A Wits scientist has identified how climate change affects the capacity of adolescents to learn equitably in different environments.
Associate Professor Matthew Chersich, in the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (Wits RHI), published an editorial in the South African Medical Journal last month.
Climate change and adolescents in South Africa: The role of youth activism and the health sector in safeguarding adolescents’ health and education lays out the critical risks of climate change on the youth of today.
It provides evidence of the the danger that greenhouses gases and the onslaught of emissions pose to educational performance. In addition, it proposes interventions and a call for youth activism to mitigate the effects of climate change, and proposes what leaders can do to act on these.
“As a start, ‘warning labels’ should be added to carbon-intensive products like red meat and imported fruit, just like we warn people of the harms of tobacco and alcohol. If the government won’t do something simple like that, how can we expect them to close SASOL?,” says Chersich.
The most important findings in the editorial include “sick building syndrome” and the impact of climate change on water and sanitation, the impact of heat on girls and their mental health, and the environmental impact on the 20% of children engaged in economic activity.
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