THE INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE ON CHILDREN

Abstract

As a meteorological term, climate is a set of factors and phenomena that, in a certain period of time, makes up the average state of the atmosphere over a certain part of the Earth’s surface. Climate affects children’s health in various ways because of their developing bodies. Therefore, climate change has a significant and increasing impact on the mental health of children and young people. Globally, children are increasingly exposed to climate change. The aim of this paper was to show, by reviewing the available scientific and professional literature, the impact of climate on children. The work was done as a review article. Works published in relevant databases in the period from 2014 to 2023 were used as material. Analysis of the results of all the works used confirm that climate change affects children’s health and is associated with a wide range of health problems. A wide range of negative emotions felt by children is related to climate change, with anxiety and worry being the most researched and discussed. The authors point out that climate conditions have direct negative effects on children, on feelings of fear, helplessness, worry, sadness, anger and anxiety. Preventive strategies have generally been proposed in pediatric health care to address the effects of climate change on children. While mitigation involves reducing the concentration of greenhouse gasses (GHG) in the atmosphere to reduce climate change, adaptation involves developing public health strategies to minimize or eliminate local and regional adverse outcomes expected from climate change. Children are increasingly involved in risk reduction, community climate adaptation and mitigation initiatives, and policy discussions. Notable trends include the Greta Effect, FridaysforFuture, climate strikes, BirthStrike, and children’s civil lawsuits against the federal government.