{"id":369463,"date":"2025-03-11T10:01:07","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T09:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=369463"},"modified":"2025-03-11T10:01:09","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T09:01:09","slug":"wrong-deutsche-welle-and-unicef-climate-change-is-not-hampering-kids-education-in-poor-countries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=369463","title":{"rendered":"Wrong, Deutsche Welle and UNICEF, Climate Change Is Not Hampering Kids Education in Poor Countries"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From ClimateRealism<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Linnea Lueken<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recent article posted at German news site Deutsche Welle (DW) titled \u201cHeat waves, floods, and cyclones disrupt school for millions<\/a>,\u201d discusses a report<\/a> from the United Nations International Children\u2019s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) which claims that poorer countries are the hardest hit by the so-called climate crisis in the form of extreme weather in 2024, leading to disruptions in the education of underprivileged children. This is false. While it is true that extreme weather events can do greater harm to people in poorer countries, it is not true that extreme weather events are becoming more frequent or severe there. Therefore, climate change can\u2019t be an \u201coverlooked\u201d cause of disrupted education as they claim. The reason people in poorer countries suffer more when natural disasters strike is precisely because they are poor and lack the technologies, infrastructure, and institutions that have arisen in developed countries, in part a result of fossil fuel dependent economic progress, to anticipate, face, respond to and recover from extreme weather events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DW post explained that extreme weather caused disruptions in school for \u201capproximately 242 million children across 85 countries in 2024,\u201d according to UNICEF, and goes on to say that \u201c[o]ne in seven students could not attend school due to heat waves, floods, cyclones, and other extreme weather conditions.\u201d Most of the children affected were from poorer countries, and UNICEF reported that the worst hit areas were in Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a fact that extreme weather hits the poor worse, a fact commonly but falsely linked to climate change. Regardless of climate change\u2019s alleged effects on weather, people who live in underdeveloped areas with limited access to stable utilities like electricity, and modern structures and infrastructure, suffer greater harm when natural disasters strike than people in relatively wealthier countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That being said, extreme weather is not getting worse. DW mentions heat waves, floods, and cyclones as examples, and it is common enough in the media to claim these events are becoming more frequent or extreme, but available data refutes such claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Globally, looking at the region UNICEF highlights as the worst hit by weather events, let us first take a look at heat waves. India is frequently pointed at in the media as suffering from erratic weather patterns, and last year the city of Delhi supposedly hitting all-time high temperatures, which turned out to be the result of an urban sensor error<\/a>. The fact that it was urban is very important, because the commonality between many places in developing countries as well as developed countries is that urban locations are already consistently hotter than the surrounding regions. In India in particular, climatologist Roy Spencer showed<\/a> how the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect is strongest in places with high populations and urban sprawl, which can be seen in maps tracing the most populous parts of India and air temperature. (See image below)<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

If heat is disruptive to schooling in Southeast Asia, the solution is to promote more widespread availability of air conditioning and better building construction, not blaming climate change and suppressing the cheap energy required to make that development possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has not found that flooding has not become more severe or frequent as a result of the modest warming of the past hundred-plus years.\u00a0Climate at a Glance: Floods<\/a>\u00a0points out that the IPCC gives only \u201clow confidence\u201d in any sign of change, meaning it is as likely climate change would decrease floods as it would increase them. Studies looking at flood frequency support the IPCC\u2019s finding. For example, one\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0in the\u00a0Journal of Hydrology<\/em>\u00a0reports that the number of major floods in recent decades have been \u201cabout the number expected due to chance alone,\u201d and that evidence for changes to flood patterns globally is lacking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cyclones are likewise not getting worse, this is the easiest record to pull, and\u00a0Climate Realism<\/a>\u00a0has produced that data extensively in other posts, including ones focusing on the Pacific and South Asia,\u00a0here<\/a>, and\u00a0here<\/a>. The latter post discusses a recent study published in\u00a0Nature<\/em>\u00a0which examines hurricane\/cyclone storm severity in various ocean regions. That study notes for the South Pacific and South Indian Ocean region data show declining trends in tropical cyclone destructive potential. (See figure below)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Figure 2: Graphic from Tu, S., Hu, Z., Liang, M. et al. Decreasing trend in destructive potential of tropical cyclones in the South Indian Ocean since the mid-1990s. Commun Earth Environ 5, 543 (2024). https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s43247-024-01683-2<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Again, as with heatwaves, logically one must understand countries with limited resources, slow or non-existent economic growth, underdeveloped infrastructure, often disorganized or corrupt governments, or experiencing civil strife,\u2014are going to be worse off when disaster strikes. This does not mean that climate change targets the poor, nor does it indicate that there is an increasing urgency (or any need at all) to somehow address it, usually by abandoning fossil fuel use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea that we should stop using the cheap energy supplied by oil, gas, and coal is almost always the underlying message in stories claiming that climate change is hurting people. By contrast, since fossil fuel development and use, combined with strong property rights, and sound institutions, have been critical to wealth creation in developed countries, the same factors should be encouraged in developing countries to help their people rise out of poverty, with one result that they would be better prepared to face extreme weather regardless of the type or cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UNICEF report itself seemed like it was primarily interested in justifying funding from climate coffers going towards its programs, in this case, for education for third-world residents. While providing education and school buildings to kids in poor countries is a noble goal, trying to tie funding to causes that would damage the advancement of infrastructure in those same places is foolish at best. Extreme weather is not getting worse, and trying to prevent or hinder the use of fossil fuels will not help poor countries modernize or improve the educational prospects for their children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent article posted at German news site Deutsche Welle (DW) titled\u00a0\u201cHeat waves, floods, and cyclones disrupt school for millions,\u201d discusses\u00a0a report\u00a0from the United Nations International Children\u2019s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) which claims that poorer countries are the hardest hit by the so-called climate crisis in the form of extreme weather in 2024, leading to disruptions in the education of underprivileged children. This is false. While it is true that extreme weather events can do greater harm to people in poorer countries, it is not true that extreme weather events are becoming more frequent or severe there. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":369464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818056,691819743,691818101,691833755,691818514,691818237,691820922,691825262,691833756],"class_list":{"0":"post-369463","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-climate-change","9":"tag-climate-propaganda","10":"tag-cyclones","11":"tag-deutsche-welle-dw","12":"tag-extreme-weather","13":"tag-india","14":"tag-intergovernmental-panel-on-climate-change-ipcc","15":"tag-southeast-asia","16":"tag-united-nations-international-childrens-emergency-fund-unicef","18":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/0rice-Asia-pixabay-1.jpg?fit=1920%2C1231&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1y75","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":282871,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=282871","url_meta":{"origin":369463,"position":0},"title":"United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Covers-up UN failures by Blaming Climate Change!","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"11\/10\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"UNICEF should stop blaming a fabricated climate crisis and starting to solve the people\u2019s real problems. 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