Catastrophic effects of climate change on children's health start before birth.
When I first paid attention to the magnitude of the climate crisis in 2006, it was hard to accept that I had been indifferent to the problem for so many years. As a pediatrician, it did not take long to realize that children, whose bodies and minds are still developing and who are dependent on adults for care, are the most tragic casualties of the climate crisis. The shift in weather patterns, increased heat, heat waves, and drought; the resulting wildfires, increased storm intensity and flooding, crop failure and lower nutritional value, and shifting pattern of infectious vectors; and the resulting air pollution from continued use of fossil fuels impose a heavy burden in children, whose inherent physical and emotional immaturity makes them more vulnerable to these insults. Adverse effects on children The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that climate change will likely affect humans in multiple adverse ways: (a) increased mortality and morbidity associated with heat waves and fires and increased risks of foodand water borne diseases (very high confidence levels) (b) increased risk of undernutrition due to diminished food production in poor regions and adverse effects of climate altering pollutants besides CO2 (high confidence levels) and (c) increase in vector borne diseases (medium confidence levels) (1) This translates to future generations of children who will continue to live in Viewpoint
The Journal of clinical investigation