Hola, welcome to Climate at the Border! We’re here to help you cover the most pressing climate issues in the region. In each edition, we’ll bring you what you need to know to get started and make recommendations for localizing, humanizing, and reporting solutions on the topic.
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What You Need to Know
- Globally: Climate change is driving a surge in climate-sensitive diseases and overwhelming health systems that are already stretched thin. Rising temperatures, erratic rainfall patterns, and extreme weather are increasing the spread of illnesses like dengue, cholera, and respiratory infections linked to wildfires and dust. In lower-income countries, where health infrastructure is more fragile, the climate-health burden hits hardest.
- At the Border: Communities here are experiencing more extreme heat days, worsening air quality due to dust storms and wildfires, and a rise in diseases like Valley fever, which thrives in hot and dry soils. Mosquito-borne illnesses like dengue and chikungunya are also appearing more frequently in southern Texas and northern Mexico. Clinics and hospitals in rural or depressed areas are struggling to keep up, and power outages or lack of cooling systems during heatwaves put patients and health workers at greater risk.
- Migration: Many migrants are escaping drought, crop failure, and disaster-related loss, but the journey North is increasingly dangerous: Extreme heat and lack of medical care along migration routes can lead to heatstroke, dehydration, and death. Once in the US, migrants often hesitate to seek care due to fear of deportation or high costs, compounding health vulnerabilities in a region already under climate stress.
Localize: Health Along the Border
Key Reporting Angles
- Where are climate-sensitive diseases emerging? Check for cases of Valley fever in dry, dusty counties in Arizona, California, or northern Mexico. Mosquito-borne diseases like dengue and chikungunya are increasingly reported in southern Texas and Sonora.
- Is your local clinic or emergency room stretched thin during extreme heat? Look at ambulance response times, power outages in clinics, or air quality alerts.
- Search for county health records, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention alerts, or university partnerships with health departments. Many are tracking this already.
Stories to Inspire Your Coverage
- Valley fever cases surge in California, already way up from recent years by Susanne Rust, Los Angeles Times
- Cambio climático contribuyó al récord de casos de dengue en América y el Caribe en 2024 Univision
Ask an Expert and Find Resources:
- Binational Border Infectious Disease Surveillance Program
- Ric Page, U.S.-Mexico Border Environmental Health Initiative
Humanize: Who Is Most Affected?
Talk to the Communities on the Frontlines
- Spotlight on vulnerable families interviewing individuals directly affected by climate-related health impacts, like farmworkers exposed to dust-borne Valley fever, youth coping with trauma after wildfires, or parents avoiding clinics during extreme heat because access is too difficult.
- Report on the experiences of nurses, ER staff, and promotoras (community health workers) who are navigating heat emergencies and a lack of infrastructure.
- Any mental health crisis after a disaster? Wildfire survivors in California and Monterrey or flood-hit families in Tamaulipas or Texas may be showing signs of prolonged trauma or anxiety.
Stories & Studies to Inspire Your Coverage
- Migrants aren’t seeing doctors; here’s why that’s a public health crisis by Safia Samee Ali, NewsNation
- Frontline clinics across the U.S. say climate change is disrupting care, Harvard School of Public Health
- Mortality, Temperature, and Public Health Provision: Evidence from Mexico, American Economic Association
Ask an Expert and Find Resources:
- Dr. Sophia Abene, Infectious Disease Specialist and editor of Contagion
Solutions: What Are the Fixes?
Highlight What’s Working and What’s Not
- Prevention and adaptation efforts: cities launching mosquito-surveillance or fogging operations, clinics installing backup solar-powered cooling systems or climate-resilient infrastructure
- Mental health initiatives: cross-border partnerships offering teletherapy or support groups, indigenous-led healing practices, or culturally specific trauma care
- Policy or local innovation: mobile clinics or mutual aid groups stepping where health systems fall short, school districts opening campuses as cooling centers
Stories to Inspire Your Coverage
- Climate change, migration and health: perspectives from Latin America and the Caribbean, The Lancet, December 2024
Ask an Expert and Find Resources
- Sarah Lowe, clinical psychologist, Associate Professor of Public Health, Yale
What’s Next?
- Have a health story from the border? We’d love to amplify it. You can send it here: editors@coveringclimatenow.org.
- Want more on climate? Sign up for our other newsletters.
- Any questions? Send them to training@coveringclimatenow.org.
Nos vemos pronto, see you in soon!
– CCNow’s Climate at the Border team
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