In case of any crisis or injustice, it is the children who suffer the most. Although they do not deserve it at all, and they come into this world with an open heart and a pure soul. However, they have to pay the price for the mistakes and crimes of adults because children are unprotected and dependent, and lack the ability to reject the toxic legacy that the world imposes on them. The challenge for adults is to change that. A caring man and wonderful actor, Orlando Bloom, called onworld leaders on his Instagram to take immediate action to greatly reduce emissions. Otherwise, by 2050, every child on the planet will be exposed to the effects of global warming.
It is easy to understand Orlando’s anxiety. It is not clear why the leaders of the top states, whom the actor is addressing, do not understand this. Do the governments of the developed world really think that they can build a separate paradise on their own territory in which their children will be livingsafely? What a grievous thought in its fallacy. The modern world has no boundaries. For example, natural disasters due to climate change happen everywhere, both in Pakistan and Germany.
Environmental hazards
Surprisingly, most of the maximum allowable doses of chemicals for a child’s body are still basedon criteria developed for adults. However, children’s bodies, especially in the first years of life, are much more sensitive and more exposed to environmental risks.
At best, air polluted by emissions, provokes conjunctivitis, eye irritation, severe coughs and cramps in children. At worst, even at a tender age, a little person will get bronchial asthma. It is scary to think what this will lead to in his or her adult life. So, today 9 out of 10 people in the world breathe polluted air. The result is 7 million deaths annually! A third of all deaths from cardiovascular disease and cancer are due to dirty air!
Another acute problem is bad indoor air. This is due to the use of polluting fuels for cooking, heating, and home lighting. Because of this, mainly in Asian and African countries, 4 million people die each year. Women and children are the most affected because they spend more time indoors.
Enterprises, polluting water bodies, reward babies with skin infections. Kids love to swim, don’tthey? How would they know that a local businessman saved money on the sewage treatment plant? A separate issue is drinking water. Even in regions where it is plentiful, there are problems with its quality. Excessive salt content and chlorine disinfection is a direct way to have diseases of the urinary system of the child.
Examine your cosmetics, take a close look at your household chemicals. Because of a large number of antibacterial components, all this often provokes the strongest allergies. Children’s clothing and toys must have appropriate safety certificates of the manufacturer. Otherwise, you will simply poison your baby with toxic things of unknown origin.
The poor are doomed
It is hilarious, of course, to hear advice from experienced pediatricians on how to raise a healthy child. They say walks in the fresh air, bathing in clean bodies of water, healthy food, etc. are helpful. So go live in a forest cabin, build a pool, buy organic produce from small farmers, etc.
Thanks, cap! Tell me more, where 90% of the parents in the world will get the money for all this.What are we talking about when millions of children on the planet do not even have the opportunity to follow basic rules of hygiene? Do you think the children who survived the terrible August flooding in Pakistan had the opportunity to brush their teeth regularly, for example?
Two years ago, the Commission of International Experts on Child and Adolescent Health conducted a study of 180 countries on the criteria of child survival, well-being, education and nutrition, as well as income and environmental conditions. In the top ten of the ranking were Norway, South Korea, the Netherlands, France, Ireland, Denmark, Japan, Belgium, Iceland and the United Kingdom. The worst child welfare is in Mali, Niger, Somalia, Chad, and the Central African Republic (the 180th place).
The distribution of countries is not surprising. That is not what is so terrifying. The same Child Prosperity Index, but with the CO2 emissions figures, turns the list upside down. Thus, Norway was only 156th, South Korea was 166th, and the Netherlands — 160th. At the same time, Burundi, Chad and Somalia have the lowest level of carbon dioxide emissions.
The same trend was shown by a May 2022 study conducted by the UN Children’s Fund’s Innocenticenter. For example, Finland, Iceland and Norway are here in the third place in providing a healthy environment for their children, while also ranking last in the world in terms of emissions and e-waste!
But the rich also cry! Neither is it right to say that children in prosperous countries have a cloudless, healthy future. It turns out that 20 million children in states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development have elevated blood lead levels! And even relatively low levels of this element can cause reduced intelligence, behavioral disorders and learning difficulties in young children. In Belgium, the Czech Republic, Israel, the Netherlands, Poland, and Switzerland, 1 in 12 children is exposed to pesticides. It is fraught with cancer.
Conclusions? They are all sad. But the main problem is that rich countries, having many times more opportunities to maintain ecological balance in the world, not only put their children at risk, but also actively pollute the environment in other regions of the world.
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