OVERCONSUMPTION BY RICH COUNTRIES DESTROYS GLOBAL ECOSYSTEMS: UNICEF

Children play outside their home that has been turned into a large dumpsite by waste from leather industries in Bangladesh.

Image Credit © UNICEF/BANA2007-00136/Noorani

Tue 24 May 2022:

According to UNICEF, if the entire globe consumed resources at the same pace as the world’s wealthiest countries, more than three earths would be required to keep up.

The UN Children’s Fund compared the worldwide environmental impact of 39 European Union and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries in a report issued Tuesday (OECD).

Exposure to harmful pollutants, consumption of resources, dumping of e-waste and national contributions to the climate crisis are among the indicators the report takes into account.

Spain, Ireland, and Portugal are at the top of the list because they provide a nice environment for their own children and contribute very little to global environmental issues.

Australia, Belgium and Canada meanwhile are among the world’s richest countries reported to have both a severe impact on the global environment and therefore children worldwide, as well as for children domestically.

“Not only are the majority of rich countries failing to provide healthy environments for children within their borders, they are also contributing to the destruction of children’s environments in other parts of the world,” said Gunilla Olsson, Director of UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti.

“In some cases we are seeing countries providing relatively healthy environments for children at home while being among the top contributors to pollutants that are destroying children’s environments abroad.”

Additional findings include:

Over 20 million children in this group of countries have elevated levels of lead in their blood. Lead is one of the most dangerous environmental toxic substances.
Finland, Iceland and Norway rank in the top third for providing a healthy environment for their children yet rank in the bottom third for the world at large, with high rates of emissions, e-waste and consumption.
In Iceland, Latvia, Portugal and the United Kingdom 1 in 5 children is exposed to damp and mould at home; while in Cyprus, Hungary and Turkey more than 1 in 4 children is exposed.
Many children are breathing toxic air both outside and inside their homes. Mexico has among the highest number of years of healthy life lost due to air pollution at 3.7 years per thousand children, while Finland and Japan have the lowest at 0.2 years.
In Belgium, Czech Republic, Israel, the Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland more than 1 in 12 children are exposed to high pesticide pollution. Pesticide pollution has been linked with cancer, including childhood leukaemia and can harm children’s nervous, cardiovascular, digestive, reproductive, endocrine, blood and immune systems.

UNICEF is calling for the following steps to protect and improve children’s environments:

Governments at the national, regional and local level need to lead on improvements to children’s environments today, by reducing waste, air and water pollution, and by ensuring high-quality housing and neighbourhoods.
Improve environments for the most vulnerable children. Children in poor families tend to face greater exposure to environmental harm than do children in richer families. This entrenches and amplifies existing disadvantages and inequities.
Ensure that environmental policies are child sensitive. Governments and policymakers should make sure that the needs of children are built into decision making. Adult decision makers at all levels, from parents to politicians, must listen to their perspectives and take them into account when designing policies that will disproportionately affect future generations.
Involve children, the main stakeholders of the future: Children will face today’s environmental problems for the longest time; but they are also the least able to influence the course of events.
Governments and businesses should take effective action now to honour the commitments they have made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Adaptation to climate change should also be at the forefront of action for both governments and the global community, and across various sectors from education to infrastructure.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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