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Let’s pretend the 195 nations that signed
the 2016 Paris Agreement really do take all the
steps necessary to limit the increase in global tem-
perature to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels. In that
world, any children born today would grow up to
witness some happy milestones. If they lived in
the United Kingdom, they’d
see their country phase out
coal by the time they turned
- If they lived in France
they would see gas- powered
cars eliminated by their 21st
birthday. And any child born
today would be just 31 when
the world reached net-zero
greenhouse emissions.
But in the real world, the
U.S. has already pulled out of
the Paris Agreement, other
nations are observing it only
spottily, global temperatures
are continuing to rise—and
the health of children is being
clobbered in the process. In
a sweeping study just pub-
lished in Lancet, investigators
from 35 institutions analyzed
the planet’s climatological health on 41 indices,
such as the rising incidence of floods, wildfires and
mosquito- borne diseases; steps being taken to ad-
dress the problems; and economic resources being
devoted to that work. They found that while prog-
ress is being made, too many trend lines continue to
point downward. We will all pay a price for that, but
today’s children will pay the highest.
“With every degree of warming, we are com-
mitting a child born today to a future where their
health and well-being will be increasingly threat-
ened,” says Dr. Renee Salas of Harvard University,
lead author of a policy brief that accompanied the
study. “Climate change, and the air pollution from
fossil fuels that are driving it, threaten a child’s
health starting in their mother’s womb and only
accumulate from there.”
One Of the mOst damaging examples is the mi-
croscopic particulate matter produced by burning
fossil fuels. The study found that more than 90%
of the world’s 2.2 billion children are exposed to
particles at concentrations above the safe limit de-
fined by the World Health Organization. Drawing
How climate change
is clobbering
kids’ health
By Jeffrey Kluger
90%
Share of children,
globally, exposed to
unhealthy levels of
particulate pollution
88%
Share of the climate-
change-related
disease burden
projected to be borne
by children
TheBrief Health
their first breath in a world like that leaves them
at a higher lifetime risk of developing asthma,
pneumonia and COPD. And the world as a whole
is becoming more urbanized, with 70% of the
global population expected to be living in cities by
2050— precisely where the air is dirtiest.
Rising temperatures do their own brand of pe-
diatric damage. Children’s bodies are less adept
than adults’ at regulating temperature, and babies
rely on caretakers to remove them from the heat
and give them water when temperatures rise. This,
the study explains, leaves them at significantly
greater danger of heat- related electrolyte imbal-
ance, high fever, and kidney
and respiratory disease.
Geography is a force
multiplier. While the aver-
age global temperature has
risen 0.2°C compared with a
1983–2005 baseline, the av-
erage heat in big cities and
other population centers has
risen 0.8°C. And in the hot-
test places, air- conditioning
is often not available. In the
U.S. and Japan, 90% of homes
are air- conditioned. In India,
it’s 4%. Worse, while 19% and
13% of the population of the
U.S. and Japan respectively
are in the 0-to-14 age group,
35% of India’s 1.3 billion
population are 14 or younger.
That means nearly 450 mil-
lion overheated children in a country where record-
high temperatures caused tens of thousands to
flee their homes last summer and led to nearly 200
deaths in the first half of June alone.
Childhood nutrition suffers too. Rising tempera-
tures are reducing the duration of the growing sea-
son for three key staples—maize, rice and spring
wheat— slashing harvests and increasing the risk of
famine in vulnerable developing countries. At the
same time, rising sea temperatures are leading to a
decline in fish stocks, a source of 20% of the protein
in the diet of 3.2 billion people. “Globally, children
are overwhelmingly the victims of undernutrition,”
says Salas, “and suffer a range of health harms, such
as smaller growth in the womb, stunted develop-
ment and lack of critical micronutrients.”
Climate change is a perversely egalitarian
scourge, sparing no one, affecting everyone. But
the special toll it takes on children makes it per-
versely cruel too. In a world that ostensibly prizes
justice, it is unjust in the extreme for the people
who are least responsible for a problem to suffer
from it most. The Paris Agreement— honored in-
stead of ignored—offers a way out. □
Children already bear the brunt of health issues related
to climate change, and it’s only going to worsen
VIPIN KUMAR—HINDUSTAN TIMES/GETTY IMAGES
