Bernard Van Leer Foundation: Climate Change and Effects on Young Children
The 2021 issue of the Bernard van Leer Foundation’s Early Childhood Matters magazine focuses on caring for children and the planet, noting that whilst climate change is especially dangerous for young children, discussions about climate change seldom refer to the effects on this population.
Early Childhood Matters 2021 includes 34 articles by international policymakers, educators, urban planners and activists, about how to both develop ecological resilience and improve well-being in the early years, spotlighting the critical fact that many of the measures that improve life for young children and their families also make cities more climate resilient.
Cecilia Vaca Jones opens her editorial with the blunt evidence that climate change is especially dangerous for children under 5. “They have the overwhelming share of climate-related diseases, and are highly vulnerable to air pollution and heat. When extreme weather forces young children to migrate, they face malnutrition, interrupted education, and many other threats, during a key period in their physical and emotional growth. It’s also very reasonable to expect that a baby born today will grow up to experience major climate chaos and environmental degradation – worse than any faced by current adults.”
The issue is divided into three sections: Evidence; New Approaches; and Education and Activism.
Articles in the Evidence section:
· Review American data showing that heat and air pollution are already threatening newborns, with particular impact on black mothers, who are at higher risk of pre-term delivery, low birthweight and stillbirth https://earlychildhoodmatters.online/2021/climate-change-threatens-newborns-in-the-us/
· A UNICEF expert explains how droughts, floods and rising sea levels are making safe drinking water even more scarce, imperiling children’s health, education and survival https://earlychildhoodmatters.online/2021/climate-change-induced-water-insecurity-endangers-children/
· Focusing on an indigenous Kenyan village, this article looks at how climate change is impacting new mothers and infants in indigenous communities (an area that has had little international research so far) https://earlychildhoodmatters.online/2021/how-climate-change-affects-pregnancy-and-early-childhood-in-an-indigenous-kenyan-village/
· A specialist in forced displacement discusses how extreme weather events have forced babies and toddlers to leave their homes and ecosystems, and how many of these displaced children end up in high-risk urban slums, where they face new climate challenges https://earlychildhoodmatters.online/2021/climate-change-is-forcing-young-children-into-high-risk-urban-slums/
· A photographer working with families in Venezuela, Colombia and Central America share images of the daily struggles of young children and their caregivers who are living with the effects of climate change.
The New Approaches section reviews urban initiatives to prioritise young children and invest in measures to improve the lives of children in urban centres, which host the vast majority of the global population:
· Lima, Peru, has launched a programme to expand natural spaces for children and their caregivers https://earlychildhoodmatters.online/2021/reclaiming-green-space-in-lima/
· Jundiai, Brazil, in consultation with their Children’s Committee, a group of children who meet every two weeks to discuss their needs and experiences as urban residents, is expanding green areas and promoting walking and cycling https://earlychildhoodmatters.online/2021/making-every-child-feel-that-the-city-genuinely-cares/
· Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is taking measure to transform streets into safe public spaces where children can play, with a commitment to provide universal access to comprehensive early years services to all 1.3 million children under 6 years old who will live in the city by 2027, with intensified support for vulnerable children in 330,000 low-income households https://earlychildhoodmatters.online/2021/in-addis-ababa-learning-through-outdoor-play/
· A network called Aires Nuevos in Latin America is monitoring the air that children breathe whilst going to and from daycare centres and schools, installing moitors and sharing data, in order to persuade governments to change pollution policies https://earlychildhoodmatters.online/2021/shielding-young-children-from-air-pollution-in-latin-america/
· An American author describes how over-protective parenting and time indoors can lead to nature deficit disorder in which children are disconnected from the outside world and from other living beings
· A project in Israel that is transforming concrete urban spaces into natural wonderlands.
The final group of articles, on Education and Activism, focuses on individuals committed to combating climate change on behalf of young children:
· An Abu Dhabi government initiative where the emirate is making children central to its efforts to combat climate change.
· A South African project to bring worm farms to disadvantaged urban school children. The farms teach students as young as 5 to grow vegetables and manage waste (including a “worm pledge” they recite at the start of each class). https://earlychildhoodmatters.online/2021/i-firmly-believe-that-we-should-engage-with-children-when-they-are-young/
· Examples of youth activism for climate change
· An essay by former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark argues that children should be at the centre of the Sustainable Development Goals, given that they are at particular risk from climate change, and that all governments should track how their policies impact the very youngest in society.
The global perspectives in these articles are valuable in informing our own local perspectives, and help to create context when working with immigrant families to Canada whose international relocation has so often been prompted by the impacts of these climate-related issues.