"Historically, females have been underrepresented in thermoregulation research," postdoctoral fellow Hannah Blount told CG. Her work to address knowledge gaps around sweat patterns is set to prove even more critical as temperatures rise — and could even help girls stay safe and active in sports.
You're a teenager. You're facing social pressures, your body is changing, and you're practicing hard to make the basketball team this year. Or the soccer team. Maybe track.
You live in India. Or France. Could be California. And you've got to manage your training around air quality advisories and dangerous heat waves so you can stay safe while you exercise.
There's also this: You're a teen girl, and it turns out no one fully understands how your sweat responses are changing as you go through puberty or how to help your evolving body feel more comfortable and confident during periods of exertion and high temperatures.
"Historically, females have been underrepresented in thermoregulation research, meaning there are still important knowledge gaps to address," postdoctoral research fellow Hannah Blount of the University of Southampton told CG.
Blount's study aims to inform public health messaging, improve clothing design, and help teen girls stay safe and engaged in sports, even in a warming world — a goal that gender equity advocates say could be crucial to closing gaps in well-being and opportunity. Read more...
In July, flash floods and landslides set off by heavy monsoon rains killed dozens of people in southeastern Bangladesh and displaced over a million. Last week, the Gender in Humanitarian Action Working Group released a rapid gender analysis of the events. Among other impacts, the disaster was found to have increased unpaid care work for women and girls and disrupted access to menstrual, reproductive, and maternal care. Proposed solutions included elevating and solidifying the informal roles of women and girls in rescue and relief efforts into sustained leadership opportunities.
Recent flooding in Assam, a northeastern state in India, has claimed nearly 100 lives. The Assam Tribune reported that thousands of those displaced have lacked menstrual support, maternal care, and privacy. According to Down to Earth, "deforestation, mining, wetland loss, and unplanned development ... are making these disasters more severe and unpredictable.
As the El Niño weather phenomenon threatens to deepen humanitarian crises by exacerbating droughts, floods, disease, risks of gender-based violence and child marriage, and hunger, the organization CARE is urging governments and donors to scale up investments in "anticipatory action, preparedness, and response," particularly in countries where repeated climate shocks are threatening food security. CARE estimates that "172.3 million women and girls [are already] at risk of food insecurity in the countries expected to be worst affected by El Niño." The organization says it has mobilized its Early Action Fund to put women at the center of efforts in advance of disaster.
A systematic review published in July in the journal Trauma, Violence, & Abuse examined 22 global studies from high-income and low-income settings and found that rising temperatures and heat wave frequency appear to act as a catalyst or amplifier for gender-based violence and child marriage, particularly in contexts with existing social and structural vulnerabilities. Researchers called for more inclusive research to understand how extreme heat affects such risk across different populations — including LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, migrants, Indigenous communities, and adolescents — noting that most studies focus on cisgender women in heterosexual relationships.
In "On call in a burning city," the India-based HeatWatch spotlights how rising temperatures in Delhi NCR — or National Capital Region — are stoking serious occupational risks for women platform workers. In its report, the organization writes that platform work "refers to paid work that is arranged, assigned, or mediated through a digital platform or app," similar to Lyft, Instacart, or TaskRabbit. Surveys of 100 women workers found that extreme heat affected both health and livelihoods, with 86% reporting heat-related illness and around 70% reporting income loss or reduced work. The report finds that current heat and labor policies fail to adequately protect these workers and urges governments and companies to take greater responsibility for reducing heat-related risks.
Cases tied to an ongoing mpox outbreak in Madagascar have recently topped 3,000, according to The Telegraph, with 20 related deaths recorded as of late July. A 2024 editorial in the Journal of Public Health in Africa identified climate change as a potential factor in the spread of the virus into new areas. "Broader climate change may contribute to expanding the habitats of the animal hosts and the virus," the co-authors, including those from the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, wrote. Some recent outbreaks have disproportionately impacted LGBTQ+ people, but community advocates have also noted that transmission is not limited to any gender or sexuality. Researchers, meanwhile, are hoping to close some gaps in prevention by conducting trials to determine if mpox vaccines can be more broadly administered to pregnant people and children.
While arson appears to have sparked at least one of the major wildfires that have overwhelmed Washington State and the Pacific Northwest region of the U.S. of late, experts maintain that climate and environmental factors have exacerbated the blazes. Meanwhile, a study published in Frontiers in Environmental Health this week highlights wildfire smoke as a significant risk for pregnant people and pregnancies. "The study found that some regions were disproportionately affected by the smoke, including in the Northwest, where rates of pollution from wildfire more than doubled over [the study] period," according to Stateline, which also noted that the research team identified rural, low-income, and Indigenous communities as bearing the heaviest burdens.
On August 1, Minnesota became the first state in the U.S. to ban the "nudification" apps that — powered by energy-, water-, and land use-intensive artificial intelligence — can be used to generate nonconsensual sexualized deepfakes. "The new law would impose a $500,000 fine on an AI company each time a person uses the 'nudification' technology," reported Minnesota Public Radio, which noted that the law remains in effect despite a new lawsuit brought by Elon Musk's AI company xAI. The company's chatbot Grok came under fire earlier this year when it was discovered that it was being used to generate a huge number of nonconsensual sexualized images.
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, and LGBTQ+ communities — especially individuals 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 and environment crises and concerns that can disproportionately affect boys and men.
But there's a whole lot going on around the world, and this weekly brief isn't intended to be exhaustive but rather your chance to spend just a few moments on a handful of items — including the ideas that might make a difference.
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.
CG spoke with self-identified climate refugee Margaret Reynolds about how a Maine coalition is working to save an L&D unit amid a rash of rural maternity care closures across the state and country — and amid extreme weather that can complicate travel to health centers farther and farther away.
"I think people think heart attacks, people think asthma. But they don't think about pregnant people," said Amy Padula, Acting Director of UCSF's Program on Reproductive Health & the Environment, about how pregnant people may be overlooked as one of the groups especially sensitive to wildfire smoke.
"Being a queer [or] trans activist and an environmental activist puts you in a greater sense of danger because both agendas are heavily under attack," Diego De Leon, Advocacy Chair at Out for Sustainability, told CG.
"While every family is different, mothers are disproportionately the default parent, meaning climate disruptions can add to the mental load, logistical challenges, and economic pressures many women already face," Laura Schifter, a Senior Fellow at the D.C.-based Aspen Institute, told CG.
