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Are you lucky enough to be back at school or learning on a digital device at home? Did you know that 90% of all the children in the world have been affected by school closures as a result of the coronavirus? Most children will return to class once the health emergency is over. However, 260 million children around the world do not go to school at all and climate change is one reason why children are missing out.
Half of the world’s children don’t have access to a household computer – they don’t have the option of ‘learning online from home’. Can you imagine what it would be like without computers, TVs, digital devices? Digital technology helps us in loads of ways – we can learn about new things, keep in touch with friends, join with other Young Climate Warriors to tackle climate change. Apps and smart meters can also help us manage our use of technology and reduce our energy consumption. Yet every website click, file downloaded, video streamed or online game contributes to climate change.
Your challenge this week is to pick a day for a ‘DIGITAL DETOX’ – can you go a whole day without electronic devices, maybe at the weekend, and instead spend some time in the garden or park, play a board game, create some art, a dance or a play, read a book?
Don’t forget to HIT THE RED BUTTON when you’ve completed this ‘digital detox’ challenge!
In recent years, extreme weather exacerbated byclimate change has meant that children are missing out on education, especially in developing countries in Africa and Asia. Flooding and droughts damage or destroy families’ crops, which can mean they don’t have enough money for school, textbooks and transport. Children, especially girls, are kept at home to help. Heavy rain can also cause diseases like malaria to spread making children too sick to go to school. Flooding can wash away roads and schools.
Our increasing use of digital technology, is contributing to climate change. The entire global IT sector – from making computers to powering and cooling internet servers – is estimated to produce 4% of global carbon emissions. By finding ways to reduce our carbon emissions we can help tackle climate change and ensure that other children don’t end up missing out on school.
To find out more about how climate change is making it difficult for children to go to school, you could watch this ‘Send my friend to school’ video: https://youtu.be/Q8aqVnQ0VsE - don’t forget to do this before you begin your digital detox day!
Remember to HIT THE RED BUTTON when you have completed your digital challenge. We’d love to hear what you got up to when you switched off your electronics!
