The Study of Religion and Gender in the Time of Planetary Ecological Crisis and Pandemic

Abstract

As ReligionandGendermarks its twentieth anniversary, theCovid-19 pandemic is causing enormous suffering all over the world. In scholarship moving forward, we should address the forces behind that suffering as well as that related to devastating natural events, from flooding and hurricanes to tornadoes and forest fires, all of which are increasingly becoming the norm. This requires attention to how the slippages between ecological ethics, animal ethics, critical race theory, and feminist ethics make for major challenges in our academic andpublic debates by addressinghow the capitalist pursuit of profit andpower, resulting in rampant disregard for the natural world, non-human animals, people of color, andwomen, have simultaneously facilitated and been exacerbated by environmental devastation and pandemic. Why should scholars of religion and gender be concerned with questions regarding planetary ecology and non-human animals?When their habitats are destroyed, wild non-human animals are often forced into close contact with not only each other but alsowith humans. Increasingly, hunting animals occurs with the goal of profit.Wildlife trafficking is a growing industryworthbillions of dollars every year. Some of these animals are destined for wildlifemarkets with cruel andunhygienic conditions.The conditions of farmanimals, commodified for themeat and dairy industries, are equally cruel and often unhygienic. These conditions make it relatively easy for a virus or other pathogen to get transmitted from one species to another and to create a new disease. In fact, up to 75 percent of the new diseases emerging in humans, including Covid-19, are these zoonotic diseases. The same capitalist disregard for the natural world that has resulted in the proliferation of zoonotic diseases has also led to the greatest threat to life on this planet—climate change and the loss of biodiversity. The meat and dairy industries are highly dependent on fossil fuels, greatly increasing emissions of themain greenhouse gas, co2, and the animals themselves producehugequan-