Believe It Or Not, Another Climate Change Danger: Domestic Abuse

A recent Washington Post article said climate change can
exacerbate domestic violence. 

 It seems like climate change is blamed for just about anything that could possibly go wrong. 

The Washington Post recently brought us another societal ill made worse by climate change:
Domestic violence. 

The link between climate change and such violence would seem like a stretch, but the Washington Post makes a compelling case that this is a thing. 

As Wapo reports:

"A 2021 study of extreme weather events in Kenya by researchers at St. Catherine University of Minnesota found the economic stresses caused by flooding and drought or extreme heat exacerbated violence against women in their homes. The research, which used satellite and national health survey data, showed that domestic violence rose by 60 percent in areas that experienced extreme weather."

If that link could be established in Kenya, it could well apply anywhere. And sure enough, a few dozen other studies came to the same conclusions. 

Think about it in terms of your own life. I would hope that none of my married or partnered readers are violent against their spouses.  But you know you are more stressed when things go wrong. 

In my blessedly nonviolent marriage, I'm supremely lucky that my husband and I never come close to hitting each other. Our relatively rare arguments are quite tame. But when I'm stressed, I'm unfortunately much more likely to snap at my husband (and regret it afterwards).

I remember one of our brief and amicably resolved arguments in the past had to do with minor damage to our house after an extreme 2019 storm (that was probably made worse by climate change.)

Now picture not the marital bliss between my husband and I, but instead a household in which at least one member is prone to violence when angry. Then imagine, instead of minor damage to a lovely Vermont home occupied by a friendly version of Statler and Waldorf,  but a drought that wipes out all of a family's crops and livestock, leaving them destitute. Or a storm that washes away an uninsured home.

Those disasters afflicting violent homes is like pouring gasoline on a fire.  

The Washington Post gives us this sad example of what can happen:

The post introduces us to a Kenyan woman named Pilot Lenaigwanai, who covers her mouth as she speaks. She does so because she's embarrassed by a missing tooth, removed during violence against her by her husband. 

She showed up at a shelter for abused women in northern Kenya. As the Post reports: "Her husband was abusive even before the drought that's now ravaged Kenya's arid north, the worst in decades. When the family's 68 cattle - their only means of survival - died, the abuse became impossible to bear. 

'He was visibly frustrated and turned the heat o me and my children,' she says. 'I just think he wanted us out, because he could not provide for us anymore.'"

In one way, the woman in Kenya was lucky: She was able to escape her abuser. 

Many women don't have that option, especially in patriarchal nations and societies, where women have few options in a world controlled by often abusive men. Many of these nations are especially afflicted by climate change.

The Washington Post offers up an example of a woman with seemingly no escape in India. This woman's husband is violent, especially during the annual monsoon when flooding hits their property. With climate change, the monsoons - and the abuse - are getting worse. 

It's not like climate change causes domestic abuse. In almost every, case, that's pre-existing. But the stresses of climate change make it worse. This is an awful way to put it, but a women who has to deal with abuse is better off with occasional violence than constant violence. Though, to be clear, NO woman deserves any kind of violence.  

The issue of domestic violence and climate change is of course not limited to third world countries. I'm sure it's happening here in the grand old U.S. of A. 

Predictably, the Washington Post article about climate change and domestic violence got instantaneous backlash from climate deniers and, for the lack of a better word, "conservative" media. 

Fox News pooh poohed the Washington Post article, claiming it "undermined its warnings of climate change fueling abuse because it wasn't totally scientific."

In its article, WaPo said, "Unlike the hard science of climate change....the complex drivers of violence cannot be easily captured in numbers."

What the Post was trying to say, was that it's easy to measure, say the temperature. There are instruments and tools for that. The human psyche, on the other hand, is not easily measured by some sort of thermometer or other measuring device. 

Fox New also criticized the Post for noting that the link between domestic violence and extreme weather needs more research. Which is true. But the fact that more research should happen doesn't mean the idea is false. It just means we need to know more about it. 

Fox also implied that the fact Wapo said that climate change does not cause domestic violence, but exacerbates it means their thesis is wrong. 

Um, no. 

As anyone who actually reads the article, which of course is linked several times in this post, The point is, climate change can make existing ills worse. 

Sure, more study is needed on the climate change/domestic violence link. It needs to be better understood so it can be hopefully prevented or at least mitigated. What's wrong with that?