October 2021 Sustainability News

Climate fears leave 40 percent of young people scared to have kids

Forty percent of young people fear having children as a result of the climate crisis, according to a study of 10,000 individuals aged 16-25 published in The Lancet, and reported by Equilibrium, a newsletter that tracks the growing global battle over the future of sustainability.

A higher number — about 60 percent — felt “very or extremely” worried about climate change, and felt “betrayal” by governments and their elders.

This isn’t just a sustainability dilemma because it could mean fewer future kids, according to Equilibrium. The newsletter says it suggests “a massive public mental health crisis,” in which “psychological stressors threaten health and wellbeing,” and which led the study’s authors to call for greater “government responsiveness.”

 

Almost half a million American households lack basic indoor plumbing

While some rural and indigenous communities have never had indoor plumbing, the vast majority of unplumbed Americans are found in urban areas, with one in three affected households living in just 15 cities, according to research by the Plumbing Poverty Project (PPP), a collaboration between King’s College London (KCL) and the University of Arizona.

The full analysis, based on data from annual community surveys by the U.S. Census Bureau shows “plumbing poverty” appears to have declined in several major cities including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago over the past two decades, but tens of thousands of residents still continue to rely on public restrooms, school showers and chamber pots.

Overall, progress to eradicate plumbing poverty remains slow: in 2017, there were still enough Americans living without piped water to fill the nation’s seventh-largest city.

The PPP white paper, which focuses on the 15 worst cities, is intended as blueprint for lawmakers to tackle gaps in research and infrastructure funding to end plumbing poverty – which is essential if every American household is to one day have access to affordable water and sanitation.