Mike Bonanza, Executive Director of Elevated Access, told CG that higher gas prices could result in more abortion and gender-affirming care seekers turning to the organization, which helps people access health care, often out of state, via private flights at no cost to passengers.
There's a whole lot going on around the world: This weekly brief from Climate, Gendered isn't intended to be exhaustive but rather your chance to spend just a few moments on a handful of items with the potential to disproportionately impact over half the global population — plus, the ideas that might make a difference.
Last week, CG reported on a new study linking phthalates — chemicals commonly used to make plastics more flexible — to millions of preterm births globally as well as tens of thousands of infant deaths. This week, senior study author Leonardo Trasande spoke with Dominique Browning, a Co-Founder and Director of Moms Clean Air Force, to unpack the research during a live event that is now available as a recording.
Last week, CG reported on increased risks of leptospirosis exposure in the wake of floods following two recent Kona Low storms across Hawai'i. This week, the state was bracing for its third Kona Low storm within a matter of weeks. Experts have suggested the intense rainfall may be exacerbated by record heat on the West Coast of the U.S.
In late March, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a major restructuring of its Forest Service. Some experts are concerned that the effort could disrupt data collection and dissemination efforts related to wildfire prevention and response. CG has previously covered research linking prenatal wildfire smoke exposure and increased risks of preterm birth as well as childhood autism.
Gas prices have soared amid war in Iran, and now the high cost of fuel may be threatening transportation access to the abortion and gender-affirming care that some patients must travel great distances to reach.
With car gas averaging over $4.00 in the U.S. this week, the organization Abortion Access Front posed to social media on Thursday, "Are Gas Prices The New Abortion Ban??"
Some who live where access to abortion care is severely limited by law or lack of clinics may seek telehealth abortion care instead of making a prohibitively lengthy or costly drive. But telehealth options are not available, practical, or preferred in every case, and so patients may aim to drive or fly long distances to a state where in-person care is more accessible.
Burdensome fuel costs may strain this option, however, especially for marginalized groups already disproportionately impacted by the affordability crisis. Mike Bonanza, the Executive Director of Elevated Access, told CG that the situation could "result in more referrals" to his flight-based organization, even as plane fuel is set to be impacted as well. Elevated Access helps people reach abortion and gender-affirming care, often out of state, with volunteer pilots transporting patients at no cost to the passengers. Read more…
A cooking fuel shortage in India and elsewhere may be taking a great toll on women and girls at home and work.
The blockage of the Strait of Hormuz amid the war in Iran has greatly reduced the amount of fuel moving through the waterway, resulting in a cooking gas shortage across Asian and African countries.
Officials have reported a number of gas cylinder thefts amid the scarcity. Meanwhile, the burdens of the shortage may be disproportionately borne by women and girls, who often manage cooking and care work.
"When fuel and other prices rise, social inequality increases, women and feminized people take on additional work, facing increased demands for unpaid care work and suffering the negative impacts on their access to fuel, food, transport, and housing," Tara Povey, Gender Equality and Macroeconomics Project Joint Coordinator at the Bretton Woods Project, told CG via email. Read more…
Sugarcane workers in India may begin their days as early as 4:30 or 5:00 in the morning, cutting, bundling, and loading cane, increasingly amid the pressures of droughts and floods.
Now, researchers are using agricultural census data and satellite data on crops combined with demographic and health survey data to track how climate change may be affecting workers, even impacting reproductive health and the incidence of child marriage.
"The goal is to better understand how systematic the relationship between sugarcane cultivation, child marriage, and hysterectomies is in India's Western Sugarcane Belt," researchers Eliana La Ferrara and Aditi Bhowmick told CG. "Our findings suggest a substantial, persistent, and robust relationship between sugarcane cultivation and each of these outcomes." Read more…
A 12-year-old Girl Scout in Sacramento, California, has drawn on her personal experience with extreme heat to help draft a bill requiring the state's school health curriculum to include guidance on heat-related illness.
During a record-breaking heat wave in 2022, Natalie Rubio told GoodDay Sacramento, the air conditioning in her school's cafeteria failed, forcing students to eat lunch outside for multiple days amid temperatures as high as 116 degrees Fahrenheit. After many of her classmates reported feeling sick in the heat, Rubio launched her Girl Scout Silver Award project.
Rubio found that many of her classmates did not understand the impacts of heat exposure or know what heat-related illness was. She presented her findings to her local school board and later connected with state lawmakers about the possibility of developing legislation.
In January, assemblymember Tom Lackey introduced Assembly Bill 1653. If signed into law, the legislation would add guidance to the Health Framework for California Public Schools for recognizing and responding to the signs and symptoms of heat-related illness. Read more…
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.
"While we don't position AquaBloom as a 'gender product,' we do see it as a practical tool that can help make access to productivity gains more equitable," AquaBloom Founder and Chief Executive Officer Michelle Arsjad told CG.
"Until these gaps are closed, Kenya risks remaining trapped in a cycle of rebuild, recover, repeat," Susan Onyango and Hellen Wanjohi-Opil of the World Resources Institute told CG about response to devastating floods.
Dolores Huerta's recent accounts may help to highlight still-lacking protections against gender-based violence in farmworker and environmental advocacy spaces.
"The climate crisis is reinforcing gender inequality and risks setting back years of progress in girls' education and protection," Keya Khandaker of Plan International told CG. "It shouldn't be portrayed solely as an environmental issue."
