Conclusion

In this course you have considered children’s relationship to the environment and climate change by focusing on the issue of climate justice and children’s rights in this and future generations.

Figure 12 Children’s futures are threatened by pollution

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A young child playing on a polluted beach

Figure 12 Children’s futures are threatened by pollution

You began by discussing the importance of children’s rights in understanding contemporary childhoods and looked in detail at the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). You then went on to look at the disproportionate impacts of climate change on children in general and poor children in particular, before considering why children and young people have been at the forefront of climate change campaigns. In Section 4, you turned to the work of Peter Kraftl in order to discuss the relationship and interconnectedness of children and the environment. Finally this course looked at an emerging issue in childhood studies – the role of plastics in children’s lives and how they understand and respond to the changes that plastics bring.

This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course E232 Exploring childhood and youth [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .

If you’ve enjoyed this OpenLearn free course, you might also like to study the courses below:

• Children’s experiences with digital technologies
• Childhood in crisis
• Childhood in the digital age
• Children’s rights