"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."
Mothers displaced by floods across Kenya have shared accounts of infant illness, insufficient food, and decreased breastmilk supplies. One mom was forced to carry her newborn above rising waters. CG heard from Susan Onyango and Hellen Wanjohi-Opil, experts based in Nairobi, about the path forward.
"Our research reveals an encouraging finding: Social safety net programs can substantially buffer households against climate-induced violence," Leah Lakdawala told CG about her team's study on impacts in the Peruvian Highlands.
"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."
Researcher Sherri Mason told National Public Radio that the move to monitor substances like microplastics in drinking water is "an important first step." Earthjustice attorney Katherine O'Brien told the outlet the effort is "a distraction."
"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.
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.
Mike Bonanza of Elevated Access told CG that the situation could "result in more referrals" to his flight-based organization, even as plane fuel is set to be impacted as well. Volunteer pilots with the nonprofit transport patients to abortion and gender-affirming care at no cost to passengers.
"We need to get mercury and other heavy metal emissions down to zero or as close as we can get to," Skye Wheeler, a Senior Researcher in the Women's Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, told CG via email.
"Participants consistently described chest binding during extreme heat as physically exhausting and, at times, unsafe," researchers Arnav Singh Rana and Sahil Jamal Siddiqui told CG, also noting methods for mitigating discomfort and protecting well-being.
"We are actively recruiting partners to do this across the United States," the organization's senior campaigner, Kelley Dennings, 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.
"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.
"Cesar's actions do not diminish the permanent improvements achieved for farmworkers with the help of thousands of people," Dolores Huerta wrote in her statement. "We must continue to engage and support our community, which needs advocacy and activism now more than ever."
"It’s hard to imagine the people I met who rely on U.S. drugs for their survival suddenly cut off," New York Times reporter Stephanie Nolen wrote of her recent trip to the northwest region of Zambia in a comment online.
The U.S. halted oil shipments from Venezuela to Cuba in January. Later, the Trump administration threatened to impose tariffs on other countries that sent oil to the island nation. There have been reports of women cooking with charcoal amid blackouts — and of a surge in solar energy interest.
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.
"In emergency settings, there is rarely enough time to conduct full household surveys or collect detailed information, and field teams often face staffing, funding, and logistical constraints," study co-author Sonia Akter told CG. "The survey instrument overcomes these challenges."
"Without proper data, we cannot develop appropriate solutions," Vanessa Brizuela, the expert at the World Health Organization who issued the call, told CG. One aim of the effort, which emphasizes community voices and lived experiences, is to generate evidence to inform national adaptation plans.
Keya Khandaker of Plan International told CG about the research documenting the lives of girls in Benin, Brazil, Cambodia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, the Philippines, Togo, Uganda, and Vietnam.
"I hope I can be a little bit of proof to you that combining who you are and what you’re good at to fight for the change you want to see in the world works."
