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Bonell A, Badjie J, Jammeh S, Ali Z, Hydara M, Davies A, Faal M, Ahmed AN, Hand W, Prentice AM, Murray KA, Scheelbeek P. Grassroots and Youth-Led Climate Solutions From The Gambia. Front Public Health 2022; 10:784915. [PMID: 35462834 PMCID: PMC9021377 DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.784915] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2021] [Accepted: 03/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Climate change and environmental degradation are among the greatest threats to human health. Youth campaigners have very effectively focused global attention on the crisis, however children from the Global South are often under-represented (sometimes deliberately) in the dialogue. In The Gambia, West Africa, the impacts of climate change are already being directly experienced by the population, and this will worsen in coming years. There is strong government and community commitment to adapt to these challenges, as evidenced by The Gambia currently being the only country on target to meet the Paris agreement according to the Nationally Determined Contributions, but again children's voices are often missing-while their views could yield valuable additional insights. Here, we describe a "Climate Change Solutions Festival" that targeted and engaged school children from 13 to 18 years, and is to our knowledge, the first peer-to-peer (and student-to-professional) learning festival on climate change solutions for students in The Gambia. The event gave a unique insight into perceived climate change problems and scalable, affordable and sometimes very creative solutions that could be implemented in the local area. Logistical and practical methods for running the festival are shared, as well as details on all solutions demonstrated in enough detail to be duplicated. We also performed a narrative review of the most popular stalls to explore the scientific basis of these solutions and discuss these in a global context. Overall, we find extremely strong, grass-roots and student engagement in the Gambia and clear evidence of learning about climate change and the impacts of environmental degradation more broadly. Nevertheless, we reflect that in order to enact these proposed local solutions further steps to evaluate acceptability of adoption, feasibility within the communities, cost-benefit analyses and ability to scale solutions are needed. This could be the focus of future experiential learning activities with students and partnering stakeholders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ana Bonell
- Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Fajara, The Gambia
- Centre on Climate Change and Planetary Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom
- *Correspondence: Ana Bonell
| | - Jainaba Badjie
- Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Fajara, The Gambia
| | - Sariba Jammeh
- Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Fajara, The Gambia
| | - Zakari Ali
- Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Fajara, The Gambia
| | | | | | | | - Aliyu Nuhu Ahmed
- Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Fajara, The Gambia
| | - William Hand
- Banjul American International School, Fajara, The Gambia
| | - Andrew M. Prentice
- Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Fajara, The Gambia
| | - Kris A. Murray
- Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Fajara, The Gambia
- Centre on Climate Change and Planetary Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom
- Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Pauline Scheelbeek
- Centre on Climate Change and Planetary Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom
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Abstract
Fifty-three vigorous infants were randomly assigned to six different groups (A-F). The babies in groups A and F were not dried and were either exposed wet to room air or warmed under the radiant heater. The other groups of infants were quickly dried and exposed to room air (group B), wrapped with one sterile sheet (group C), wrapped with two towels (group D) or placed under the radiant heater (group E). The infants exposed to room air lost twice the amount of heat when compared with those insulated with two towels. The amount of heat loss by evaporation could not be demonstrated. The role of high relative humidity as an important determinant of the degree of heat loss by evaporation is stressed.
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