As the realities of climate change with global warming have come to pass, melting glaciers, changing weather patterns leading to extreme weather, and rising sea levels have all come to the forefront. An additional but very insidious consequence has surfaced, touching millions of vulnerable lives: increased malnutrition and related health disorders, such as child stunting.
The Relationship of Climate Change and Malnutrition
In this way, climate change will affect agriculture—considered one of the pillars of food security. With unpredictable weather patterns, prolonged droughts, floods, and increasing temperatures, crop yields can always decline. Such environmental changes are vital in compromising food availability, access, and quality, leading to more cases of malnutrition.
The main impact is on rain-fed agriculture regions, with smallholders in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Smallholder farmers are increasingly exposed to high risks due to their reliance on a single growing season. When crop production fails, families face hunger and, thus, poor dietary consumption of low diversity. This poses a greater risk to children, whose growth and development depend on the steady provision of nutrients.
Child Stunting: A Quiet Crisis
Stunting is the impaired growth and development of children from poor nutrition, repeated infection, and inadequate psychosocial stimulation. In 2020, according to the World Health Organization, an estimated 149 million children under five years old had growth stunted.
Stunted children have lifelong adverse outcomes: impaired cognitive and physical development, poor school performance, and reduced adult income. Child stunting presents excellent economic costs and sustains cycles of poverty and inequality, constituting a burden to the prosperity of poor nations.
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