Attention Grabber for Global Warming: How to Get More Individuals to Focus on the Problem

With the ongoing civil wars, terrorism and other various topics covered on media, the coverage of disasters that have been strengthened by global warming has been declining or are being forgotten. Methods of achieving further attention grabber for global warming is the aim for this essay as here we will discuss how to get more individuals to focus on global warming, whilst focusing on topics in developing countries and their children to ultimately achieve more attention on global warming through media coverage and its relevance to those who live in fully developed countries. Many papers have discussed the issues that children in developing countries are facing and the increasing sea-level yet very little discuss the relationship between the two and how it can be used to promote more attention to global warming on the media.

The increasing global temperature has been negatively affecting many young children worldwide, especially in developing countries. These countries essentially require a healthy population in order to develop into a prosperous country. My paper contributes to the grand conversation of global warming and its potential threats, and further into the consequences that children are facing in developing countries that are not as common in developed countries. Many studies conducted on children and climate change. For example, Hanna and Oliva concluded that children are more vulnerable to be harmed by environmental effects. Dietz et al. suggest that the global economy will begin to decline instead of simply increasing following the pattern of the economy if there is absolutely no change in the actions taken to halt global warming. While Oyero and Salawu note that drawing attention to media can help create a sustainable future for Africa. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how and why one can draw attention to global warming through media coverage of the current issues such as the health risks that children in developing countries face, as well as the potential threats to these children as global warming progresses.

Health Risks and Locational Differences

Children are the most at risk as global warming changes the climate. However, every child is not equally experiencing difficulties, children who grew up in developing countries will have significantly higher odds of putting their health in jeopardy compared to those who grew up in fully developed countries. Including the fact that children do not have a fully matured immune system, it is logical to assume that they’d get ill more frequently than adults. In addition to this Hanna and Oliva adds in that that children in general “are physically weaker and less able to dissipate heat”. With this knowledge, it makes sense that children are more likely, gets heat-strokes and unusual illnesses like parasite infections. On top of this, many developing countries do not have access to advanced health care technology. Furthermore, the lack of infrastructure and funding to support medical research causes the death of children even though the disease is preventable in other countries. Also, even if the country had a cure for the illness, often of the time, the cost will derive another issue. Hence, children in developing countries have a very difficult time accessing treatment.

Countries currently undergoing development are more likely to be situated near the equator according to Hanna and Oliva, and also Oyero et al. There are two major reasons why the placement affects the youth of equatorial nations. One is how these regions are already experiencing moderately high temperatures. With the increasing global temperature in addition to the original immense heat, the chances of dehydration and heatstroke drastically increase. Furthermore, the fact that children are unable to dissipate heat well greatly increases the odds of heat strokes. On top of this, many of the countries near the equator often have areas where are not connected to a clean, drinkable water supply, which further increases the risks. On the other hand, equatorial regions have been experiencing menacingly rising sea-levels. The increased global temperature, alongside the rising water level, leads to a higher frequency of super cyclones and guerilla rainstorms due to faster and increased evapouration. The sea-level is increasing by 3 mm per year near these regions and the rate will continue to increase to 10 mm per year within the next half-century according to the research conducted by Spade et al As the sea level increased throughout the world, the number of powerful storms has surged. For example, the Government of the United States of America revealed that eight out of ten costliest hurricanes had occurred in the past two decades. This alludes to the fact that storms are becoming more frequent and powerful, from which arise many injuries and deaths.

While the two examples and illustrations are the consequences of global warming the two can be used as a topic for broadcasting the significance of stopping global warming. Therefore, by featuring the consequences and issues derived from climate change, one can grab the attention of those in various countries to aid in society to focus of global warming. The health risks associated with climate change is significantly affecting the children of developing countries. Besides the health risks these children in these countries also suffer from malnourishment, discrimination, poverty and lack of education. Agreeing upon Oyero and Salawu’s conclusion, these children are our future, they will be the ones leading society in the upcoming years. Not only are these youths suffering these affairs, but also, many individuals in fully developed countries do not acknowledge the issue is that is occurring. Furthermore, by broadcasting this global issue more on media more than it is presently, will drastically increase the global news topics.

Even though the topic on children in developing countries having to suffer many health issues is a strong definitive topic to grasp more attention to the global crisis of climate change, one may argue that the significance of these children is lacking. So, an alternative topic to draw more focus on global warming is by discussing the meteorological disasters that had significantly become more frequent over the past two decades. Within the last two decades, many natural disasters have occurred, almost too many to recall all of them. Since the global temperatures are increasing and the sea level near the equator is increasing by more than 3 mm per year, many of the tropical regions have been experiencing chaotic storms. For example, in 2013, Hurricane Haiyan had landed on the Philippines. The storm had brought 90 billion dollars worth of economic damage to the Philippines. However, these storms are not only affecting those in developing countries, but it also affects countries away from the equator. In fact, Office for Coastal Management of the United States of America notes that eight of the top ten costliest typhoons have occurred in the past decade and a half with Hurricane Katrina being the most expensive at 161 billion US dollars bringing relevance to those who live in regions away from the equator. On the other hand, even though Hurricane Katrina did more devastating damage to infrastructure, the death toll rose to more than 1800 including all the surrounding countries Cuba, the Bahamas and the United States of America. When compared to Hurricane Haiyan, which had over 6000 people just in the Philippines die upon landing truly shows how much stronger these storms are getting. Alluding back to the fact that this news lack attention on media and should be centralized more to achieve more attention and consideration of global warming hence the relevance to those who live away from equatorial regions.

Conclusions

My paper has contributed to the grand topic of global warming and methods to increase the understanding of its threats to society by proposing two distinct topics that should be focused on media to further highlight the attention towards the global crisis of climate change. By discussing the health issues children face due to extreme climate change in developing countries Further research should be conducted on how individuals could contribute to help reduce the climate change that is occurring in the environment where children live. Drawing more attention towards the meteorological disasters that had happened in that past two decades also illustrates the storms that developing countries have been experiencing but also the relevancy to developed countries like the United States of America. More research on how these storms affect Canadian citizens will show more relevancy to those who live further up north. Further research should also be conducted on how to reduce these storms since this paper was to drag attention into this global crisis with the fact that this crisis has only begun to reveal its true power and its potential.

Works Cited

• Hanna, R., and Oliva, P. (2016). Implications of Climate Change for Children in Developing  Countries. The Future of Children, 26(1), 115-132. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43755233
• Dietz, S., Groom, B., and Pizer, W. (2016). Weighing the Costs and Benefits of Climate  Change to Our Children. The Future of Children, 26(1), 133-155. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43755234
• Oyero, O., and Salawu, A. (2018). Building Media Capacity for Sustainability in Africa: Educational and Partnership Imperatives. SAGE Open, 8(1), 1-10. doi: 10.1177/2158244018763930
• Spada, G., Bamber, J. L., & Hurkmans, R. T. W. L. (2013). The gravitationally consistent sea level fingerprint of future terrestrial ice loss. Geophysical Research Letters, 40(3), 482–486. doi: 10.1029/2012gl053000