Factsheet: Climate change and children

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What is climate change?

Climate change refers to the change of Earth’s climate, including patterns of global temperature and weather patterns. The world’s leading climate scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have concluded that it is very likely that human activities are causing global warming.

Although a global challenge, the impacts of climate change are largely felt at community levels and many situations are as diverse as the people who experience them. For example, impacts of rising sea levels on a small island developing state necessitate different actions than those taken by people living in dry land areas above sea level.

What do greenhouse gases have to do with global warming?

Global warming occurs when too many so called ‘greenhouse gases’ are released into the atmosphere, where they absorb heat and warm the earth. Carbon dioxide, one of the main ‘greenhouse gases’ is created mostly by burning fossil fuels (i.e. oil, gasoline, and coal) in power plants, factories and cars, and by cutting down and burning trees.

A natural blanket of greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide, acts like a glass in a greenhouse, trapping heat from the sun and keeping the planet warm enough for life as we know it

  • The Earth’s average temperature seems to have been remarkably stable for the past 10,000 years, varying by less than 1°C, allowing human civilization to thrive

Since the start of the industrial revolution some 250 years ago, human emissions of greenhouse gases have been making this blanket thicker at an unprecedented speed, trapping heat

  • Emissions accumulate when we cut down trees, which remove carbon dioxide from the air, and burn fossil fuels, which release carbon dioxide into the air
  • This has led to global warming, more volatile weather patterns such as severe rain and severe droughts, melting glaciers and higher and warmer sea levels

How will global warming affect the Earth?

If greenhouse gas emissions continue, the Earth will get warmer and cause many changes in the global climate system.

  • Longer, more severe and more unpredictable droughts will be bad for agriculture, especially in areas like Africa where food is already scarce, impacting child-hood nutrition
  • Sea-level rise will put large coastal areas where many millions of people now live underwater
  • Even if global temperatures only rise above 1.5-2.5°C, 20-30% of plant and animal species will be at increased risk of extinction.
  • Natural disasters like hurricanes and tsunamis will increase in frequency and severity
  • Increased melting of glaciers and changes in precipitation patterns will decrease quantity and quality of freshwater supplies all around the world
  • Warming will give mosquitos that carry malaria and other diseases access to more parts of the world – putting more people in danger of getting sick

Who will be affected by global warming?

Everyone will be affected. However, the poorest communities are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Some of the most at-risk people include subsistence farmers, indigenous peoples and coastal populations

  • Developing countries are particularly vulnerable because they have lower incomes than industrialised countries, and therefore less capacity to adapt to the impacts of climate change

Example: Africa is very vulnerable because of its endemic poverty, weak institutions, and complex disasters and conflicts. Drought has spread and intensified, water supplies and agricultural production will likely be severely compromised and crop yields will drop

Example: Asia is in danger because more than a billion people could be affected by a decline in the availability of freshwater

  • Scarce resources fuel conflicts, exacerbating food shortages and poverty around the world.

Example: shortfalls in seasonal rains that result in drought and economic distress lead to a 50% increase in the likelihood of civil war

Is anything being done to stop global warming?

  • Coordinated action at the international level is needed to reduce greenhouse gases, which are projected to rise 25-90% by 2030 without additional action
  • The 1997 Kyoto Protocol has already helped stabilize and in some cases reduce greenhouse gas emissions in several industrialised countries of the world
  • Many individuals are trying to reduce their “carbon footprint” by reducing their use of electricity, driving less and trying to be less wasteful and more aware in all aspects of their life