Children

Today marks the start to the Junior 8 Summit, which will be held in Chitose City, Hokkaido, Japan, from 2-9 July. The J8 is a youth event run parallel to the annual Group of 8 Summit of world leaders. The J8 takes place every year and allows young people from around the world the opportunity to meet share their ideas, concerns and recommendations on how we can work to solve pressing global issues which are set before the G8.

At the J8 Summit, a team of young people represents each of the G8 countries, which include; Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. In addition another delegation of young people will represent the non-G8 countries, by providing one participant from each region of the world.

The J8 is an amazing opportunity for young people around the world to get involved in the decisions of our global world for which they will soon inherent responsibility for. The summit is also an opportunity for world leaders to hear the voices of youth, and see the power for which young people have for change. The participants in the J8 are to serve as representative of youth around the world, but are also able to share their own ideas.

The G8 leaders will gather in Japan next week, as the Group of Eight summit takes place on July 7-9 in the Japanese town of Toyako. On this years G8 agenda climate change tops the list as a UN-backed deadline approaches for a new global treaty. Also priorities on the G8 agenda are poverty and HIV/AIDS, as while the progress has been seen in some areas in recent years, such as providing life saving medications and increasing children’s access to schools, the increasing of promised funds to fight extreme poverty have been missed. Therefore as the world looks at the current food prices and shortages, the need for action has become even more pressing.

Kids to learn more about the J 8 Summit and how you can send a message to world leaders click here, and find your countries J8 page. Have your say and see what others are saying by going to UNICEF’s Voices of Youth forum, young people just like this:

“My country comprises of intelligent youths who when given the right environment and state of mind, the sky is just the beginning, so to improve my country, i would invest in education, improving the state of mind of the average Nigerian child and positioning him to influence the world.”

More on the issues at this years G8 Summit:

Confronting Climate Change: A Strategy for U.S. Foreign Policy
A new Independent Task Force report says U.S. climate policy must focus on the largest economies and emitters.

News Release: U.S. must overhaul climate change strategy, says CFR Task Force report.

Backgrounder: Economic Challenges for Climate Change Policy

Ban urges G8 to move forward with Africa aid promises
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the G8 countries Monday to follow through with pledges to increase aid to Africa $25 billion. Reports surfaced that some countries might backtrack on the promises. “When it comes to climate change…and the global food crisis, these campaigns should be led by the industrialized countries — they have the capacity, they have the resources, and I hope the leadership demonstrates their political will,” Ban said ahead of a G8 summit next week.

Quarter of kids don’t meet vaccine schedule, as more than a quarter of American children do not meet the U.S. government’s recommendations for childhood vaccinations, according to researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers.

Viral outbreak hits China province, as the deaths of 19 children and the infection of more than 900 people with enterovirus 71, which can cause hand, foot and mouth disease, have panicked residents of China’s Anhui province and pushed authorities to set up a daily reporting mechanism to track the virus’ spread. World Health Organization officials are urging parents to keep their children away from public places until the outbreak subsides.

Cambodian school food program faces suspension as the continual rise in global food prices are now endangering a World Food Program initiative supplying free breakfast to 450,000 Cambodian children at more than 1,300 schools across the country. In just under a month, the schools’ rice stocks will be gone and the breakfast program suspended indefinitely.

Radiohead song to raise awareness on human rights Pioneering rock band Radiohead has lent its song “All I Need” to an MTV campaign to raise awareness about sweatshop labor and human trafficking. The move builds on the British band’s previous efforts to highlight slave labor and environmental issues.

UNICEF: Climate change mainly hits poor children, according to UNICEF warned in a new report. Problems such as floods, droughts and malaria, which experts say are worsening because of global warming, already are taking a big toll on children in developing nations, the UN agency says.

Today April 22, 2008 is Earth Day and it’s not only a day to remember to recycle and take a day off from the car, but a day to teach children about protecting their future…a day to learn how to safeguard their future.

This year children across the United States had a chance to share their views on the Environment and how they thing we are doing. For almost a year students have been sharing their views on some of the biggest environmental issues facing our world. The results have been published by Scholastic in the Kids’ Environmental Report Card, the survey is the first to ever be conducted to obtain on children’s views on the environment. More than 17,000 children, who ranged in school age from K-12th grade. When polled on the question: “How would you rate the response to the environmental challenge posed by global climate change?” 39% of them voted “F: Awful! Much more needs to be done”.

Other results include: 54% of kids said that “global climate change” is the most important environmental issue facing the world today, 77% of kids think we should “figure out new ways to recycle old stuff” as a way to deal with our trash. 56% think that only sometimes grown-ups are doing a good job to help the environment, while 20% said “Grown-ups are messing up the planet!”. 85% of kids say that responsibility for the environment belongs to everyone.

From the mouth of babes, we’re failing our children and the protection of their future. However it appears that the future generation may be more in touch with the environment than the last. Most children today appear to be more in tuned with environmental issues than we think, and it is up to us to instill more in them and lead by example. Therefore I hope you will find some of the links below useful. Happy Earth Day!

Earth Day Links and Resources for Children:
Earth Day 2008 Events World Wide
Earth Day Teachers Guide
Earth Day Lesson Plan for 2nd and 3rd graders
Kaboose - History, crafts, recipes and much more.
Earth Day.gov for Kids - Games and Learning activities.
Kids in Action: Earth Day Every Day
Children’s Crafts for Earth Day
Amazing Mom’s Earth Day Ideas for Kids and Classrooms
Earth Day for Earth’s Children: Three Books for Earth Day, 2008
Children’s books honor Earth Day

Twenty-four cities from Atlanta to Tel Aviv to Bangkok have agreed to turn off their lights for one hour on March 29 to draw attention to global warming. Organizers said more cities may join the event and that some 30 million people may participate (Associated Press). In related news UN officials say Human rights threatened by global warming

Central Mozambique is recovering from its worst-ever flood, emergency workers are trying to contain an outbreak of cholera, affecting more than 600 people in Mutarara district, Tete province, leaving ten people dead. ActionAid is working with the government and ngos to improve hygiene in resettlement camps, 100,000 have been evacuated, where many still live in tents or simple shelters.

Bolivia has officially declared a natural disaster, as more than 60,000 families affected by heavy flooding. Many have been rescued and taken to camps, hundreds are suffering from waterborne diseases and acute diarrhea. An estimated 52 people have died, eight are missing and more than 616,000 hectares of crops destroyed as rivers burst their banks (Plan UK).

In Haiti ensuring adequate nutrition for children younger than two is more beneficial than intervening with food assistance after young children show signs of malnourishment, according to a study published this month by the Lancet, a leading medical journal. The study compared the impact of two approaches implemented by US government-funded World Vision programs in Haiti. Researchers found that indicators of malnutrition - stunting, wasting and underweight - were 4% to 6% lower in communities participating in preventive programs, than those that which used recuperative approaches. (ReliefWeb)

In Indonesia poverty in the tsunami struck region of Aceh has fallen below the pre-disaster level, a new World Bank report shows, due to both peace and the large reconstruction effort. The Aceh Poverty Assessment 2008 report shows poverty in Aceh increased slightly in the aftermath of the tsunami, from 28.4% in 2004 to 32.6% in 2005. However, the poverty rate fell again in 2006 to 26.5%, below the pre-tsunami level, suggesting that the short lived rise was due to reconstruction activities. Despite any improvements, poverty in Aceh remains significantly higher than in the rest of Indonesia, with more than 30% of rural households below the poverty line, compared to less than 15% in urban areas.

Please see Bill Hewitt’s Climate Change Blog for his recent post on Children and Climate Change and the recent report issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said he would discuss how to balance climate change and food security in the development of biofuels when he visits Brazil next week. Speaking before leaving on a trip that takes him first to Argentina, Antarctica and Punto Arenas in Chile, Ban said he wanted to see for himself the impact of global warming.

UNCTAD said its “Developing Countries in International Trade 2007 - Trade and Development Index (TDI)” showed that seven emerging nations - Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and South Korea - were snapping on the heels of the EU’s new member states. It said the performance of the seven and several other developing economies in recent years were “remarkable.” Among the other major developing nations, South Korea was 21st, Chile was 37th and South Africa and Mexico were jointly in 47th place, while Brazil leapfrogged six places to 54th. India was up two places in 86th.

Emissions from ocean-going ships are responsible for about 60,000 deaths a year from heart and lung-related cancers, according to research published on Nov. 7 that calls for tougher fuel standards. Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong, three of the world’s five busiest ports, were likely to suffer disproportionate impacts from ship-related emissions, said the study, published in Environmental Science and Technology, a journal of the American Chemical Society.

(Reuters)

The ‘cycle of abuse’, we’ve all heard the phrase a million times, yet I often think we forget what it means. It does not only mean the cycle, or stages, in which abuses are carried out. A child who grows up in an abusive home, is sexually abused, is a victim of trafficking, a child soldier…unfortunately the list of grave injustices against children goes on and on, is never able to escape the cycle of abuse. Therefore a child of abuse is at an increased risk to become an abuser, victim of sexual assault, become socially isolated, turn to drugs and alcohol, and various other form of self destructive behavior or susceptible to varying forms of continued abuse. We, as an international community must work to ensure that all children have been given their right to protection, both to prevent such abuses, and to assist the abused in their recovery. Therefore substantial physical and psychological care must be given to victims.

No matter what you say, or what you do, it all leaves a mark on the children around you. A child who witnesses violence and war, is forever scared by what they see. A child who hears nothing but negative, cannot erase the voice that says, “you can’t”. But the child who witnesses peace and love, will carry that with them forever and continue to share hope for the future.

We cannot erase the mistakes of the past, but we can leave a bigger impression on a child with hope, than with despair.

‘Live Earth is a 24-hour, 7-continent concert series taking place on 7/7/07 that will bring together more than 100 music artists and 2 billion people to trigger a global movement to solve the climate crisis.’

You may not have been able to fight the crowds to attend on of the many events that is circling the globe, but you can still do your part. Be aware, be informed, do your part, do justice to our children. Children inherit the earth, but what earth they will inherit is up to all of us as a global community.

Doing your part is not as hard as you thought, start with the little things…don’t run the water while you brush your teeth, take your own bags to the grocery store, keep your appliances unplugged when not in use, don’t turn on so many lights…turn off the lights when not in the room, plant more trees, recycle, re-use, carpool or use public transport when you can, etc… Leave your mark on the world, and make it a good one!

So join the movement today, fight global warming! You can be entertained and informed by watching the coverage right in your living room, or maybe you have joined one of the many Live Earth living room parties (a great way to conserve on electricity, but maybe not your beer)!

For more information see my previous posts Children the True Victims of Climate Change, and Climate Change and Our Children, a Continuing Saga. Please also see the esteemed Bill Hewitt’s blog on Climate Change for more detailed information and news.

The following channels are broadcasting the show:
BRAVO
9am-2am est
UNI HD
4am-2am est
SUNDANCE
4am-2am est
MSNBC
8am - 4pm est
CNBC
8am-2am est
TELEMUNDO
7pm to 8pm est
MUN2
5pm to 7pm est

“There is no trust more sacred than the one the world holds with children. There is no duty more important than ensuring that their rights are respected, that their welfare is protected, that their lives are free from fear and want and that they can grow up in peace.”
– Kofi Annan