"This research project would not have happened had we not had buy-in and trust from the farmers we worked with," Emily Selland told CG about an effort in Senegal that showed integration of native fish into watery rice fields might curb schistosomiasis risks, which may be affected by climate shifts.
CG has previously covered the Trump administration's move to support the U.S. coal industry, even while climate scientists generally agree that a meaningful transition away from fossil fuels to cleaner, renewable energy sources is key to mitigating the worst impacts of rising global temperatures. The industry is also linked to persistent concerns over a lack of worker safety measures for miners facing the deadly risks of "black lung disease" and to public health risks more generally.
Meanwhile, according to the New York Times, the administration last week announced a $700 million investment in the industry, "including money that would help build the first two new coal-burning power plants in the United States in more than a decade." The outlet described coal as "the most polluting of the fossil fuels and a favored industry of the president's."
In April, CG heard from Mike Bonanza of the flight-based organization Elevated Access about the compounding impacts of the energy crisis in the U.S. — exacerbated by the war in Iran — on long-distance travel to access abortion and gender-affirming care by car and plane.
Last week, Stateline spoke with leaders at abortion funds across the country about the strain of rising fuel costs. "We saw a 44% increase in how much we spent on flights in March of 2025 to March of 2026," Melisa Hidalgo-Cuellar of Colorado's Cobalt Abortion Fund told Stateline.
In December, CG heard from Cara Schulte of Climate Rights International about a report she co-authored, identifying the extreme-heat hazards that workers have faced at factories and mills in Pakistan — factories and mills that do business with companies including H&M, Inditex (Zara), GAP, ASOS, and IKEA. The CRI report contained recommendations from workers about how to improve working conditions.
This week, the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights published a new report, based on field research in India, that examined extreme heat as "one of the most serious threats to worker safety and supply chain resilience in the global apparel industry." The report includes key recommendations for brands, suppliers, manufacturers, buyers, governments, and regulators.
"One of the report's main findings is that extreme heat is no longer solely an external climate issue," author Lucy Siers posted on social media. "It is an occupational health and safety risk for workers and an increasingly important supply chain resilience challenge for global brands."
One of the world's most prevalent and under-addressed diseases may have a new foe: fish.
A research project along the Senegal River basin pitted two species of fish against the freshwater snails known to carry the parasite that causes the "dominant form of schistosomiasis in the region," according to a news release.
The researchers, whose study was published in Nature Sustainability last month, found that when native Nile tilapia and African bonytongue were introduced or restored to rice fields in rural Senegal, freshwater snail populations declined.
Native fish swimming through the intentionally flooded fields where rice is grown may suppress the parasite-carrying mollusks by feeding on them or by outcompeting them for resources. This could be especially good news for rice farmers and their families, who may face increased risks of schistosomiasis, which can cause intestinal problems, organ damage, and even death, according to the World Health Organization. Genital forms of the disease — female genital schistosomiasis and male genital schistosomiasis — can also pose sexual and reproductive health concerns.
Meanwhile, integrating rice and fish cultivation was also shown to improve rice yields while adding fish to local food systems and economies, study lead author Emily Selland told CG. Further research into the approach could prove particularly beneficial as climate-linked shifts in rainfall, flooding, and more may affect infection and transmission risks. Read more...
This digest was curated, reported, written, and edited by Gracie Leavitt.
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.
"Everywhere is blacked out," photographer Taiwo Aina-Adeokun told CG about the smoky, sooty conditions she observed in kitchen settings — spaces to which her identity as a female photojournalist helped gain her access, she said. "At the fish smoking area, her eyes were always watery."
"We know how to keep women and girls safe in outbreak situations," Lindsay Stark, Co-Director of the Center for Violence and Injury Prevention at Washington University, told CG. "We simply need the political buy-in and financial resources to ensure we do not repeat the mistakes of past responses."
"Pollution and climate shifts make the regular stressors more extreme and add new stressors," Jamie DeWitt, study co-author and Director of the Pacific Northwest Center for Translational Environmental Health Research at Oregon State University, told CG.
"There is nothing safe about forcing patients to drive through winter storms or snowy mountain passes to pick up a pill that's just as safe for them to get in the mail and that, either way, they'll take at home," Jenna Hudson, Senior Counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights, told CG.
