Environment And Children

Each year, millions of children die of environmental causes and many more suffer serious illness or injury. Children are often the most vulnerable to the condition of their environment -and their health is an index of its quality - but their wellbeing is rarely given priority by governments or aid agencies. Ironically, the problems can be traced back to matters which can be treated straightforwardly and at relatively low cost - poor drinking water or food, or infectious diseases which can be controlled. This book gives a multidisciplinary account of the environmental health hazards threatening children and the range of impacts they can have. It also explains what can be done, by communities as well as governments and aid workers, to provide safe and healthy environments for children. The book looks at conditions in a range of cities in the developing world, as well as pollutants and other health problems affecting children in the North. Published in association with UNICEF, and written by some of the same authors as Environmental Problems in Third World Cities (Earthscan, 1993), this provides excellent course material, and will be useful for practitioners working on child development, infant and maternal health, environmental health and community development. David Satterthwaite is Director of the Human Settlements Programme at the International Institute for Environment and Development, and principal author of Environmental Problems in Third World Cities (1993) and Squatter Citizen(1989).

In the first two volumes of the series we elected to cover a broad spectrum of topics in the environment and behavior field, ranging from theoretical to applied, and including disciplinary, interdiscipli nary, and professionally related topics. Chapters in these earlier vol umes dealt with leisure and recreation, the elderly, personal space, aesthetics, energy, behavioral approaches to environmental problems, methodological issues, social indicators, industrial settings, and the like. Chapters were written by psychologists, sociologists, geogra phers, and other social scientists, and by authors from professional design fields such as urban planning, operations research, landscape architecture, and so on. Our goal in these first two volumes was to present a sampling of areas in the emerging environment and behavior field and to give readers some insight into the diversity of research and theoretical perspectives that characterize the field. Beginning with the present volume, our efforts will be directed at a series of thematic volumes. The present collection of chapters is focused on children and the environment, and, as much as possible, we invited contributions that reflect a variety of theoretical and em pirical perspectives on this topic. The next volume in the series, now in preparation, will address the area of "culture and the environment. " Suggestions for possible future topics are welcome. Irwin Altman Joachim F.

How does the built environment affect children - their health, their behaviour, education and development? To support them, what do we need to consider and what do we need to do? Can our surroundings foster environmental and social awareness and responsibility? Based on Christopher Day's experiences designing schools and early childhood centres in the United States and Britain, this groundbreaking book sets out to answer these questions and to offer solutions. Children all too often find themselves living in alien surroundings designed with the needs of adults in mind, cut off not just from the natural environment but also childhood itself. Society's reaction - to cocoon children from the outside world or to resort to drugs to control behaviour - fails to address the fundamental causes of problems which lie in the environment not the children themselves. One of the world's leading thinkers on the impact of buildings on people, Christopher Day's insights offer new light on one of the most important issues for today's society.

As a developmental psychologist with a strong interest in children's re sponse to the physical environment, I take particular pleasure in writing a foreword to the present volume. It provides impressive evidence of the con cern that workers in environmental psychology and environmental design are displaying for the child as a user of the designed environment and indi cates a recognition of the need to apply theory and findings from develop mental and environmental psychology to the design of environments for children. This seems to me to mark a shift in focus and concern from the earlier days of the interaction between environmental designers and psy chologists that occurred some two decades ago and provided the impetus for the establishment of environmental psychology as a subdiscipline. Whether because children-though they are consumers of designed environments are not the architect's clients or because it seemed easier to work with adults who could be asked to make ratings of environmental spaces and comment on them at length, a focus on the child in interaction with en vironments was comparatively slow in developing in the field of environ ment and behavior. As the chapters of the present volume indicate, that situation is no longer true today, and this is a change that all concerned with the well-being and optimal functioning of children will welcome.

Explore the water, land, and air around us with this entertaining and informative look at our magnificent planet—and learn how your experiments, activities, and everyday actions can help save the environment. This book looks at the wide variety of ecosystems and environmental regions of the Earth, from deserts and forests, to cities and farms, to oceans and ice caps, as well as the atmosphere, weather, energy sources, plants, and animals of each area. Michael Driscoll and professor of meteorology Dennis Driscoll explain the changes to our planet that are currently taking place, including rising temperatures and sea levels, and the effects they can have on our environment. They also profile young environmental activists like Greta Thunberg and Isra Hirsi, and highlight important, everyday actions such as water conversion and recycling that kids can do on their own or with their parents. Also included are fun projects and experiments to do at home like brewing sun tea, creating lightning, and making a smog detector. Packed with facts, experiments, and a removable poster with tips on how to save the planet, this comprehensive guide will inspire kids and their families to think about our planet in new ways and help keep it beautiful and healthy for years to come.

This is an essential text for students, teachers and practitioners in a range of early childhood education and care settings.

This book, at the intersection of early childhood and reconceptualizing practice, looks at how practitioners, theorists, and teachers are supporting young children to care about the environment differently. Despite the current popularity of post-human perspectives, in social science more broadly and in early childhood studies more specifically, this is one of few to make visible international practices and perspectives that emerge at the intersection of early childhood education, environmental justice, sustainability, and intergenerational/interspecies communities. The book provides an innovative exploration of the links between children, elders, and nature. With contributions from established scholars, practitioners, and newcomers this book reframes educating for social justice within an ecological landscape; one in which young children and their elders are mobilized to understand, reconceptualize and even undo negative environmental impact, whilst grappling with the ways in which the earthly forces are acting upon them. Specific theoretical chapters (spirituality, nature, critical and post-human/materiality, pragmatics, and constructivism approaches) are blended with applications of pedagogic strategies from across the globe. This book responds to a growing interest among early childhood professionals and scholars for sustainably focused and ethically reimagined programs. This collection rewards the reader with opportunities to critically reflect on their own practice, delves into new terrestrial collectives, and explores new pedagogical pathways. It will be essential reading for practitioners and scholars alike.

First Published in 2011. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.