How Climate Change is Clobbering Kids ’ Health

Let’s pretend the 195 nations that signed the 2016 Paris Climate Accord really do take all of the steps necessary to reach the agreement’s key goal: limiting the increase in global temperature to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. In that world, any children born today would grow up to witness some happy milestones. If they lived in the United Kingdom, they’d see their country phase out the use of coal by the time they turned six. If they lived in France, they would see gasoline-powered cars eliminated by their 21st birthday. And, as all of the 195 countries similarly reached their individual targets, all of the children born today would be 31 when the world reached net-zero greenhouse emissions. But in the real world, the U.S. has already pulled out of the Paris agreement, other nations are observing it only spottily, global temperatures are continuing to rise—and the health of children is being clobbered in the process. In a sweeping study just published in The Lancet, investigators from 35 institutions—including the World Health Organization, Imperial College London, The University of York, Yale University and Iran University of Medical Sciences—analyzed the planet’s climatological health on 41 indices, such as the rising incidence of floods, wildfires and mosquito-borne diseases; adaptation and mitigation steps being taken to address the problems; and economic resources being devoted to that work. They found that while progre...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Children climate change embargoed study Environment global warming health Source Type: news