"He who destroyed the forests sleeps in air-conditioned rooms. He who toiled the soil wraps himself in a damp cloth." These are among the lyrics of the Sollisai Sistahs, an all-women rap group from Tamil Nadu featured on the new Climate Emergency Mixtape.
This week, the World Health Organization, World Meteorological Organization, U.N. Children's Fund, and U.N. Population Fund introduced the first-ever set of priority indicators to help countries track the health impacts of extreme heat on pregnant people, newborns, and children, all of whom are particularly vulnerable to heat-related risks.
Recommended indicators include preterm births, stillbirths, low birth weight, pregnancy hypertension, child deaths, and health-facility visits during extreme heat as well as school attendance.
By comparing health outcomes with heat-exposure data, countries can identify potential hazards, determine which communities and populations are most affected, and strengthen preparedness efforts and targeted responses.
"What health systems do not count, they cannot respond to," the WHO's Pascale Allotey said in the announcement of the new framework.
The WHO also urged countries to develop heat-health action plans tailored to vulnerable populations, as well as strengthen early-warning systems, including heat alerts and tailored public messaging, to support timely action.
Research cited in the announcement links heat exposure to a 26% increase in the odds of preterm birth. It also found that infants under one year old experienced 389% more heat wave days in 2024 than during a 1986-2005 baseline period.
This week, it was confirmed in a Wisconsin poultry flock. In Northern California backyard birds. It even shut down parts of a Kentucky zoo.
As avian influenza has continued to spread among birds, mammals, and sometimes from animals to people, researchers are looking at the parent-to-offspring transmission of the H5N1 strain, which can affect humans.
While a recent study led by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health focused on transmission from mother to offspring in mice, the findings could end up having implications for human populations.
According to a news release last month from Michigan State University, which was also involved in the study, the work presents a new model "to investigate how H5N1 affects pregnancy and to test potential ways to prevent or treat the disease."
And while the researchers are careful to distinguish between their efforts to map H5N1 in pregnant mice and offspring from future work that may explore transmission in pregnant and newborn humans, their study appears to address a critical gap in biomedical research, which often involves male animals and may not fully address women's health or treatments in pregnancy.
"Women's health and pregnancy and offspring — we have to have even more studies like these to really understand how the viruses can affect the susceptible population," study co-author and MSU professor Jack Harkema said in the release.
From here, future work may evaluate whether a vaccine (currently in trials) or treatment for H5N1 is effective in pregnancy. Such medical interventions may become increasingly important, with the potential for shifts in climate and animal migration to influence the spread of bird flu.
While not currently found to spread from human to human, those exposed to infected farm animals and animal products may face higher risks. Communities can also be affected by related impacts on food systems and agricultural economies, such as those relying on dairy, eggs, and poultry.
This year's Faith to Action Women's Conference convened in Accra, Ghana, bringing together participants from Christian, Muslim, and traditional religious communities to explore women's roles in advancing climate justice and sustainable peace.
From Oct. 6 to Oct. 8, speakers called for stronger environmental action across faith communities, highlighting threats from drought, flooding, water shortages, and illegal mining,
Speakers underscored the gendered impacts of the climate and nature crises and women's prominent roles in addressing them, according to the Daily Graphic. They also emphasized opportunities to generate income while protecting the environment, including turning agricultural waste materials into consumer products such as fuel briquettes.
The conference reflects broader efforts worldwide to engage women and faith communities in climate action and environmental stewardship.
"Faith must not remain only in our places of worship, but it must be translated into action that contributes to the peace, development, and well-being of our society," said conference speaker Patricia Addy, per the Graphic. Addy is the Director of the Presbyterian Women's Centre in Abokobi.
A new report warns that climate change, economic shocks, and trade disruptions threaten to deepen gender inequalities related to food, land, and water over the next 14 years and especially in low-income countries.
The report, published by CGIAR GENDER Accelerator, covers a number of issues, ranging from the impacts of ongoing fuel and fertilizer shortages to how water scarcity could increase women's unpaid labor and how barriers to digital climate information may limit women farmers' ability to prepare for changing weather conditions.
Its findings show that strengthening gender equality can benefit food security for all.
"We cannot feed our future without including women in our food systems — this report is a manual on how to do just that by 2050," said Ismahane Elouafi, Executive Managing Director of CGIAR, in a press release.
The authors outline strategies including sustained investments in legal and institutional reform, safer working conditions, stronger social safety nets, and improved access to training and technology.
"Investing in women, not as laborers, but as leaders, is the path towards unlocking the full potential of our food, land, and water systems," said Nicoline de Haan, Director of the CGIAR GENDER Accelerator, in the release.
One finding noted that while rural women may increasingly move away from on-farm work in the coming years, career opportunities in processing, logistics, and retail may emerge. "However, women … are likely to require targeted policies and interventions that enable them to engage in these opportunities," according to the report, which calls on governments, groups, funders, and the private sector to act.
Australia has committed an additional $8 million AUD ($12.5 million FJ) over four years to Women's Fund Fiji. The investment is set to support 44 grants to women-led initiatives advancing gender equality across the island country, according to the Fiji Sun.
The initiatives will reportedly focus on women's economic empowerment, climate-smart agriculture, food security, disaster preparedness, and efforts to prevent gender-based violence while expanding survivor services. Funds are intended to reach diverse groups, including women in rural and maritime communities, women with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ communities.
Pacific Island nations are on the frontlines of climate change, facing rising sea levels, coastal erosion, flooding, and threats to food systems and livelihoods. Following Fiji's hosting of the Pacific Pre-COP 31 climate talks in October, the funding announcement underscores the importance of translating regional climate priorities into locally led action that strengthens community resilience efforts.
Experts in Bangladesh are highlighting the need for changes across the country's chemical-heavy textile industry, including stronger safety measures to address the use of certain chemicals and better representation of women in decision-making roles.
Recent calls came at the National Stakeholders' Consultation on the Gender Action Plan in the Textile Sector, held in Dhaka on Oct. 12 and organized under the project "Reducing Uses and Releases of Chemicals of Concern, Including Persistent Organic Pollutants, in the Textile Sector," The Business Standard reported.
According to the outlet, Mahfuzul Haque, National Coordinator for the project, said that workers employed in the industry are exposed to chemicals and compounds "which multiple studies have shown to be harmful to the reproductive health of both women and men."
Women represent over 48% of the textile workforce in Bangladesh, gender expert Khondaker Golam Moazzem told meeting participants. But, he said, "their presence is very low in critical areas such as dyeing and washing (wet processing) and in supervisory or management roles."
Improving women's representation in those roles could help anticipate, monitor, and respond to a wider range of potential health and safety concerns — including heat-related risks previously documented in textile factories and mills.
"Every worker deserves a safe workplace," read a social media post from the nongovernmental organization and event partner Environment and Social Development Organization on the day of the meeting. "The proposed action plan aims to address these challenges through clear responsibilities, measurable targets, and coordinated action."
Panelists called for the integration of gender into chemical management and occupational health and safety protocols, including the equitable provision of personal protective equipment and safety training. They also called on the Department of Environment to protect rivers from the chemicals involved in textile dyeing and processing, according to The Business Standard.
Health care providers, environmental activists, renewable energy advocates, and youth organizations are suing the Montana Public Service Commission, or PSC, in an effort to ensure the regulatory agency overseeing private utilities in the state considers climate change in its decision-making.
In an Oct. 15 filing, the coalition petitioned the Missoula County District Court to rule that the PSC — which oversees rates and service of investor-owned electricity, natural gas, and water — must uphold the Montana Constitution: A 2024 Montana Supreme Court ruling affirmed residents' constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment in the youth-led Held vs. Montana case.
"It's time for the Commission to honor its legal obligation and nudge Montana's utilities towards cleaner, cheaper renewable energy resources," Derek Goldman of the Northwest Energy Coalition, a co-petitioner, told the Montana Free Press.
According to the local outlet, 17 groups signed on to the court filing after the PSC rejected a petition to the commission itself last month. The Daily Montanan reported that this followed a similar rejection in 2025.
The petitioners argue that by ignoring the consequences of human-induced climate change in its decision-making, the regulatory body has allowed utilities to rely on fossil fuels as an energy source. Pollution associated with the fossil fuel industry has been linked to unique health risks for young children, pregnant people, and older adults.
In a statement cited by the Daily Montanan, Sarah Lundquist of co-petitioner Families for a Livable Climate referenced the youth-led Held case and said adults have a responsibility to take such action further.
"The [PSC] has enormous influence over Montana's energy future, and we must ensure climate change is at the center of its decisions," she said. "It is our responsibility as adults to protect the future our kids deserve."
Hip-hop artists in India banded together this month to launch the Climate Emergency Mixtape, a set of pulsing tracks highlighting the impacts of the human-induced crisis on their communities.
Produced by civic engagement platform Youth Ki Awaaz, organizers say the goal of the mixtape is to engage people in a medium beyond formal reports, which don't always seep into popular consciousness.
"We [needed] to do it in a way that it becomes a part of local common language," Anshul, an organizer with Youth Ki Awaaz, told The News Minute.
The tracks range in topics from addressing how mining in the Konkan region has damaged soil to how industry has polluted Delhi's air to how caste and gender inequality can compound the impacts of the climate crisis.
"I have been talking about these things in my songs right now, oppression and men," Bengaluru-based artist Kali told The News Minute. "How we men are conditioned to be and how we treat people, how we isolate ourselves and harm other people."
The Sollisai Sistahs, an all-woman rap group from Tamil Nadu, often write and perform about gender justice and caste inequality. Their mixtape track includes these lyrics:"Think carefully, think! Who's gonna get caught here? The people who sweat and grind are living in a heat cage! Corporate, coat-and-suit are building temples, dancing around. He who destroyed the forests sleeps in air-conditioned rooms. He who toiled the soil wraps himself in a damp cloth. When floods come, he flies abroad. When summer burns, he chases hill station breeze."
Later, they pose: "Rain, storm, flood, it’s all climate change. Who does this hit first? That’s what we need to understand!"
This digest was curated, reported, and formatted 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. We appreciate your feedback and observations.
"We're concerned about what these effects might mean for contraceptive users exposed to ambient heat for many hours at a time, day after day, with little ability to adapt or recover … which is an unfortunate reality for many women living and working in [LMICs]," researcher Cara Schulte told CG.
"In Zimbabwe, contraceptive pills were being sold by staff to buy food during the drought. In drought-affected communities, 54% of girls and young women had seen more unintended pregnancy, against 29% elsewhere," Reena Ghelani, CEO of Plan International, told CG.
"The goal is for the [seed savers] to have good forage for their cattle but also earn income from selling the forage and native seeds," Nai-nancy Laizer of Savannas Forever Tanzania told CG. "So it addresses the effects of climate but also generates income to these communities."
"We know how much these women have trained, sacrificed, and prepared for this moment," Siana Austin Hunt of the O'ahu Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association said in a release regarding the race's cancellation, adding, "but the safety and well-being of our people and communities must come first."
