Raising Elijah: Protecting our children in an age of Environmental crisis



Raising Elijah: Protecting our children in an age of Environmental crisis

Introduction

Many parts of the world are being affected by global warming. Rising global temperature entails that there will be a change in ecosystems; some species are being evicted of their habitats (perhaps to extinction) as a consequence of changing conditions, while others are thriving. Tapering snow cover, increasing sea levels, and weather changes are some of the secondary effects of global warming that may have affect not only human activities but also the ecosystem.

According to Professor Lovelock, disaster is faced by the world and human society to a worse extent, and on a faster timescale, than realizes by almost anybody. “Before this century is over, he believes, billions of us will die, and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable.”

In the environmental movement, one of the greatest moral bargaining chips is the destiny of our children: to visualize the future generations. The ultimate victims of environmental degradation will be our children, who will have lagged behind on what we ourselves were fortunate enough to have: pristine forests, a cooler climate and greater biodiversity. In 'Raising Elijah', Sandra Steingraber discusses this crucial issue: the impact of current climate change and ecological issues on children today.

Discussion

Environmental crisis is further divided in to two categories of crises by Steingraber in 'Raising Elijah' i.e. firstly, accumulation of heat trapping gases by the atmosphere and secondarily, inherent accumulation of toxic chemical pollutants in our bodies. The former one gives rise to floods, acidifying oceans, drought, dissolving coral reefs and faltering plankton stocks, while the later on entails pesticides in children's urine, altered level of hormone, lungs stunted by air pollution, abbreviated pregnancies and lesser scores on cognitive tests.

In this era of environmental crisis, Steingtaber relates her understanding and viewpoint to the challenge of bringing up children in the noxious, climate-threatened world. Many environmental issues are connected by her in the book, including asthma, intellectual impairments, behavioral problems, and premature births to diminished fertility, infiltration of mother' milk with chemicals, air quality and the ozone hole, dispersion patterns of wind from plastics factories, hormone-disrupting, neuro- toxicology and brain damaging and hydraulic fracturing etc.

Asthma

In the United States, the most common chronic disease among children is asthma. In children, the acquirement of asthma has been linked with ...