How foreboding is the future?

• Position: Children address Johannesburg Summit

Five young citizens addressed the Johannesburg Summit during the opening of the high-level segment, and presented to world leaders a list of challenges--inspired written and voted on by some 400 children from eighty countries--representing their hopes and fears for the future of the planet. Three global youth reporters who attended the Summit contributed the following stories.

Scary Statistics

By Lauren Kansley

Global Youth Reporter from South Africa

Almost 5 million children die each year from preventable causes. Environmental hazards kill the equivalent of a jumbo jet full of children every 45 minutes. These scary statistics have spurred the World Health Organization (WHO) to launch a new -- movement to try and tackle the crisis and reduce by two thirds the number of deaths of under-five-year-olds by 2015.

Under WHO Director-General Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, the movement is busy mobilizing partners, such as key organizations and Governments, to achieve results in six areas: household water quality and availability; hygiene and sanitation; indoor and outdoor air pollution; disease vectors such as mosquitoes; chemicals; and accidents.

According to Dr. Brundtland, the provision of healthy environments for children would be one of the highest social and political priorities of the decade. "Our top priority must be in investing in the future of children, a group that is particularly vulnerable to environmental hazards." She identified "hazards" as being dangers present in the environment in which children live, learn and play. She added that increased industrialization, explosive urban population growth and lack of pollution control were just a few added factors that affect children's lives.

Poor children were most at risk because poverty further aggravated the environmental hazards.

Applauding More Than Politely

By Charles M. Sendegeya

Global Youth Reporter from Uganda

On 2 September, world leaders heard the truth from the mouths of small children. It was a rare but surely valuable experience. They challenged their elders to do more to save the world from environmental decline. "We need more than just your commitment", they said. 'We need action!"

The children, aged six to fourteen, were Justin Friesen from Canada, Mingyu Liao from China, Analiz Vergara from Ecuador and Tiyiselani Manganyi and Julius Ndloven, both from South Africa. They represented 400 children from 80 countries who attended a recent United Nations Environment Programme...