Hyderabad: The next generation of children is going to pay a hefty price for mistakes adults are making right now. They may have to face unbearable temperatures which would severely impair their health.
According to a recent study, an entire generation of children will suffer adversities, especially in India, due to climate change worldwide. It further added that food scarcity, epidemics, floods, and heatwaves will rage if fossil fuel utilization and global temperatures are not controlled.
These were the findings of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, a yearly analysis tracking progress across 41 key indicators. Along with the World Health Organization and World Bank, 120 experts from 35 other organizations have participated in this analysis. The reports were published in The Lancet, a renowned science journal.
The coming generations will inadvertently suffer if global temperatures are not reduced by 2 degrees celsius as agreed to in the Paris Treaty for Climate Change. As of now, this effect is pronounced on children and infants.
If the current scenario of carbon emission continues, the current generation of kids will see a 4-degree celsius rise in global temperatures by the time they turn 71. The rise in temperature and change in rainfall patterns will lead to rampant incidences of diseases like dengue and malaria.
As of today, half of the world population is facing a risk of contracting these diseases. There will be an increased risk of pulmonary, cardiovascular and neural ailments. In the past three decades, the duration of diarrhea infection among children has doubled.
Current newborns are highly likely to experience severe floods, prolonged famines, and conflagrations. From 2001-04, there was a rise in the number of people who have experienced the occurrence of wildfires in 152 out of the 196 surveyed nations.
Wildfires destroy lives, properties, livelihoods, and lands besides causing respiratory diseases. In India, wildfires have destroyed the lives of 2.1 crore people to date.
High population density combined with poverty, malnutrition and a huge inequality in healthcare provision; countries like India will be first to bear the brunt of climate change.
Purnima Prabhakaran, one of the experts in the Lancet analysis, added that the number of deaths from diarrhea is on the rise in India. She stated that heatwaves, which claimed thousands of lives in 2015 would become a common occurrence in the future. Global warming is going to claim the lives of our children. If we do not act immediately, we shall be responsible to have brought suffering upon future generations.
