The Climate-Health Nexus, Mystery Illness in Sri Lanka, and Latinos in STEM

Editor's Note

This week, Senior Fellow David P. Filder hosted an internal roundtable, "The Climate-Health Nexus After COP28," as part of a bid to preserve the momentum generated by this month's Conference of the Parties (COP28).

Unlike in previous years, health was paramount at COP28—a pivotal shift solidified by an international pledge to transition away from fossil fuels and commit to renewable energy. Despite that agreement, Fidler writes, the conference fell short in delivering comprehensive strategies for mitigation and financing, leaving a critical gap in addressing climate change's escalating health threats in an "increasingly hot-and-bothered world."

To unpack just how extensively rising temperature influences human health, journalist Carrie Arnold describes a mystery kidney illness plaguing farmers in hot regions across Central America and South Asia, including Sri Lanka. There, a rising number of young farmers are suffering from kidney failure, and the culprit could be a combination of heat stress, dehydration, and pesticides. Think Global Health aims to continue the climate-health conversation in upcoming editions, so stay tuned.

Two profiles round off this week's coverage. The first is of the Blantyre Prevention Strategy, a government partnership in Malawi that promotes subnational governance to address health-care gaps in HIV prevention. Journalist Isabella Rolz then shares how Pedro Borges, a second-generation immigrant from Brazil, is using language-learning software to tackle the underrepresentation of Latino people in Boston's tech industry.

Until next week!—Nsikan Akpan, Managing Editor, and Caroline Kantis, Associate Editor