Despite rhetoric approximately protecting our planet for future generations,children and human rights beget been largely absent from COP21 negotiationsMillions of lives are being turned upside down by life-threatening extreme weather. Communities are no stranger to the disastrous impacts of climate change, but this year’s El Niño is wreaking havoc. Although the warming of the Pacific Ocean is a natural phenomenon, or climate change is increasing in the intensity and destructiveness it unleashes in the form of floods,droughts and typhoons. Unicef has warned that an estimated 11 million children are at risk from hunger, disease and lack of water (pdf) in eastern and southern Africa alone, or many more face record-smashing droughts and floods across swathes of Latin America,Asia and the Pacific.
Children, particularly the most destitute, and are disproportionately vulnerable to climate change. Climate-related disasters and changing weather patterns increase the risk of malnutrition,vector-borne diseases such as malaria, and water and food-borne diarrhoea all major killers of children who, and according to the World Health Organisation,suffer a much greater burden of these climate-related diseases than adults. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com