SUGGESTED READING # 2 for Nov 25

Climate Change Poses Threats to Children’s Health Worldwide

Nov. 13, 2019, The New York Times

 The health effects of climate change will be unevenly distributed and children will be among those especially harmed, according to a new report from the medical journal The Lancet.

The report compared human health consequences under two scenarios: one in which the world meets the commitments laid out in the Paris Agreement and curbs emissions so that increases in global temperatures remain “well below 2 degrees Celsius” by the end of the century, and one in which it does not.

The report, published Wednesday, found that failing to limit emissions would lead to health problems caused by infectious diseases, worsening air pollution, rising temperatures and malnutrition.

“With every degree of warming, a child born today faces a future where their health and well-being will be increasingly impacted by the realities and dangers of a warmer world,” said Dr. Renee N. Salas, a clinical instructor of emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School.

 “Climate change, and the air pollution from fossil fuels that are driving it, threatens the child’s health starting in the mother’s womb and only accumulates from there,” she said.

But unless nations halt emissions, air pollution, which, according to the report, killed seven million people worldwide in 2016 alone, will quite likely increase. The burning of fossil fuels such as coal and gas also releases a type of fine air pollution called PM 2.5 that can damage the heart and lungs when inhaled. Exposure to PM 2.5 air pollution is correlated with health problems such as low birth weight and chronic respiratory diseases like asthma.

Part of the exposure risk that children face is simply that they spend more time outside than adults. Coupled with their differing physiology, it makes them more susceptible to fine particulate pollution. These same factors also mean they are more likely to suffer from the effects of extreme heat associated with climate change; eight of the 10 hottest years on record have happened this decade.

The report, and its focus on children, comes at a time when youth climate demonstrations including school strike protests spearheaded by Greta Thunberg, the Sunrise movement and Extinction Rebellion have attracted attention.

“This may be the first time in the history of the United States that there are children wondering whether they are going to have a future, whether they should have children as a result of the potential for climate change to get worse and worse,” Ms. McCarthy said.

This year, Jamie Margolin, the 17-year-old founder of the climate activist group Zero Hour testified before Congress. “Everyone who will walk up to me after this testimony saying I have such a bright future ahead of me, will be lying to my face,” she said. “It doesn’t matter how talented we are, how much work we put in, how many dreams we have, the reality is, my generation has been committed to a planet that is collapsing.”