DO IT FOR THE KIDS

We're not talking about Easter egg hunts here.

Children bear brunt of climate warming: report
Jeremy Lovell, April 5, 2007 (Reuters via Yahoo News)

WHO
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scientists, Save the Children

WHAT
175 million children over the next decade will suffer from droughts, floods, storms and other climate-related disasters because of global warming, an increase of 28% over the preceeding decade. Millions more will suffer homeless, hunger and disease.

WHEN
These predictions are for the 2005 – 2015 period, suggesting that present efforts to reduce emissions, thereby avoiding the worst effects of global warming, are therefore more urgent. Britian’s Environment agency has said it does not expect present efforts to affect changes such as increased risk of flooding, coastal tide surges, water shortages and potential loss of biodiversity, which will occur in the first half of the 21st century but may avoid the worst effects coming in the second half.

WHERE
Though the global warming effects are universal, the impact is expected to be worst in poor populations.

WHY
Poor children are, in any sudden change of conditions, among the most vulnerable. Poor nations have less capacity to adapt.

QUOTES
"Children are already bearing the brunt of climate change and there will be millions more children caught up in climate-related natural disasters every year," said Jasmine Whitbread, head of Save the Children UK.
Risk Management Solutions research officer Robert Muir-Wood: "…even the wealthiest countries will find it a challenge to adapt quickly and effectively to the increased hazards posed by climate change…"