Essay by Eric Worrall
“… Ecofeminist thinking and practice have long been central inspirations for focused, critical work on men and masculinities, and the environment …”
Gender emissions gap: Rich white men’s jobs, diets and hobbies found to be ‘bad for the planet’
By Liam Gilliver
Published on 06/05/2026 – 9:40 GMT+2Men were also found to have “less concern with climate change” and be “less ambitious and less active in environmental politics”.
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A new paper by more than 20 scientists from 13 different countries has analysed existing research on climate change, global warming, and environmental collapse – and how they connect with what men do.
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“There is now plenty of research that shows clear negative impacts of some men’s behaviour on the environment and climate,” says Professor Jeff Hearn, the paper’s editor and a professor of Sociology at the University of Huddersfield.
“What is astonishing is how this aspect does not figure in most debates and policy in a more sustainable world.”
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Read more: https://www.euronews.com/2026/05/06/gender-emissions-gap-rich-white-mens-jobs-diets-and-hobbies-found-to-be-bad-for-the-planet
The abstract of the study;
Men, masculinities, and the planet at the end of (M)Anthropocene: ecological/social/economic/political relations, processes and consequences
Kadri Aavik, Jeff Hearn, Martin Hultman & Tamara Shefer
Pages 254-268 | Published online: 11 Nov 2025
In recent decades, the notion of the Anthropocene has become widely known and used in academic debates, and also in mainstream discourses, to refer to a human-induced ecological crisis of planetary dimensions. The unprecedented effects that humans are imposing on the Earth are beyond question. The planetary emergency concerns injustices (the 5% richest create 20% of the emissions; and the richest 10% create 50%), privileges (only 8–9% of people fly, yet aviation is the largest source of individual emissions, and importantly linked to masculinities, captured in the term ‘aeromasculinities′) (Hopkins et al., Citation2023), and power (fossil fuel industries’ denial and obstruction of climate science and politics)
If you think the above quote is gibberish, try reading the full paper – and let me know what lines like “Posthumanist, new materialist, degrowth and ecological men and masculinities” or “Ecofeminist thinking and practice have long been central inspirations for focused, critical work on men and masculinities, and the environment” mean.
Clearly I need to work on my random climate psychology paper generator, my effort just doesn’t make the grade anymore.
On a serious note, in my opinion the entire premise of the paper is absurd and racist. Last time I checked black people like hotrods and guy toys just as much as white guys. My friend G once lost it because he was fed up with police pulling him over for driving while black. I pointed out they probably just wanted to check out his showroom new custom supercharged Ford Mustang.
