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Our kids face massive jump in heatwaves, floods, droughts
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Children around the world will face a sharp jump in heatwaves, floods and droughts in their lives compared with their grandparents, researchers said yesterday, with teenagers from Nepal to Australia urging leaders not to turn a blind eye.
Children will, on average, suffer seven times more heatwaves and nearly three times more droughts, floods and crop failures due to fast-accelerating climate change, found a report from aid agency Save the Children.
Those in low- and middle-income countries will bear the brunt, with Afghan children likely to endure up to 18 times as many heatwaves as their elders, and children in Mali likely to live through up to 10 times more crop failures.
鈥淧eople are suffering, we shouldn鈥檛 turn a blind eye. Climate change is the biggest crisis of this era,鈥 said Anuska, 15, sharing her experience of more heatwaves, intense rain and crop losses in her country, Nepal.
鈥淚鈥檓 worried about climate change, about my future. It will almost be impossible for us to survive,鈥 she told journalists.
Save the Children did not fully identify Anuska and others who spoke alongside her for protection reasons, it said.
The research, a collaboration between Save the Children and climate researchers at Belgium鈥檚 Vrije Universiteit Brussel, calculated the lifetime exposure to a range of extreme climate events for children born in 2020 compared with those born in 1960.
Also published in the journal Science, the study is based on emissions reduction pledges made under the 2015 Paris climate accord, projecting that global temperatures will rise by an estimated 2.6-3.1 degrees Celsius above preindustrial times.
This would have an 鈥渦nacceptable impact on children,鈥 Save the Children said.
鈥淭he climate crisis is a child rights crisis at its core,鈥 said Inger Ashing, chief executive of Save the Children.
鈥淲e can turn this around 鈥 but we need to listen to children and jump into action. If warming is limited to 1.5 degrees, there is far more hope of a bright future for children who haven鈥檛 even been born yet,鈥 she added.
The UN climate science panel warned in August that global warming is dangerously close to spiraling out of control and will bring climate disruption globally for decades to come.
National pledges to cut emissions so far are inadequate to limit global temperature rise to 鈥渨ell below鈥 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial times, and ideally to 1.5 degrees.
Save the Children鈥檚 report found that, if global warming is kept to 1.5 degrees, additional lifetime exposure of newborns to heatwaves would drop by 45 percent and by nearly 40 percent for droughts and floods compared with the projected level.
鈥淭hese children鈥檚 lives and future are all at stake,鈥 said Erin Ryan, a report author and Save the Children adviser.
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