"Incineration inevitably has an impact on the environment," Selma Benkhelifa of Progress Lawyers Network told CG about the U.S. government's previous plan to burn a cache of contraceptives instead of distributing them. "But the worst thing is depriving millions of women of access to contraception."
Strong winds weakened the walls of mud houses in Bahawalpur district in Pakistan amid a sandstorm in early June, according to Dawn. The regional outlet noted that the extreme weather, powerful enough to uproot trees and detach rooftop solar panels, also caused a devastating house collapse that killed Allah Wasai, a 15-year-old girl. At least five other people in the area were injured in similar structure collapses.
Last month, CG reported on deadly collapses of mud-built homes in Afghanistan, where the destabilizing effects of heavy rains may have posed unique risks to women and girls largely restricted to domestic spaces. While such restrictions do not exist everywhere, gendered labor inside the home may highlight structural resilience as a gendered issue.
CARE Afghanistan told CG that improving the structural integrity of such homes could save lives and prove cost-effective by reducing the need for future rebuilding efforts.
Over the last year, CG has covered efforts by anti-abortion groups and lawmakers seeking to use state and federal environmental regulations to monitor and potentially limit access to medication abortion across the U.S. The push has focused on testing water for traces of mifepristone and misoprostol, even though there is little scientific evidence that these medications, which can be used to end a pregnancy, meaningfully affect water quality after being processed through sewage systems.
Last week, Republican attorneys general and members of Congress from more than a dozen states sent letters to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin asking the EPA to classify and regulate mifepristone as a water contaminant. They cited a 1996 review from the Food and Drug Administration that said some mifepristone could end up in the environment but found no expected damage to ecosystems or water quality.
This comes after U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, issued his own letter to Zeldin in May, pressing the EPA to "[detail] the scientific, peer-reviewed justification for including contraceptives and abortion medications" on the agency's draft Contaminant Candidate List.
CG previously covered the firing of former National Park Service wildlife biologist Shannon "SJ" Joslin following their involvement in displaying a large transgender pride flag from a rockface in Yosemite National Park in May 2025 — just one day before park leadership signed a rule against hanging such banners. Joslin later sued the U.S. Department of the Interior, alleging unlawful termination.
Last Friday, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that the court lacked the authority to force the Park Service to reinstate Joslin's position and that their case was brought through the wrong legal channel. Judge Jennifer Thurston noted that Joslin could instead direct their complaint to the Office of Special Counsel under the Civil Service Reform Act, which she said provides federal employees with protections against unfair treatment and political retaliation, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Joslin and their legal team told the New York Times on Saturday that they would keep fighting and pursue next steps.
Before a reported $8 million worth of contraceptives purchased by U.S. taxpayers was rendered unusable, some American and European officials tried to leverage anti-waste measures to save them.
At a congressional hearing earlier this month concerning the State Department budget, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the House Appropriations Subcommittee that the federal government would not be distributing the huge supply of contraceptive pills, implants, injectables, and IUDs originally destined for health programs in low- and middle-income countries and now believed to be sitting in Belgian warehouse facilities.
During the hearing, U.S. Rep. Grace Meng appeared to reference March reporting from the New York Times that only around $1.7 million of the initial $9.7 million stockpile may still be safe and effective to use after 20 truckloads of the taxpayer-funded commodities were improperly stored last year. Still, Meng pressed Rubio to address what would become of the medical products, some of which may still be usable. "Secretary Rubio, what is the status of these birth control supplies?" she asked.
Much is still up in the air. But after anti-waste laws in Northern Belgium appeared to play a role in preventing the incineration of some of the still-viable contraceptives there, U.S. lawmakers have been applying their own anti-waste pressures. From the recent congressional hearing to the advancement this week of proposed legislation to a new report about the tens of thousands of dollars that storage is costing American taxpayers each month, officials may be able to prevent the loss of these critical health care supplies — or others in the future — in part by emphasizing the importance of reducing product waste, reducing financial waste, and promoting sustainability overall.
CG heard from experts at Progress Lawyers Network, MSI Reproductive Choices, and PAI on the matter — and what the public might still do about it. Read more...
This digest was curated and reported by Gracie Leavitt. It was written and edited by Gracie Leavitt and Kirsten Krueger.
One goal at Climate, Gendered is to bring a spotlight to the reality that proliferating pollution, increasing temperatures, rising seas, extreme weather, habitat loss, and more can uniquely and disproportionately impact girls, women, trans communities, and nonbinary people — especially those from communities of color, Indigenous people, disabled people, immigrants and displaced people, people experiencing poverty, and residents of low- and middle-income countries. We're also interested in the climate crises and concerns that can disproportionately affect men and boys.
This work cannot be done alone or in silos. We appreciate your feedback and observations. And please feel encouraged to share one way you noticed this week that climate and gender connect — and share CG with a friend.
"This research project would not have happened had we not had buy-in and trust from the farmers we worked with," Emily Selland told CG about an effort in Senegal that showed integration of native fish into watery rice fields might curb schistosomiasis risks, which may be affected by climate shifts.
"Everywhere is blacked out," photographer Taiwo Aina-Adeokun told CG about the smoky, sooty conditions she observed in kitchen settings — spaces to which her identity as a female photojournalist helped gain her access, she said. "At the fish smoking area, her eyes were always watery."
"We know how to keep women and girls safe in outbreak situations," Lindsay Stark, Co-Director of the Center for Violence and Injury Prevention at Washington University, told CG. "We simply need the political buy-in and financial resources to ensure we do not repeat the mistakes of past responses."
"Pollution and climate shifts make the regular stressors more extreme and add new stressors," Jamie DeWitt, study co-author and Director of the Pacific Northwest Center for Translational Environmental Health Research at Oregon State University, told CG.
