Holistic Child Development India

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Climate Change

Climate change refers to the varying changes in weather and weather patterns as noticed over decades and longer, and the effects of such changes. Climate change has been a growing concern for experts world over due to its high acceleration, which is primarily attributed to human activity. According to experts and analysts of the phenomenon, the change in climate that has become more noticeable with every passing year is much greater than the change expected as a result of natural activity and causes; and this accelerated change is mainly due to human activity. Climate change, therefore, covers the aspects of global warming, as well as all other activities that result in an increase in greenhouse gases, and the effects of this increase on the surface of the earth, as well as on groups and individuals.

Effects of climate change

Climate change is causing an alteration in the weather patterns, temperatures, sea levels, and even seasons of the world. These changes have a direct impact on the air, lands, and water around which life is based. Climate change has caused many problems at the global and local levels. Water resources are affected, altering the source of water for entire regions. This has a direct effect on agriculture and other life and livelihood conditions that are based around the water resources. Rain patterns are altering, causing problems in the livelihood of people in the rural regions who depend on rain water for activities such as agriculture. Overall, livelihood options are changing as the conditions for the existing options become more severe. Furthermore, the changing livelihood requirements, the changing lifestyle, and the changing weather patterns have an adverse effect on the health of the rural population. The rapid changes that climate change is bringing about are leading to a change in the way of life, one that may result in us leaving a planet to our children in which basic life is very different, and maybe even difficult. The following are the main impacts that climate change is having on current life:

There has been an increase in the creation of heat trapping gases due to emission by vehicles and factories, deforestation, and other sources. Higher temperatures cause problems such as an increase in deaths due to heat, rising sea levels, increased intensity and frequency of storms, warmer oceans, and coral bleaching. The average temperature of the planet is growing at a faster rate than usual and is predicted to continue to do so. An average increased temperature translates into extreme change in temperature in different regions, each of which brings its own host of problems. Rising temperatures, thereby, can result in much more than a warmer summer and colder winter, bringing about a multitude of problems that affect the very basic necessities of life and force an alteration in the way of life.

One of the greatest effects of climate change is a rise in world temperature. While a marginal rise may require only minor adjustments in the lifestyle of those who live in urban regions, nature and landscapes are changing drastically and causing a domino effect on everything that is dependent on them.

Rain and snowfall patterns are changing due to rise in temperature. This results in the upward and northern movements of plants which require cooler temperatures for survival. Work done in conservation till now gets affected as the very nature of the landscape shifts, making it uninhabitable as opposed to its previous compatibility for many animals. High temperatures are causing entire landscapes to change, and regions that were once grasslands are turning into forests, while shrubs and trees are beginning to grow in the previously inhospitable Tundra region. Trees and plants are changing their location as they migrate for survival, leaving animals being forced to migrate too. However, development, and other obstacles can block such migration, of plants and animals, and endanger multiple species as they continue to now do. The rise in temperature caused by climate change is one of the primary reason for changing landscapes and the effects thereof.

The increase in temperatures is slowly causing a drastic change in the vegetation pattern all over the world. Colder regions, which are greatly dependent on their temperatures, feel the effect of the rising temperatures greatly. Other regions that experience distinct seasons too, are facing changes in plant and vegetation as the seasons begin to alter.

The change in vegetation has an immediate effect on the wildlife that exists in the region. Migration is becoming a matter of survival more than a habit for species that require cooler temperatures and the vegetation that is part of the cooler region. However, development and other obstacles limit the extent of the migration, putting wildlife at great risk. Additionally, the pace of change may be too rapid for many plant and animal species to be able to adjust.

In such scenarios, wildlife is standing at the brink of extinction with experts predicting that, if such warming trends are to continue, one fourth of the species of the world may be extinct by the year 2050. There have been many recorded instances of wildlife suffering due to climate change. These include:

  • the death of the last Golden Toad in 1999 in Central America
  • bleaching to coral reefs as a result of increased sea temperatures that cause the death of the algae, on which the health and survival of coral reefs is dependent
  • many regions, especially those in the United States, are losing their national birds and animals to permanent migration
 

An increase in the temperature of Earth causes sea levels to rise as water gets warmer and begins to occupy more space. Glaciers melt, adding to the rising sea levels. In such cases, low lying areas are put into a dangerous position as the sea threatens to flood these areas and destroy the life they hold. Other effects of rising sea levels include the erosion of coastlines which results in displacement of plants and animals and a damaged ecosystem. It has been predicted that over one hundred million people over the world live within three feet of sea level, and their very lives and livelihood are being threatened by the rising sea levels. As awareness of climate change grows, many people who live in coastal areas are evacuating their homes to migrate to safer places, thereby leaving them with the burden to rebuild their entire lives and sources of livelihood.

Climate change, due to its various effects, has increased the risk of floods, fires, and droughts. The increased circulation of water on the surface of the earth, as well as above and below it, has caused this increased risk. The increase in temperature leads to an increase in the evaporation of moisture from the earth resulting in droughts. Lands which are subjected to drought are more vulnerable to being flooded when rainfall finally occurs.

As temperatures continue to increase, these droughts will become more severe, as some regions of Asia and Africa have already begun to experience. Droughts have immensely adverse impacts on agriculture and the supply of water, both of which affect the livelihood and living conditions of thousands of people in rural and even urban areas.

Longer summers with increased dryness and higher temperatures also lead to a greater number of forest fires. With water resources drying up and weather patterns becoming erratic enough to cause life changing catastrophes, the impact of climate change is being felt everywhere, regardless of the type of region, and slowly encroaching on many people’s livelihood and their lives.

The increase in temperature around the world leads to an increased temperature of the waters of oceans and seas. Hurricanes and storms, that receive their energy from warm water, are thereby predicted to become more frequent and more intense. The rising temperatures that are a direct result of climate change will cause more hurricanes and storms that last longer, are capable of much greater damage due to their high intensity, and that can bring greater destruction to coastal regions and the people and communities that inhabit them. These increased hurricanes and storms that are caused by climate change hold the ability to damage the ecosystem of the world which is bound to these coastal regions and communities.

With climate change causing a change in the temperatures and seasons of the world, it is causing a change in the conditions of regions that were or were not, at an earlier point, hospitable for humans, animals, pests, and infection carrying bacteria. Bacteria that need warmer climates to live are able to live in regions that were previously too cold. This phenomenon has caused an increase in illnesses in areas that were safe from certain diseases due to their regional advantage. Heat waves and rise in temperature have also led to an increase in the number of deaths caused by heat. The rise in temperature, aided by the lack of proper nutrition and water, has led to an increased death toll in rural regions. The World Health Organisation has already attributed an increased number of heat related illnesses and deaths to climate change and has predicted an increase in the future due to worsening conditions.

The effect of climate change may be viewed by many as almost insignificant in the grander scheme of things. However, the effects of climate change are in fact exponential and affect much more than that which they touch directly. That is the reason that the world economy is facing tremendous damage and loss due to climate change. Some of these effects include:

  • Reduction in sea food is a result of rising sea temperatures that have changed the oceanic habitat and caused an increase in parasites
  • Shorter and milder winters result in reduced snow, causing snow and mountain based businesses greater difficulty in obtaining loans and lack of business
  • Lake levels are being lowered which has led to an altered shoreline, affecting the habitat and living conditions of all water species that live in such lakes and requiring relocation of shore infrastructure such as ports which can cost millions
  • Greater damage caused by harsher hurricanes and storms result in much greater economic loss to governments and organizations who require to rebuild the required infrastructure
  • Higher temperatures and increased droughts and flooding leads to lower crop yields, which destroys livelihood, displaces families, causes death due to starvation, and causes inflation globally

The above mentioned points include only some of the effects that climate change has had on the global economy. The fact remains that climate change, if allowed to continue at the pace as it does today, will have exponential effects which will be felt by everyone in rural and urban regions including businesses, communities, nations, families, and individuals; while geographical boundaries will play no role in abating these effects.

Effects of climate change on children

The question that Holistic Child Development India is most often asked is why, in spite of being an organisation focused on child development, we focus on climate change. The answer lies in the fact that climate change happens as a result of adult activity, but its effects are felt mostly by the innocent children who are forced to live in a world shaped by the mistakes of their parents that worsen their living conditions and in a world where they are forced to forego their rights due to disasters caused by such climate change. This means that children are forced to give up their rights and bear the brunt of the effects of climate change, even though they contribute very little to the phenomenon. Children are the future of the world, but climate change, caused by the actions of the past generations that bring up these children, is leaving a world in which they will face more difficulty than a holistic life. The effects of climate change are not allowing children the holistic environment that is necessary for their absolute development even today; and this case is the strongest in rural regions and regions where livelihood is greatly dependent on agriculture and other natural resources.

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Droughts and floods have become too common in the rural regions as a result of climate change. The effects of these disasters are like any other catastrophes. Children are displaced along with their families. Schools are destroyed, forcing children to give up their education. Destruction of property leads to loss of the source of livelihood for the family, and children are forced into labour, migration, or worse, sold and abused for money. Often, financial constraints force them to leave their education and look after the family. Furthermore, lack of water and reduced crop yield force them to live in conditions of near starvation, causing illnesses and even death. The same problems surface as a result of the other effects of climate change which include phenomena such as rising temperatures and erratic weather patterns.

The main concern remains that children oftentimes have no indication as to why they are subjected to such problems. They have little to no contribution to the causes of climate change, and yet they are the ones who are forced to face the effects. In cases where children survive, they will grow up to live in a world that has faced great adverse effects due to climate change and that has little to offer them. HCDI, recognising this fact, focuses on climate change so that children and their communities.

  • can be prepared to face the disasters that come as a result of climate change
  • can be inculcated with habits to ensure greener living that reduces the impact on climate change itself
  • can take efforts to counter the effects of climate change
  • can be prepared to inculcate the changes brought about by climate change into their daily lives, without disrupting their lives

Methodology

The projects carried out under the climate change programmes by HCDI and its implementing partners focus on the sectors of adaptation and mitigation. With a focus on rural regions who are the worst hit by the effects of climate change, HCDI and its implementing partners work towards reducing the effects of climate change and providing communities and children with methods to counter and reduce the phenomenon of climate change. This is done under the following two heads:

Adaptation:

Climate change and its many effects have resulted in problems in the livelihood options of rural communities. These communities primarily depend on agriculture and other natural resources for their livelihood. Weather changes and change in landscape and soil fertility has led to reduced yield and, in some cases, an impossibility of cultivation. Keeping their sources of livelihood in mind, HCDI and its implementing partners undertake projects that involve providing these communities, especially the children, with knowledge and skills for alternate methods to carry on their current livelihood activities and establish new activities that supplement their present options. This has a direct impact on the children who may be forced to migrate, give up their education, undertake manual labour, or undertake any such activities that are necessary to contribute to the income of the household. With the implementation of the knowledge and skills imparted for adaptation, children are free from financial responsibility and to grow up in a safe, protected, and fulfilling environment.

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Mitigation:

Adaptation allows the rural communities to react accordingly to the effects of climate change so that their lives and livelihood are not affected. However, that only solves a part of the climate change problem. Children are forced to face the effects of climate change even thought they are not responsible for it. Yet, they are inculcated with knowledge on how to mitigate these effects and counter the habits that cause climate change. For example, children are given the responsibility to plant and take care of a number of trees every year. This ensures that the area is kept green and thriving, mitigating the effects of climate change such as increase in carbon dioxide levels. Children also participate in workshops that teach them about climate change. They are then encouraged to take up these concerns with the Children’s Parliaments of their villages as well as with the elders and come to solutions that they believe will help. These solutions are discussed upon in workshops and even implemented where possible and relevant.

The projects undertaken under the climate change programme of HCDI span across multiple years. A final target is set to improve the living conditions of the region through the implementation of various techniques and this target is maintained as the final goal at all times, with changes being made to it depending on the route of progress. HCDI and its implementing partners maintain records to analyse how accepting the villagers are of the adaptation and mitigation knowledge with which they are provided. Furthermore, a record is also maintained of the strategies implemented under the areas of adaptation and mitigation and the progress attained under each head. Carried out similar to projects under the community focused child development programme, the climate change projects involve the entire community, with a focus on the betterment of children, and are aimed at completion when the region becomes self sufficient and capable of development without external assistance.

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