeniorinnen will live long enough to see how their battle turns out; some have now passed away, and yet a victory in Strasbourg does not guarantee that policy will change. They assert that if they prevail in court, they will put pressure on the government to develop a strategy for achieving its goals, which will then be put to the public vote. In a referendum held in June, the European public voted in favor of achieving net zero emissions by 2050, but they disapproved of several specific policies to reduce pollution in 2021.
Also getting a case before the 17 judges in the royal chamber of the European Court of Human Rights is also something the women could hardly have imagined when they were younger. They were all born at a time when women in Switzerland did not have the right to vote, and some actually reached adulthood. They expressed their happiness at making the most of the tools at their disposal.
Verena Steiner, who joined the group next year, said,” This group of women just inspired me.” She had been” climate aware” for 40 years, according to the former architect, but had only recently become more active.
The group claimed that they then demanded greater respect as well. In the past, some people had referred to them as “old wives,” but it was now more difficult to ignore the reality of their situation.
Rita Schirmer-Braun, who is seated on the board, said,” For a long time, we were n’t taken seriously.” However, they are now gradually beginning to take us severely because they can see what’s going on around us. As part of the Climate Desk collaboration, this article, which was first published by the Guardian, is reproduced below. The women, who were mainly in their 70s, ascended the mountain with tenacious grace. They set certain feet on wobbly stones, clamped their hiking poles against sun-cooked rocks, and held hands to cross treacherous streams. They were aware of the strain and heat.
This story was first published by the Guardian. It is reproduced as part of a collaboration with Climate Desk. The women, most of whom were in their 70s or older, climbed the mountain with a dogged grace. They clacked their hiking sticks against the sun-cooked stones, set sure feet on shaky rocks and held hands as they crossed slippery streams. They knew that the heat and strain would be a problem.
https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2024/01/meet-the-retired-women-bringing-switzerland-to-court-over-climate-inaction/
