Efforts to improve the resilience of mud-built homes are set to become increasingly critical as rising global temperatures fuel extreme weather.
Floods that impacted the all-girls camp in Texas hill country resulted in the deaths of 25 campers, two teenage camp counselors, and the camp's director, along with over 100 other people in the area.
"If kids know that feeling dizzy, nauseous, or having a really bad headache means that they need to stop playing and get help, they'll be able to protect themselves from worsening symptoms," 12-year-old Natalie Rubio said, testifying before California lawmakers earlier this year.
"Leptospirosis can be more serious in certain populations, including pregnant individuals, and may pose risks to both the pregnant person and the fetus," Department of Health spokesperson Adam LeFebvre told CG. "However, the risk can be managed with precautions and early medical care."
"Burden was estimated to be disproportionate in South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa," the co-authors wrote in their report. "Implementing regulatory measures to limit exposure to phthalates as a class could help reduce the global [preterm birth] burden."
"I would say that with just a massive amount of those chemicals in a short period, probably preterm birth would be greatly increased," researcher Marsha Wills-Karp told CG about some of the potential impacts of pollution from burning oil reserves. She also recommended steps to mitigate exposure.
"While it's too early to conclude anything from this data — like that microplastics are involved in prostate cancer development — nevertheless, I think it is still scary that they're in so many prostates," study lead author Stacy Loeb told the Urology Times.
Some groups have raised concerns that per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, may be used in the cooling process and later flushed into wastewater systems. Exposure to some "forever chemicals" has been linked with serious conditions, including certain reproductive health issues.
Lize Barclay, Senior Lecturer in Futures Studies and Systems Thinking at Stellenbosch Business School in South Africa, told CG about how data center expansion in the region has the potential to further burden women and girls already disproportionately tasked with water collection.
“ Women are the ones who understand the needs of their families and how much water is needed to manage their households," Nik Kowsar told CG. "They can teach how to manage the water to their own children."
For many, the consequences of freshwater scarcity may go beyond the time- and labor-intensive process of collecting it, with excessive consumption of and exposure to overly salty water linked to reproductive health concerns.
![Global outbreaks are another climate-linked driver of violence against women and girls — but "we know how to keep [them] safe"](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1584931423298-c576fda54bd2?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3wxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDJ8fG91dGJyZWFrc3xlbnwwfHx8fDE3Nzk0NzY2NzN8MA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=80&w=30)
"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."
"Just because the RNA is present doesn't mean that that individual is actively infectious," David Safronetz of the Public Health Agency of Canada told Scientific American. Still, the CDC has encouraged people to "[avoid] kissing and sexual contact with someone who may have Andes virus."
"Pollution and climate shifts make the regular stressors more extreme and add new stressors," Jamie DeWitt, a study co-author and Director of the Pacific Northwest Center for Translational Environmental Health Research at Oregon State University, told CG.
The research involved trial participants in Pakistan, India, Kenya, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Guatemala.
"Reported user feedback includes easier insertion, less dryness on removal, and strong overall comfort," Vyld co-founder Melanie Schichan told CG.
"The goal is to better understand how systematic the relationship between sugarcane cultivation, child marriage, and hysterectomies is in India's Western Sugarcane Belt," Eliana La Ferrara and Aditi Bhowmick told CG. "Our findings suggest a substantial, persistent, and robust relationship..."
"What we've found is that when a solution is simple, low-risk, and shows visible results quickly, it becomes more accessible — including to women farmers who may not control large budgets or land," AquaBloom Founder and Chief Executive Officer Michelle Arsjad told CG.
"Key measures include elevating foundations above expected flood levels, using stronger and water-resistant construction materials, reinforcing walls and roofing structures, and ensuring proper site selection away from high-risk zones," according to the organization.
![As heat waves intensify across Asia, community input is essential to passive cooling: "[It] only protects people if it reaches them where they are"](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1599580546605-a86af98dbdb0?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3wxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDR8fGdyZWVuJTIwd2FsbHxlbnwwfHx8fDE3NzY5NjA4NDh8MA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=80&w=30)
"I'm excited about how accessible and practical these strategies are, and especially about their potential cumulative impact," Gregory Wellenius, Director of the Center for Climate and Health at Boston University, told CG.
"We will keep marching on and we will continue to do our best for our communities that remain at risk," Lisa Emery, Director of the New River Health Breathing Center and Black Lung Clinic, told West Virginia Watch.
"When fuel and other prices rise, social inequality increases, women and feminized people take on additional work, facing increased demands for unpaid care work and suffering the negative impacts on their access to fuel, food, transport, and housing," Tara Povey of the Bretton Woods Project told CG.
If the U.S. took over the resource-rich territory? "Paid maternity leave, gone. Free abortion, gone. Free birth control, medicine, etc., gone. Safety on the streets for women ... also gone," the former member of Greenland's parliament worried, in conversation with CG.
The Guttmacher Institute's Candace Gibson spoke with CG about how water policy — not based on evidence of environmental harm & proposed across the US — could impact abortion. That's not to say all enviro policy is bad for repro rights. In France, Belgium, even the US, it may still help protect them.
"Without deliberate institutional reforms and targeted capacity-building initiatives, we risk perpetuating policies that fail to address the specific vulnerabilities of women and marginalized communities who suffer the most from environmental crises."
![With the Belém Gender Action Plan adopted, stakeholders see both progress and shortcomings: '[Its] strength … depends on how we choose to carry it forward'](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1673296630925-a16a5592cc14?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3wxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDV8fHVuaXRlZCUyMG5hdGlvbnMlMjBjbGltYXRlJTIwY2hhbmdlfGVufDB8fHx8MTc2NDAwNzkzNHww&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=80&w=30)
"We cannot have an effective GAP while perpetuating fossil fuel extraction," Claudia Rubio Giraldo of Women's Environment and Development Organization told Climate, Gendered.
"The Hotline ... [stands] out because it focuses not only on generating awareness, but on helping people make practical, evidence-informed decisions in real time — which is exactly what frontline providers and communities need right now," Neha Mankani, a Co-Chair of the project, told CG.
"We need low-cost ways to come together now, in the wake of funding cuts, even though the issues are as urgent as ever," Ashley Wolfington, a veteran of international development, told CG.
"We are facing severe physical distress during exam season," the petition reportedly read.
With research indicating that gendered differences in diagnosis may contribute to delayed treatment and with rising temperatures enabling ticks to expand their range and lifecycles, an effective vaccine to prevent infection in the first place may be even more important.
