The data that is coming out about health hazards due to climate change is worrying. We may continue to ignore it out of fear of this huge problem, but if we do not change our lifestyle, then it can have a very bad effect on the coming generations. Over the past two decades, studies by many other scientists, including my research, have shown that children are at risk due to climate change and air pollution.
Climate change is a big problem for the child in the womb
Fossil fuels are at the root of both problems. By studying pregnant women and newborns, we have found that climate change and air pollution are serious problems for the developing brain of the unborn child. This should be treated as an upcoming health emergency. There are policy, technology-based and private-level solutions to this problem, it's just how much we want to do them.
Over the past 20 years, our understanding has grown steadily that climate change and air pollution have significant effects on the developing brain. Research has shown that air pollution is responsible for low IQ and other cognitive problems, ADHD and autism developmental disorders, depression and anxiety, etc. It can also bring about structural changes in the brain of children.
affect the mental development of the child
Displacement due to climate change also affects the educational-psychological development of children and they suffer from problems like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Usually, these problems persist till adulthood. Recent studies on the brain of the unborn baby have debunked many old beliefs, most importantly that the mother's placenta protects the baby from environmental hazards.
Another debunked belief is that the baby's brain is protected by the blood-brain barrier. We now know that if a pregnant woman is exposed to toxic chemicals, the effects are passed on to her developing baby's brain. This highly sensitive state of the baby's mind continues even after birth, as it is still developing.
Air pollution is also dangerous for the baby's brain
There is also the problem with children that they do not have the biological defense mechanisms that adults normally have, such as complex enzyme systems that detoxify pollutants and repair DNA damage. Nearly a third of the world's children today live in areas prone to either flood or drought or high levels of air pollution.
These problems can only be avoided by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50-52% of 2005 levels by 2030 and achieving net-zero status by 2050. The climate crisis is so big that governments have to take emergency steps. Individually we can also take several steps.
Take action for climate change yourself
We can make smart energy decisions for our homes. Make clean energy top of your priorities and educate your children about it. We can contribute by using LEDs instead of light bulbs and turning down thermostats by one degree during winter. It is also important to adopt plant-best food instead of non-vegetarian.
A Baby's brain is very sensitive during pregnancy
Why is the brain of a fetus so sensitive? There are many reasons for this. Complex developmental programming occurs rapidly in a baby's brain while it is in the womb. Remember that all the hundred billion nerve cells present in the brain of an adult man are formed when he is still in the mother's womb as an infant. The special architecture of the mind is also created only then. That's why pregnancy is so important.
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