"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.
In January, CG looked at a number of state-level bans on products containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — also known as PFAS, or "forever chemicals" for their persistence in habitats and human bodies.
Not to be outdone by persistence, the synthetic chemicals are also widespread across industrial applications and consumer goods, from waterproof clothing to stain-resistant fabrics, nonstick cookware, cosmetics, and menstrual products. While more research is needed, exposure to PFAS has been linked to a range of health concerns, including cancers and reproductive issues.
Earlier this month, a new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council, which tested 115 textile and consumer products, found that PFAS levels across many product categories have dropped significantly since new restrictions took effect in New York and California. The shift by major brands away from PFAS suggests that industry concerns about the difficulty and expense of adopting alternatives may not have been as significant as claimed.
Anna Reade, senior scientist at the NRDC and co-author of the report, told the Guardian, "The market is moving — laggards must quickly move away from using PFAS and protect consumers, regardless of where they shop."
Last month, CG covered HERA's new Heat Science Hotline, aimed at connecting those working to help their communities stay safe amid intensifying heat waves with experts in public health, urban planning, midwifery, and more.
This week — at London Climate Action Week, where temperatures were so high that an event about extreme heat was canceled due to extreme heat — the women-led nongovernmental organization announced its plans to launch HERA Materna, described in a press release as "the world’s first ever heat-pregnancy insurance program."
The program is said to combine insurance payouts, "philanthropy-funded cash support," an early warning system, cooling tools, and maternal health education. At a time when some private insurance companies are withdrawing property insurance coverage over heightened vulnerabilities to floods and wildfires, this approach to protecting mothers and babies from the dangers of extreme heat may prove an innovative one.
Driven by record-breaking heat waves and other extreme weather, school and summer camp closures across India, France, the UK, the U.S., and beyond have the potential to disproportionately affect mothers juggling multiple jobs and struggling to fill unexpected gaps in already insufficient child care arrangements.
"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.
But Schifter — along with leaders at U.N. Women, MomsRising, and A Better Balance — also told CG there's a lot we can do to improve safe learning and working conditions at schools and camps while helping to mitigate the degree to which women's unpaid care work is, in effect, subsidizing climate resilience worldwide. 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.
"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.
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.
