Wednesday, October 26, 2022

The Guardian: "Virtually all children on Earth will face more frequent heatwaves by 2050"

"The climate crisis is also a children’s rights crisis: one in four children globally are already affected by the climate emergency and by 2050 virtually every child in every region will face more frequent heatwaves, according to a new Unicef report.

For hundreds of millions of children, heatwaves will also last longer and be more extreme, increasing the threat of death, disease, hunger and forced migration.

The findings come less than a fortnight before the Cop27 UN climate talks get underway in Egypt, and after a catastrophic year of extreme weather events – heatwaves, storms, floods, fires and droughts – have demonstrated the speed and magnitude of the climate breakdown facing the planet.

According to Unicef, 559 million children currently endure at least four to five dangerous heatwaves annually, but the number will quadruple to 2 billion by 2050 – even if global heating is curtailed to 1.7 degrees, currently the best-case scenario on the table."

Continue reading The Guardian article online (subscription may be required)
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/25/global-heatwaves-2050-unicef-report

   
A Palestinian mother showers her child during a heatwave in the southern Gaza Strip in August 2022. Photograph: Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock
A Palestinian mother showers her child during a heatwave in the southern Gaza Strip in August 2022. Photograph: Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

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