"As climate change gets worse ... people are going to be experiencing multiple hazards over their lifetime … experiencing multiple of these hazards might affect people's choices," Meg "Bee" Brown, lead author of a study on how extreme weather is impacting contraceptive preferences and use, told CG.
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 month, CG spoke with Arnav Singh Rana and Sahil Jamal Siddiqui about their community-led pilot study looking at the effects of heat waves on transmasculine communities in India. Now, through their groups NavHill Foundation and Transmen Collective, the researchers have launched a website through which users can interact with their findings.
Topics include how extreme heat exposure might exacerbate gender dysphoria and the use of chest binders during periods of intense heat. "These are not side effects of summer," the site reads. "They are the consequences of a health and policy system that was never designed with transmasculine bodies in mind."
In December, CG covered the news that then-U.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer would "reconsider and seek comments" on portions of a rule established under the Biden administration to protect coal miners. The proposed rule was intended to mitigate the incurable but preventable black lung disease by bringing miners' exposure limits to airborne silica down to 50 micrograms as well as requiring silica testing in more mines and enhancing medical surveillance.
In early April, West Virginia Watch reported that the Mine Safety and Health Administration would delay implementation of the rule for "at least the fourth time" and, this time, indefinitely, pending a federal court case.
Gendered impacts include costly health consequences across a largely but not exclusively male workforce, with women often underrepresented in black lung research. Read more …
This article is part of a series spotlighting contraceptive research and development efforts in a warming world, co-published by Climate, Gendered and CTI Exchange.
Mary's efforts to reach the clinic in Kenya where she received contraceptive injections became impossible when drought forced the continual relocation of her family's grazing livestock. Aliya, with one child of her own, told researchers that it was flooding in Nigeria that was challenging her mother's access to contraception.
Both previously shared their experiences with YLabs, a global design and research organization that manages, among other projects, a digital clearinghouse for evidence at the nexus of climate change and sexual and reproductive health and rights, or SRHR. The personal stories reflect some of the issues highlighted in a landmark study co-authored by researchers at the organization and other institutions.
Published in September 2025, the study looked at how extreme temperatures and precipitation might affect "contraceptive use, fertility preferences, and contraceptive autonomy," according to a press release.
"As climate change gets worse and worse, people are going to be experiencing multiple hazards over their lifetime, and … experiencing multiple of these hazards might affect people's choices," Meg "Bee" Brown, the Research Lead at YLabs and the study's lead author, told CG. Read more…
Supply chain bottlenecks associated with the war in Iran have slammed Karex, the world's biggest manufacturer of condoms, which says it plans to significantly raise prices if the disruptions continue.
"The situation is definitely very fragile, prices are expensive ... We have no choice but to transfer the costs right now to the customers," Goh Miah Kiat, Chief Executive Officer of Karex, told Reuters this week. The Malaysian company said it expects to raise prices by 20% to 30% should the war in Iran continue to roil global supplies and shipping.
In addition to thousands of fatalities, the conflict has seen American, Israeli, and Iranian strikes on oil and gas infrastructure, driving pollution and an energy crisis exacerbated by the war-related blockages of the Strait of Hormuz. The regional waterway is vital to the global trade of fossil fuels and countless consumer goods.
According to the BBC, "Karex relies on materials derived from oil, including ammonia — which is used to preserve latex — and silicone-based lubricants." As the war has unfolded, the costs of materials such as synthetic rubber, nitrile, lubricants, and even condom packaging have also risen. Read more …
Officials in Southeast Asia have issued heat advisories in recent weeks in response to brutal heat waves. In Thailand, the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority warned people of "very dangerous" levels of heat, potentially exceeding 125 degrees Fahrenheit (52 degrees Celsius). Yet measures can be taken to address the devastating effects and improve equitable access to safer temperatures.
Among the potential solutions? Passive cooling strategies, defined by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute as "building technologies or features that lower indoor temperatures without the need for mechanical systems such as [air conditioning]," which rely on costly energy sources.
"We need to reframe passive cooling not as a discretionary expense, but as essential infrastructure that protects both human health and economic well-being," Gregory Wellenius, Director of the Center for Climate and Health at Boston University, told CG, while discussing the potential for passive cooling to improve the lives of vulnerable populations, including pregnant people and women workers. Read more…
This digest was reported and curated by Gracie Leavitt and edited by 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.
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.
"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.
