Global climate change strikes spearheaded by activists like Greta Thunberg illustrate the impact climate change has had on our planet and how it manifests as inequality discriminating against gender and socioeconomic status.
Under current population growth projections, by 2100 more than 15 billion people could inhabit the Earth. By that time, with no action from governments to limit carbon emissions, the global temperature could have risen by 4.5°C. In a world with twice as many people, there will be twice as much waste and twice as many homes, food, transport, and electricity needed - all of which will contribute to climate change even more than it already does.
Unfortunately, the natural disasters that accompany climate change including droughts, floods, storms, cyclones, and heat waves affect the world’s most vulnerable, marginalized populations the most because they have the fewest resources to cope with it.
Children are the least responsible for creating global climate change but they bear the heaviest burden of its effects. For instance, during periods of drought, many children spend a large part of their day fetching water for their families, which interferes with the time they could spend on their education in school. In addition, climate change is one of the top 5 reasons why children die around the world due to the dangers that accompany natural disasters including poverty and malnutrition. Last June, Plan published a report called “Weathering the storm: Adolescent girls and climate change that looked closely at the issues.” When natural disaster strikes, girls are less likely to survive because they are not encouraged to learn survival skills like swimming and they are also less likely to be rescued from people in the society. In places like Uganda, during a period of draught, many girls get married off so that the family can survive from the dowry they receive in exchange.
Many leaders around the world are not doing enough towards resolving the issues behind climate change. However, an 11 year old girl from a mass protest in Australia said these wise words: “When kids make a mess, adults tell us to clear it up. That’s fair. But when leaders of our country make a mess, like they’re doing right now about the environment, they leave it for us to clean up.” Not only is it unfair to pass on climate change issues for future generations to deal with, it is also unwise because every minute that we wait, the issue gets worse and worse. As individuals, we need to make more environmentally friendly choices because change starts from within. We also need to ensure our voices are heard by politicians so that they can drive long lasting and widespread societal change. If we start now, leaders of our future generation will be all the more equipped to mitigate the effects of climate change and develop resources to better cope with it.
Written by:
Gurreet Bhandal & Nafisa Atiah