Climate Matters•January 15, 2025
Protecting Children’s Health in a Warming World
KEY CONCEPTS
Children are among the most vulnerable to the health and safety risks associated with climate change impacts.
More frequent extreme heat, longer allergy seasons, worse air quality, and increased flood risks are some of the ways human-caused climate change is putting children at greater risk.
Climate Central’s series about Climate Change and Children’s Health, produced in collaboration with the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, covers how climate change affects children and how adults can help protect them in a warming world — now and in the future.
The newest fact sheet in this series, Climate Change & Children’s Health: Mental Health, details how climate change and exposure to more weather disasters affect the mental health of young people.
Watch the webinar: Building Climate-Resilient Schools: The Impact of Climate Change on Children's Health, Education, and Well-being
Climate change has consequences for children’s health
The risks from increasingly frequent extreme weather events, climate disasters, and other climate impacts disproportionately affect the most vulnerable and disadvantaged — including children.
Children and teens are especially vulnerable to climate change stressors because they’re still growing and developing, spend more time playing outdoors, and have less control over their surrounding environments, both at home and school.
Children also have less understanding of potential lifelong consequences from environmental exposure and climate change impacts experienced during childhood.
Climate Central’s series about Climate Change and Children’s Health, produced in collaboration with the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, details key ways that climate change affects children and how adults can help protect them in a warming world — now and in the future.
Watch the webinar: Building Climate-Resilient Schools: The Impact of Climate Change on Children's Health, Education, and Well-being
Five ways climate change affects children’s health
1. Extreme heat is risky — especially for children. Extreme heat is the deadliest weather-related hazard in the U.S., and children — especially babies, younger kids, and athletes — are among those most vulnerable to heat-related illness.
Read more: Climate Change & Children’s Health: Extreme Heat
2. Worse, longer pollen seasons affect kids with allergies and asthma. Our warming climate results in more freeze-free days each year — giving plants more time to grow and release allergy-inducing pollen. Longer, more intense pollen seasons can have consequences for the millions of U.S. children (around 19%) with seasonal allergies. Pollen is also a trigger for asthma, which affects 6.5% of children in the U.S.
Read more: Climate Change & Children’s Health: Seasonal Allergies
3. Children are among those most at risk from worsening air quality. Air pollution is associated with long-term health consequences for children. Poor air quality increases risks of respiratory infections and can trigger asthma in children. Although air quality in the U.S. has drastically improved since the Clean Air Act of 1970, climate change threatens to stall or reverse this progress, as wildfires and extreme heat become more frequent and intense. Burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, and methane gas) pollutes the air and produces heat-trapping gases that warm the planet and exacerbate ill effects on air quality.
Read more: Climate Change & Children’s Health: Air Quality
4. Storms and flooding fueled by climate change increase risks for children. Human-caused climate change is increasing flood risks from rising seas, stronger storms, and heavier precipitation. Children are among the most vulnerable to the potential health risks associated with floods. Exposure to hazards such as mold in flood-damaged buildings, waterborne pathogens, and toxic chemicals, as well as social harms caused by disruption to routines, increased stress at home, and displacement, can all put children’s health and safety at risk.
Read more: Climate Change & Children’s Health: Flooding
5. Climate change worsens the existing national mental health emergency among children. Mental health issues among young people in the last decade have worsened. The intensifying impacts of human-caused climate change — and the high levels of worry young people report about climate change — coincide with this mental health crisis. Children exposed to weather disasters are more likely to experience anxiety, depression, or symptoms of post-traumatic stress. Hotter days can exacerbate existing mental health issues, and exposure to air pollution is a newly understood risk in the development of anxiety, depression, and cognitive decline.
Read more: Climate Change and Children’s Health: Mental Health
EPA: More warming, worse impacts on children’s health and safety
The Environmental Protection Agency’s report, Climate Change and Children’s Health and Well-Being in the United States, provides detailed information, analyses, and projections about current and future climate change impacts on children across the country. These are a few of the key findings about future climate impacts on children’s health included in the report:
Research shows nearly 12% of emergency department visits by children across the U.S. between May and September are attributed to excessive heat. A temperature increase of 1°F (0.6°C) during those months could result in around 17,000 additional visits (about 113 more visits per day).
Analysis shows that 3.6°F (2°C) of warming could result in a 17% annual increase in asthma-related emergency room visits among children due to pollen exposure, relative to baseline conditions (1986-2005).
Research estimates that 3.6°F (2°C) of global warming could result in a 4% annual increase in new cases of asthma in children from air pollution exposure, relative to baseline conditions (1986-2005).
Without adequate adaptation, research estimates that even 20 inches (50 centimeters) of global sea level rise could put approximately 185,000 children at risk of losing their homes and around one million more at risk of being temporarily displaced due to coastal flooding. This research also shows that the increased inland flood risk from 4°C (7.2°F) of warming could put around 560,000 children at risk of temporary or permanent displacement.
Reducing carbon pollution now can help protect children in a warming world
Rapid cuts to emissions from burning coal, oil, and methane gas will have near-term impacts on children’s health by improving air quality and reducing the effects of warming.
With continued warming, future generations are likely to face accelerating change and intensifying risks. Cutting carbon pollution is the most effective action to slow the rate of warming and set younger generations on the path to a safer future.
LOCAL STORY ANGLES
See how young people feel about climate change in your state
Researchers surveyed nearly 15,800 adolescents and young adults (age 16-25 years) in the U.S. about their thoughts and emotions related to climate change. Around 85% of respondents reported feeling worried about climate change, and about 43% reported that climate change had at least a moderate impact on their mental health. Explore the U.S. Climate Emotions Map dashboard to see results by state.
CONTACT EXPERTS
Lisa Patel, MD
Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Pediatrician at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health
Executive Director, Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health
Related expertise: children's health and climate change
Media contact: media@stanfordchildrens.org
Caitlin Gould, DrPH, MPPA
Environmental Policy Analyst
Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Change Division
Relevant expertise: climate change and health
Media Contact: Shayla Powell, powell.shayla@epa.gov
Lauren E. Gentile, PhD
Geographer
Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Change Division
Relevant expertise: coastal flooding; seasonal changes
Media contact: Shayla Powell, powell.shayla@epa.gov
FIND EXPERTS
Submit a request to SciLine from the American Association for the Advancement of Science or to the Climate Data Concierge from Columbia University. These free services rapidly connect journalists to relevant scientific experts.
Browse maps of climate experts and services at regional NOAA, USDA, and Department of the Interior offices.
Explore databases such as 500 Women Scientists, BIPOC Climate and Energy Justice PhDs, and Diverse Sources to find and amplify diverse expert voices.
Reach out to your State Climate Office or the nearest Land-Grant University to connect with scientists, educators, and extension staff in your local area.