The International Society for Children’s Health and the Environment Commits to Reduce Its Carbon Footprint to Safeguard Children’s Health (original) (raw)
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Global Climate Change and Children's Health
PEDIATRICS, 2007
There is broad scientific consensus that Earth's climate is warming rapidly and at an accelerating rate. Human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels, are very likely (Ͼ90% probability) to be the main cause of this warming. Climatesensitive changes in ecosystems are already being observed, and fundamental, potentially irreversible, ecological changes may occur in the coming decades. Conservative environmental estimates of the impact of climate changes that are already in process indicate that they will result in numerous health effects to children. The nature and extent of these changes will be greatly affected by actions taken or not taken now at the global level. Physicians have written on the projected effects of climate change on public health, but little has been written specifically on anticipated effects of climate change on children's health. Children represent a particularly vulnerable group that is likely to suffer disproportionately from both direct and indirect adverse health effects of climate change. Pediatric health care professionals should understand these threats, anticipate their effects on children's health, and participate as children's advocates for strong mitigation and adaptation strategies now. Any solutions that address climate change must be developed within the context of overall sustainability (the use of resources by the current generation to meet current needs while ensuring that future generations will be able to meet their needs). Pediatric health care professionals can be leaders in a move away from a traditional focus on disease prevention to a broad, integrated focus on sustainability as synonymous with health. This policy statement is supported by a technical report that examines in some depth the nature of the problem of climate change, likely effects on children's health as a result of climate change, and the critical importance of responding promptly and aggressively to reduce activities that are contributing to this change. BACKGROUND "Warming of the climate system is unequivocal." 1 According to the National Climatic Data Center, all records indicate that during the past century, global surface temperatures have increased at a rate near 0.6°C per century (1.1°F per century); this trend has been 3 times larger since 1976. 2 Human activity, particularly the burning of fossil fuels, has very likely (Ͼ90% probability) driven this rise by greatly increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO 2) and other greenhouse gases (GHGs). 1 There is strong consensus among expert scientists that Earth is undergoing rapid, global climate change, 1,3 although there remains uncertainty about how rapidly and extensively the climate will change in the future. Overall scientific predictions agree, however, that temperatures and sea level will continue to rise
The Challenges of Climate Change: Children on the front line
2014
Children and young people represent 30 per cent of the world’s population. Not only do they represent the largest group of people currently affected by climate change, but they are also more vulnerable than adults to its harmful effects. Children and young people also constitute the generation that will be required to deal with the future impacts of climate change and that will have to deliver the very deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions that will be essential in the coming decades. This book is an attempt to redress the balance. It brings together the knowledge and opinions of 40 contributors - scientists, development workers, and experts in health, nutrition and children’s rights - in an attempt to build up a clear picture of what climate change means for the children of today and tomorrow.
Pediatric societies’ declaration on responding to the impact of climate change on children
The Journal of Climate Change and Health, 2021
Children worldwide are demanding their views on climate change be heard, a right guaranteed by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. They have reason to be concerned-the 2019 Lancet Countdown and multiple other publications document the profound vulnerability of infants and children to the direct and indirect impacts of climate change on their health and well-being.
Child Health and Survival in a Changing Climate: Vulnerability, Mitigation, and Adaptation
Geographies of Global Issues: Change and Threat, 2015
The effects of climate change include increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events as well as adverse changes in air pollution, increased spread of climate-sensitive disease, and heightened food insecurity. All of these effects are predicted to have a significant impact on global mortality and morbidity, and the available evidence indicates that children are most at risk. In order to protect child health, immediate action to both mitigate further climate change and adapt to existing and expected impacts is required. This chapter reviews the existing literature on the health impacts of climate change on children. It identifies children as key stakeholders in action and decision-making for mitigation and adaptation at a variety of scales. It also highlights how child participation in research, policy, and practice will increase the effectiveness and sustainability of solutions for addressing the health impacts of climate change. The chapter concludes with a call for the climate change community to make a more concerted effort to incorporate the needs and capacities of children into its core agenda.
The Impact of Climate Change on Child Health
Ambulatory Pediatrics, 2003
Human activity has contributed to climate change. The relationship between climate and child health has not been well investigated. This review discusses the role of climate change on child health and suggests 3 ways in which this relationship may manifest. First, environmental changes associated with anthropogenic greenhouse gases can lead to respiratory diseases, sunburn, melanoma, and immunosuppression. Second, climate change may directly cause heat stroke, drowning, gastrointestinal diseases, and psychosocial maldevelopment. Third, ecologic alterations triggered by climate change can increase rates of malnutrition, allergies and exposure to mycotoxins, vector-borne diseases (malaria, dengue, encephalitides, Lyme disease), and emerging infectious diseases. Further climate change is likely, given global industrial and political realities. Proactive and preventive physician action, research focused on the differential effects of climate change on subpopulations including children, and policy advocacy on the individual and federal levels could contain climate change and inform appropriate prevention and response.
Sushruta Journal of Health Policy & Opinion
When I was a child, I was a proud member of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature. I would pore over my issued green wallet and the gleaming silver-gold coins with endangered species imprinted where the Queen’s head should be. Saving the world was a noble goal, and as a young person, I was earnest about it. Today, as a practicing paediatrician, I see it less as a quaint interest than a matter of life and death.
Climate change and its impact on young children
Every Child, 2007
In a very short space of time, global warming and climate change has 'hit the radar' at all levels: individually, locally, nationally and internationally. In Australia, attention to climate change and its environmental, economic and social impacts has been spurred on by deepening concerns about diminishing water supplies, rising fuel costs and uncertainty about future energy supplies.