Dia Mirza’s remark linking patriarchy to climate change attracted social media trolls, who wondered what was the connection between two things. The actor has now responded to the criticism and offered an explaination in clear terms in her new Instagram post.
Dia shared a video message where she started by saying that climate change and patriarchy are deeply connected. She went on to connect how both issues emerge from systems that value extraction over care, domination over balance, and short-term gain over long-term well-being.
What Dia said
In the caption, Dia penned a long note responding to the criticism. She said, “Since so many of you are debating this, it is timely to explain as simply as one can. I stand by my statement “Patriarchy caused the climate crises.” Climate change is often spoken about as an environmental crisis. But it is also a crisis of inequality.
For centuries, patriarchal systems have concentrated power, prioritised extraction over care, and treated both nature and vulnerable communities as resources to be exploited rather than protected. Much like women and girls are treated in Patriarchal Societies. Forests, rivers, oceans, and ecosystems have been viewed as commodities. Just as women often are. The consequences of this thinking are now impossible to ignore.”
She added, “In this episode of “All About Her”, Arati @aratikumarrao and I even explained how this very extractive, uncaring, and dominating system, entirely controlled by men, has led to economic structures that contribute to Climate Change.
It is the very systems of extractive dominance that are also working overtime on discrediting voices that speak up for nature protection and women’s rights.
Women and girls, particularly in vulnerable communities, are often the first to experience the impacts of climate change — through water scarcity, food insecurity, displacement, and loss of livelihoods. Yet they remain underrepresented in almost all of the spaces where environmental decisions are made.”
‘The climate crisis is not only about carbon’
She concluded, “When we talk about climate action, we must also talk about justice. We must question the systems that reward endless extraction and consumption while undervaluing care, cooperation, and stewardship.
The climate crisis is not only about carbon. It is about how we choose to relate to each other and to the natural world. Building a sustainable future requires us to move away from systems of domination and towards systems rooted in equity, compassion, and respect for all life.”
In an interview with HT Lifestyle, Prakriti Saxena Poddar, clinically trained mental health and wellbeing expert and global head at Roundglass, explained how climate change is increasingly affecting people’s emotional health, giving rise to what experts call climate anxiety. Read more about it here: From 50°C heat to flash floods: Mental health expert explains how ‘climate anxiety’ is lingering in people’s minds
