Dr Paula Robert­son

Pae­di­atric Emer­gency Con­sul­tant,

Er­ic Williams Med­ical Cen­tre,

and Di­rec­tor at Just Kidz Emer­gency Med­ical

justkidz­doc@gmail.com

How can we take ur­gent ac­tion to mit­i­gate the im­pact of cli­mate change on fu­ture gen­er­a­tions?

Many par­ents in Trinidad and To­ba­go may no­tice their chil­dren are spend­ing less time out­doors be­cause of heat, while flood­ing, dengue out­breaks and ris­ing food prices have be­come more com­mon con­cerns. These are some of the ways cli­mate change is al­ready af­fect­ing our chil­dren to­day.

Glob­al­ly, as we con­tin­ue to burn fos­sil fu­els like oil and gas, we suf­fer from more heat, more ex­treme weath­er events, ris­ing and warm­ing seas, and nat­ur­al sys­tems are be­ing dis­rupt­ed every­where, all af­fect­ing chil­dren’s health.

Heat-re­lat­ed Ill­ness­es

Soar­ing tem­per­a­tures make chil­dren more sus­cep­ti­ble to heat ex­haus­tion and de­hy­dra­tion in foot­ball train­ing, school sports days, mak­ing sun pro­tec­tion, shade, and ad­e­quate hy­dra­tion vi­tal. Chil­dren in hot ve­hi­cles or school bus­es are par­tic­u­lar­ly ex­posed.

Air pol­lu­tion

Traf­fic-re­lat­ed pol­lu­tion along cor­ri­dors such as the Churchill Roo­sevelt High­way and East-West Cor­ri­dor wors­ens cli­mate change and in­creas­es child­hood risk of asth­ma, bron­chi­tis, and res­pi­ra­to­ry in­fec­tions. Chil­dren’s lungs are par­tic­u­lar­ly vul­ner­a­ble to the harm­ful ef­fects of traf­fic pol­lu­tants. Sa­hara dust pol­lu­tion is com­posed of tiny par­ti­cles that can ir­ri­tate eyes, nose and throat, and trig­ger asth­ma and al­ler­gies.

Vec­tor-borne dis­eases

Changes in tem­per­a­ture and rain­fall can cre­ate favourable con­di­tions for the spread of mos­qui­to borne dis­eases like Dengue Fever, Chikun­gun­ya and Zi­ka. More rain means more breed­ing mos­qui­toes, and warmer days and nights speed up their cy­cle.

Wa­ter­borne dis­eases

Changes in weath­er pat­terns can in­crease the risk of wa­ter­borne dis­eases. Lack of ac­cess to clean wa­ter and san­i­ta­tion fa­cil­i­ties fur­ther in­creas­es this risk. Ex­po­sure to flood­wa­ters af­ter heavy rain in Trinidad led to trans­mis­sion of lep­tospiro­sis, un­der­lin­ing the need the need to avoid con­tact with flood­wa­ters when­ev­er pos­si­ble.

Food in­se­cu­ri­ty and mal­nu­tri­tion

Dis­rup­tions in agri­cul­ture fol­low­ing drought or floods of­ten lead to high­er-priced fruits and veg­eta­bles. Cli­mate ex­tremes have ma­jor im­pacts on lo­cal farm­ers and fish­er­folk. Chil­dren in low-in­come com­mu­ni­ties are par­tic­u­lar­ly vul­ner­a­ble to food in­se­cu­ri­ty and mal­nu­tri­tion, with long-term con­se­quences for their phys­i­cal and men­tal health and de­vel­op­ment. All un­der­line the im­por­tance of sup­port­ing lo­cal food pro­duc­tion.

Men­tal health im­pacts

Anx­i­ety ex­pe­ri­enced by chil­dren af­ter se­vere flood­ing, or the stress on fam­i­lies who re­peat­ed­ly ex­pe­ri­ence prop­er­ty dam­age, and feel­ings of un­cer­tain­ty about the fu­ture among young peo­ple are among men­tal health im­pacts of cli­mate change. Post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­ders are among the psy­cho­log­i­cal con­se­quences that chil­dren may face af­ter cli­mate-re­lat­ed mi­gra­tion or dis­place­ment.

Im­pacts on learn­ing/de­vel­op­ment

Ex­treme weath­er can make in­tol­er­a­ble over­heat­ed class­rooms with­out ad­e­quate ven­ti­la­tion. It can al­so lead to school clo­sures due to flood­ing and in­ter­rupt­ed ac­cess to ed­u­ca­tion. It can cut chil­dren off from ac­cess­ing med­ical care, eg, by dam­ag­ing health­care fa­cil­i­ties. Ris­ing tem­per­a­tures neg­a­tive­ly im­pact SEA and CSEC stu­dents study­ing in hot class­rooms or some­times dri­ve both chil­dren and teach­ers out of school build­ings not built to han­dle the heat.

It’s clear that cli­mate change pos­es a sig­nif­i­cant threat to chil­dren’s health and well-be­ing. What can we do to re­duce the im­pacts of cli­mate change and pro­tect our chil­dren’s health?

Ed­u­cate and pro­mote

cli­mate aware­ness

Ed­u­cat­ing our chil­dren about the sci­ence of cli­mate change, its im­pacts, and the ac­tions they can take to ad­dress it em­pow­ers them to be­come ad­vo­cates for a health­i­er plan­et.

Re­duce green­house gas emis­sions

Tran­si­tion­ing is a smart way to re­new­able en­er­gy sources. Pro­mot­ing en­er­gy ef­fi­cien­cy and re­duc­ing our re­liance on fos­sil fu­els are cru­cial steps in fight­ing cli­mate change.

Sup­port sus­tain­able agri­cul­ture

Sus­tain­able farm­ing prac­tices can help build re­silience to cli­mate change and en­sure food se­cu­ri­ty for fu­ture gen­er­a­tions.

Plant na­tive trees

Trees ab­sorb car­bon diox­ide—the most im­por­tant green­house gas re­leased by burn­ing fos­sil fu­els—from the at­mos­phere, im­prove air qual­i­ty, an­chor soil to pre­vent flood­ing dur­ing heavy rain­fall, keep us and the earth cool, pro­vide homes for wildlife, and pro­vide ex­cel­lent men­tal health ben­e­fits. Com­mu­ni­ty tree-plant­i­ng can help every­one bet­ter ap­pre­ci­ate na­ture.

Keep com­mu­ni­ties clean

and re­duce risk of flood­ing

Ed­u­cate on not lit­ter­ing and il­le­gal dump­ing to pro­tect the plan­et from pol­lu­tion. Avoid dump­ing garbage in­to drains, rivers and wa­ter­ways. Blocked drains in­crease flood­ing dur­ing heavy rain­fall, cre­at­ing breed­ing sites for mos­qui­toes and in­creas­ing the risk of wa­ter­borne dis­eases. Com­mu­ni­ty clean-up ac­tiv­i­ties can im­prove neigh­bour­hood health and re­silience to cli­mate change.

In­vest in pub­lic health in­fra­struc­ture

Strength­en­ing and main­tain­ing bet­ter drainage and re­li­able wa­ter. Strength­en­ing health­care sys­tems, ac­cess to clean wa­ter and san­i­ta­tion, mos­qui­to con­trol pro­grammes, and en­hanc­ing ear­ly warn­ing sys­tems all help pro­tect chil­dren’s health in a chang­ing cli­mate.

Ad­vo­cate for pol­i­cy change

En­cour­ag­ing lo­cal and na­tion­al pol­i­cy­mak­ers to en­act laws and reg­u­la­tions that pri­ori­tise cli­mate ac­tion and pro­tect vul­ner­a­ble com­mu­ni­ties is cru­cial in ad­dress­ing cli­mate change. Sup­port cli­mate-smart com­mu­ni­ty ini­tia­tives and par­tic­i­pate in con­sul­ta­tions.

Every tree plant­ed and cared for, every drain kept clear, every mos­qui­to breed­ing site re­moved, every ef­fort to save en­er­gy, and every con­ver­sa­tion that helps a child un­der­stand and care for na­ture con­tributes to a health­i­er fu­ture. Pro­tect­ing our chil­dren and pro­tect­ing our en­vi­ron­ment are in­sep­a­ra­ble goals. The choic­es we make to­day will shape the Trinidad and To­ba­go that our chil­dren in­her­it to­mor­row.

The fore­go­ing is a week­ly col­umn by Earth­Medic and Earth­Nurse NGO to help read­ers un­der­stand and ad­dress the cli­mate and health cri­sis.