Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Climate change is a growing threat to population health globally, with infants and young children living in low income and lower-and-middle income countries at particularly high risk of experiencing health and nutritional challenges. The sources of these challenges include alterations to breastfeeding practices, decreased access to food, due to lower crop and fishing yields and higher food prices, and increased disease transmission, as well as myriad other issues. In some cases, women's work may exacerbate challenges, while in others it can buffer them, and evolutionary theory provides a useful framework for understanding some of these nuanced differences. Traditionally boat-dwelling, semi-nomadic Shodagor fisher-trader communities in rural Bangladesh are facing increasing exposure to extreme flooding and extreme heat. In my talk, I will discuss recent studies examining the impacts of extreme weather on Shodagor children's growth and nutritional outcomes. I will highlight the critical role that women's work plays in shaping these outcomes, including how work and breastfeeding practices interact in the face of extreme weather to influence child health. Finally, I will discuss likely future implications for child growth and nutrition of continued increasing extreme weather events for Shodagor communities, in Bangladesh, and across the Global South.
The following is a presentation in the UCLA Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture Speaker Series. For more information on this speaker series, including a searchable archive of all previous presentations, please see http://bec.ucla.edu/
BEC relies on the generosity of a variety of organizations and individuals. If you find this presentation valuable and would like to assist in advancing research and education in the evolutionary behavioral sciences, please see https://giving.ucla.edu/Standard/NetDonate.aspx?SiteNum=197
Climate change is a growing threat to population health globally, with infants and young children living in low income and lower-and-middle income countries at particularly high risk of experiencing health and nutritional challenges. The sources of these challenges include alterations to breastfeeding practices, decreased access to food, due to lower crop and fishing yields and higher food prices, and increased disease transmission, as well as myriad other issues. In some cases, women's work may exacerbate challenges, while in others it can buffer them, and evolutionary theory provides a useful framework for understanding some of these nuanced differences. Traditionally boat-dwelling, semi-nomadic Shodagor fisher-trader communities in rural Bangladesh are facing increasing exposure to extreme flooding and extreme heat. In my talk, I will discuss recent studies examining the impacts of extreme weather on Shodagor children's growth and nutritional outcomes. I will highlight the critical role that women's work plays in shaping these outcomes, including how work and breastfeeding practices interact in the face of extreme weather to influence child health. Finally, I will discuss likely future implications for child growth and nutrition of continued increasing extreme weather events for Shodagor communities, in Bangladesh, and across the Global South.
The following is a presentation in the UCLA Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture Speaker Series. For more information on this speaker series, including a searchable archive of all previous presentations, please see http://bec.ucla.edu/
BEC relies on the generosity of a variety of organizations and individuals. If you find this presentation valuable and would like to assist in advancing research and education in the evolutionary behavioral sciences, please see https://giving.ucla.edu/Standard/NetDonate.aspx?SiteNum=197
![Elsa Ordway- Insights from the tropics: a social-ecological systems approach to [...] climate change](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/sSFZrNVQRDM/mqdefault.jpg "Elsa Ordway- Insights from the tropics: a social-ecological systems approach to [...] climate change
Full talk title: Insights from the tropics: a social-ecological systems approach to understanding climate change
The following is a presentation in the UCLA Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture Speaker Series. For more information on this speaker series, including a searchable archive of all previous presentations, please see http://bec.ucla.edu/
BEC relies on the generosity of a variety of organizations and individuals. If you find this presentation valuable and would like to assist in advancing research and education in the evolutionary behavioral sciences, please see https://giving.ucla.edu/Standard/NetDonate.aspx?SiteNum=197")
