Like most children, I loved summer. Dreams of splashing in the pool and fun road trips would get me through winter. But these days, as a New Orleans resident, summer has become synonymous with hurricane season — a scary and precarious time that seems to get worse every passing year, thanks to climate change. Now, scientists say rising temperatures aren’t the only thing we need to fear this summer. A new study suggests that extreme weather is likely to increase violence against women, queer people, and gender minorities.
The study, which was published this morning in The Lancet Planetary Health, analyzed 41 studies on extreme weather events — like storms, floods, droughts, heatwaves, and fires — across six continents. Researchers looked at that data alongside data on gender-based violence that included everything from reports of sexual harassment to “witch killings.” Their findings indicated gender-based violence seems to increase during extreme weather events.
