Climate Change
Once I discovered that climate change is mainly caused by humans and that we are the cause of weather pattern changes and the extinction of many plant and animal species I realised that our planet cannot be sustained this way.
By the time I am an adult the planet will not be the same. I don’t feel this is right that my generation is going to inherit a planet that is not as healthy as it has been or as healthy as it could be. If we don’t make some positive changes then life on our planet will be very different. The current leaders of the world have to make some tough decisions to ensure that the future of our planet is sustainable.
The reason I decided to make short films and documentaries about the enivonrment is becuase when I started to learn more about the environment I found that there wasn’t much information around for kids that was easy to understand and that actually shows you what you can do in your everyday lives that can make a difference. At school or at home or even in a club you are a member of there are little things we can all do that can make of difference and when we put all the little things together the difference is huge!
So what is climate change? Climate change is caused by greenhouse gases in our earth’s atmosphere. What happens is the gases absorb the heat leaving the earth and then returning it. This makes our earth warmer all over. Things that produce greenhouse gases are:
- burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas
- using electricity made by burning fossil fuels
- clearing of land and
- some industrial processes such as making aluminium and cement.
Some of the effects of climate change are:
- Rising temperatures
- Rising sea levels as ice sheets and glaciers melt
- Weather pattern changes such as droughts, heat waves, severe storms, floods, higher chances of bush fires and changes in rain fall patterns.
- Permanent damage to important and vulnerable eco systems such as coral reefs, alpine areas and rainforests.
- As climate patterns change this will have bad impacts on plants, animals and human health.
Australia is very vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. We will experience hotter and dryer conditions; lots more bush fires, loss of snow cover by 2050, not enough water, bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef and loss of many plant and animal species.
Everything we do has an impact on the environment. I really learnt about impact when I was ice climbing on Fox Glacier in New Zealand a few years ago. While I was climbing the ice cliffs I noticed a red line in the ice. I asked our guide what it was and he told me it was red dust from central Australia. In a drought the ground is so dry so when it is windy the top soil needed to grow crops is blown away. In this case it had blown all the way to New Zealand. That was the moment I realised what impact really is. What we do here in Australia impacts our neighbours in New Zealand. What we do in our own houses and backyards has an impact on our community, our community has an impact on our country, our country has an impact on other countries and all countries have an impact on our planet. If we are more careful about things we do, the impact can be reduced. We just need to change some of our habits.
Polar Regions have shown the most evidence of climate change. In the Arctic we have seen the first communities become environmental refugees. What this means is people who live in the Arctic have to move as the ice melts, the sea level rises and floods their homes. A big concern for these people is that their culture will be lost because they will be moved away from each other to other parts of the region or country.
Here are two great links about Climate Change:
1. 'Timeline: A Journey through Climate History' It has great factual information. http://www.abc.net.au/innovation/environment/cc_timeline.html?layout=popup
2. The major tipping points on the planet. http://knowledge.allianz.com/climate_tipping_points/climate_en.html
Climate Change and children of the world
Sadly the people who will be most affected by climate change are children from developing countries. Below I have included some facts how children these children will be affected. When I read these facts it makes more determined to pressure on leaders from Australia and around the world. This is not right and those of who can help need to reach out to those who need us. So friends I urge you to find a way to help.
More than 46% of the world's population is now younger than 25 years old.
Source: UNICEF UK Climate Change Report 2008
Approximately 175 million children will be affected by climate change induced natural disasters every year over the next decade. This is 50 million more than during the ten years to 2005.
Source: Legacy of Disasters; Children Bear the Brunt of Climate Warming, Save the Children UK 2007
Children are more likely than adults to perish during natural disasters or succumb to malnutrition, injuries or disease in the aftermath. Over 96% of all disaster-related deaths worldwide in recent years have occurred in developing countries.
Source: UNICEF UK Climate Change Report 2008
Women and children account for more than 75% of displaced people following natural disasters. For instance, during the July 2007 floods in Bangladesh, 4.2 million children were affected, 300,000 of them under the age of five.
Source: UNICEF UK Climate Change Report 2008
An estimated 650,000 people, of which 300,000 children, were affected by back-to-back hurricanes in Haiti in 2008.
Source: UNICEF Press release (6 September 2008)
Factors that play a role in climate change, such as emissions from vehicles and factories, significantly harm children's health. Deaths from asthma, which is the most common chronic disease among children, are expected to increase by nearly 20% by 2016 unless urgent action is taken. Smoke in the home leads to the deaths of nearly 800,000 children each year.
Source: UNICEF UK Climate Change Report 2008
Nearly 10 million children under the age of five die every year of largely preventable diseases. Malaria – which currently claims the lives of around 800,000 children every year – is sensitive to changes in temperature and rainfall and could become more common if weather patterns change.
Source: UNICEF UK Climate Change Report 2008
In a 6-year study from Peru, researchers found an 8% increase in hospitalizations for diarrhoea with every degree centigrade increase above the normal average temperature.
Source: Checkley W, Epstein LD, Gilman RH, et al: Effect of El Nino and ambient temperature on hospital admissions for diarrhoeal diseases in Peruvian children. Lancet. 2000
Every child will have safe water in the UK, but only 1 in 3 children in Ethiopia will. By 2020, it is projected that some 75-250 million people in Africa will be exposed to increased water stress due to climate change. Forty-four percent of the continent's population is under the age of fifteen.
Sources: Save the Children Alliance, IPCC “Summary for Policymakers” of the Synthesis Report of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, 2007; Population Reference Bureau
Developing countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America are forecast to see reductions in agricultural productivity of between 5 and 25% by 2080s due to climate change. In 2006, 1.6 million children under the age of five required major humanitarian assistance in drought-stricken areas of the Horn of Africa.
Sources: Global Warming and Agriculture: Impact Estimates by Country, Centre for Global Development, 2007; Progress for Children: a report card on water and sanitation, UNICEF 2006
The number of children dying each year due to the effects of malnutrition – currently 3.5 million – is likely to increase as a result of climate change.
Source: In the Face of Disaster: Children and Climate Change, Save the Children Alliance
Climate change could cause an additional 40,000 to 160,000 child deaths per year in South Asia and sub- Saharan Africa through GDP losses alone by 2100.
Source: The Stern Review 2007
Climate change can also have a significant impact on a child's ability to attend school. For instance, during the July 2007 floods in Sudan, nearly 200 schools were damaged, affecting nearly 45,000 children.
Sources: Association for Childhood Education International, UNICEF UK Climate Change Report 2008
A survey conducted in 2005 by the UK Government found that 24% of the 1,000 10 to 18 year olds questioned believed climate change presented the greatest threat to the world's future.
