Dangerous Intersections: Feminist Perspectives on Population, Environment, and Development

by Jael Silliman (Editor), Jael M. Silliman, Jael Silliman (Editor)

Dangerous Intersections offers a multicultural, international scope on the major global issues of the environment, development, and population control. This collection presents crucial alternative voices and appoaches to the short-sighted policies supported by mainstream politicians and nongovernmental organizations alike--policies that focus on fertility of poor women of color in the North and South as the primary threat to the ecological viability of the planet.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction

308 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Thea · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a compilation of essays from the Committee on Women, Population, and the Environment. Their work includes research, education, and organizing linking reproductive, racial, and environmental justice. There's a few essays in this book that really stood out to me.
"Expanding Civil Society, Shrinking Political Spaces", by Jael Silliman examines the increasing power of women's NGOs to define social justice for women, and the role that this power has played in distancing them from grassroots women's movements.
Patriarchial Vandalism: Militaries and the Environment", by Joni Seager, details the environmental and policy impact of militarism, and of militarized masculinity.
"Taking Population out of the Equation: Reformulating I=PAT", by H. Patricia Hynes, Deconstructs the algebraic equation developed in the 70's that has been used since then to argue that population control, particularly targeted at women of color in the global south, must be central to work toward environmental health. She then proposes another equation that centers equity and social justice, and allows for complexity within the "population" (the original equation assumes that the environmental impact of a population is based on numbers alone).