Adolescence

HALLENGES ANDThis chapter considers some of the key global challenges that are shapingtoday’s world – including environmental sustainability, peace and security, andkey economic and social trends – and assesses their potential impact onand relevance for adolescents.Climate change and the environmentAlong with severe pollution and loss of biodiversity, climatechange is the most urgent and alarming threat to theenvironment. Contributing to environmental degradation,loss of vital natural resources and the conditions thatundermine food and water security, it disrupts the verycontext in which adolescents live and develop.Climate change and increased frequency and severity ofhumanitarian crises have the potential to adversely impactnot only young people’s health and nutrition, but also theireducation and development. For instance, families who losetheir livelihood to drought may no longer be able to affordsending children to school or paying for health care. 1Climate change is not just an ‘environmental’ issue. Itrequires collective action that brings together sustainabledevelopment, energy security, and actions to safeguardchildren’s health and well-being. While children and youngpeople are most seriously affected by the acceleratingdeterioration of the environment, they can becomeeffective agents of change for the long-term protection andstewardship of the earth if they are provided with knowledgeand opportunity. Some community-based monitoring andadvocacy activities already involve young people in effortsto improve living conditions in their environments.Natural disasters are increasingly frequent, and they mostseverely effect those developing countries that lack theresources to restore ‘normality’ quickly. At times of crisis,children and adolescents are most vulnerable. While theyoungest are most likely to perish or succumb to disease,all children and young people suffer as a result of foodshortages, poor water and sanitation, interrupted educationand family separation or displacement. 2If water, food and fuel insecurity intensify as a result of climate change, adolescents,most often girls, can expect to bear the brunt of the additional time it will take to acquiredrinking water. A 16-year-old girl carries a jug of water across the sand towards herfamily’s nomadic compound in the Sahara Desert, Morocco.Two other facts are clear. The first is that this generationof adolescents will bear a major portion of the burdenand cost of mitigating and adapting to climate change.Adolescents will be harder hit than adults simply because88 per cent of them live in developing countries, which areprojected to suffer disproportionately from the effects ofrising global average temperatures. An estimated 46 developingand transition countries are considered to be at high42THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN 2011