Heat waves have been happening year after year like never before in recent history. A phenomenon that will become more intense and more frequent, according to a UNICEF report, which has revealed that this year could be the one with the lowest temperatures of the rest of our lives, an increase that would affect children’s health more , because they have less ability to regulate their body temperature.
According to data revealed in the executive summary entitled ‘The coldest year of the rest of your life’, approximately 560 million children are exposed to continuous heat wave seasons and some 624 million are prone to one of the three indicators of extreme heat : the long duration of said heat waves, their acute intensity or extremely high temperatures.
The increase in the degrees of the thermometer affects people and the environment, but it is especially dangerous for babies and children, as they are more vulnerable to changes that can increase the risk of chronic respiratory conditions, asthma and cardiovascular diseases, in addition to being those most at risk of dying from the heat.
It is already inevitable that children suffer from frequent heat waves
Experts explain that even if the level of global warming were to be reduced, it is already inevitable that in three decades children around the world will suffer from heat waves more frequently. The report estimates that in 2050 some 2,020 million children around the planet will be subject to frequent heat waves and that this will be the case whether the levels of greenhouse gas emissions are reduced, increasing the temperature by about 1.7ºC (in In this case, the estimated number of children affected would be 1.6 billion), as if a worst-case scenario of very high emissions were given, where warming would be around 2.4ºC (the estimate would be 1.9 billion children).
“Longer, hotter and more frequent heat waves will affect more children over the next thirty years, threatening their health and well-being”
“Mercury continues to rise and so do its repercussions on children. One in three children now live in countries with extremely high temperatures, and nearly one in four is exposed to increased frequency of heat waves, a situation that is likely to get worse,” said Catherine Russell, Executive Director of UNICEF.
The most drastic increases in the intensity of heat waves will occur in the northern regions, especially in Europe, by 2050 it is estimated that about half of the children in Africa and Asia will be constantly exposed to extremely high temperatures . Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, Sudan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, India and Pakistan are some of the countries that are likely to be the most affected in the short and long term.
Measures proposed by UNICEF to protect children
These results have corroborated the urgent need to adapt the services on which children depend and in the face of the inevitable impacts that global warming will cause them. “Longer, hotter and more frequent heat waves will affect more children over the next thirty years, threatening their health and well-being, and how destructive these changes will be will depend on what action we take now,” says Russell.
The only way the expert finds to save the lives and future of children, as well as the future of the planet, of course, is to urgently limit global warming to 1.5ºC and double the funding that is earmarked for climate adaptation before 2025.
“As hot as this year has been in almost every corner of the world, it will probably be the coldest year of the rest of our lives. The thermometer is rising on our planet, and yet world leaders have yet to break a sweat. The only option is for us to keep putting pressure on them to correct the course we are on,” said Vanessa Nakate, climate activist and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.
Among the measures proposed by UNICEF to protect children from heat waves are:
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