Equality – Page 7 – Things Are Good

Master Resilience Improves Gender Equality in Mexico City

Water scarcity is a real problem in Mexico City, and due to existing gender inequality women bare the brunt of the costs of a lack of water. This manifests itself in everything from laundry to buying potable water, both are time consuming endeavours in places with water scarcity. Mexico City launched a program a few years ago to naturalize rain water collection while also enhancing their rain barrel water collection for homes. These changes combined have had a very positive impact on water usage and gender equality in the city.

The program helps install rainwater harvesting systems, which capture the rain that falls on roofs of houses. Water is stored in a cistern, which can then be used for domestic purposes. It can also be used as drinking water if given additional treatment. These systems can provide a family with water for between five to eight months of the year.

By prioritizing households headed by women, single mothers, indigenous people, older adults and people with disabilities, the program aims to improve equity across the board. To date, more than 13,000 female heads of household have benefited â€” comprising around 65% of installed rainwater harvesting systems.

Converting to Co-Ops will Save Small Businesses

The pandemic clearly caused chaos in the business world from lockdowns to supply chain issues, and this has caused many small businesses to face closure. Small businesses closing isn’t good for local economies and there are solutions to support these small operations. The best option is to convert to a cooperative.

That’s right, in order to save capitalism we need less idolization of individuals and more focus on shared growth. Business can survive through distributed risk and recovery by converting to cooperatives.

Co-operatives offer stable business models that provide good jobs. They are often better than conventional businesses in terms of responding to and surviving crisesbecause they source capital locally rather than with distant shareholders, meet local community needs, and foster trust and mutual aid.

During economic downturns, for instance, co-op members will often amend wages and revenue distribution rather than lay off employees.

The overall lack of knowledge of the co-op model is not surprising. There is systemic bias against solidarity-based economic activity by mainstream economists and business pundits, and a related lack of co-op content in post-secondary business and economics courses.

Mental Health Workers are Better than Cops

Sending mental health workers as first responders to mental health issues is way better than sending workers with other specialities. This may sound obvious, but for decades in the USA and Canada we’ve been sending police (armed with guns) to help people in distress. Some cities in the USA have reallocated police funding to social workers with great success, and thanks to the efforts of movements like BLM more cities are following suit. New York City is one such city and unsurprisingly their results are similar to other cities where police have been defunded.

The movement to defund the police, then put those funds into social services is clearly working.

In 95% of cases, people accepted care from the B-HEARD team, data from the city shows. That’s compared with 82% for traditional 911 response teams, which include police.

Additionally, 50% of people treated by B-HEARD were transported to the hospital for more care, a far lower number than the 82% who are transported to the hospital with traditional 911 response.

Ending the Gender Gap in Transportation

There is a gender gap in our cities and it’s all thanks to car-centric design. Everybody knows that cars destroy urban centers and cause a lot of harm to public health. but you may not have thought of the impact cars have on gender. As cities look to modernize themselves by returning streets to people they need to also think about how different people use transportation in the city. Part time workers are more likely to be women and that often means more trips per day than their typical male counterparts. Designing cities through a gendered lens means that the city can accommodate multiple modes of transportation beyond the male-dominated rush hour.

â€œThe discussion on inclusive mobility is gathering steam,â€ said Ricarda Lang, deputy chair of the German Green party. â€œFeminism is not a stand-alone topic, but a perspective that we also apply in the area of urban development and mobility.â€

The issue is more complex than cars versus bikes. In some cities, women cycle less, likely because lanes arenâ€™t wide or secure enough, especially with kid carriers â€” underscoring the importance of transport design. But thereâ€™s no denying car-centric systems face strain.

Numerous grassroot initiatives are demanding restrictions on personal vehicles. One of the most radical is in Berlin, where activists are pushing for a referendum that would all but eliminate private autos in the inner city in favor of walking, cycling and public transport.

Your Carbon Footprint is Fine, itâ€™s the Wealthy that Need to Change

There’s no doubt that we can all reduce our carbon footprint, but there’s one segment of the population who drastically need to cut their carbon output: the rich. Recent headlines have made it clear that the poor are impact most by climate issues, while the rich can afford solutions the rest of us cannot. What’s more, according to the UN, the wealthiest 1% produce double the combined carbon emissions of the poorest 50%. The richest 5% contributed 37% of emissions growth between 1990 and 2015.

If we’re going to avoid climate catastrophe then we need the polluter elite to do their part – not just the rest of us.

He continued: â€œRich people who fly a lot may think they can offset their emissions by tree-planting schemes or projects to capture carbon from the air. But these schemes are highly contentious and theyâ€™re not proven over time.

The wealthy, he said, â€œsimply must fly less and drive less. Even if they own an electric SUV thatâ€™s still a drain on the energy system and all the emissions created making the vehicle in the first placeâ€.

Sam Hall, from the Conservative Environment Network, told BBC News: “Itâ€™s right to emphasise the importance of fairness in delivering (emissions cuts) – and policy could make it easier for people and businesses to go green – through incentives, targeted regulation and nudges.