According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, Climate change poses threats to human health, safety, and security. Children are uniquely vulnerable to these threats. The effects of climate change on child health include physical and psychological harms of weather disasters, increased heat stress, decreased air quality, altered disease patterns of some climate-sensitive infections, and food, water, and nutrient insecurity in vulnerable regions.

Poor air quality caused by pollution is directly linked to asthma in children. According to the Center for Disease Control, Asthma is one of the most common illness-related reasons that children miss school. When children miss school, their academic performance can slip, making students more vulnerable to falling behind in class. In an article from the Dallas Morning News, according to the Nature Conservancy, 9.5 percent of DISD’s enrolled students have asthma (the national average is 8.3 percent) and Dallas County leads the region for hospitalizations for childhood asthma.

Sign our petition calling on Dallas ISD Trustees to pass a resolution enabling our district to appoint an Environmental and Climate Action Committee designed to review current practices and offer solutions to reduce emissions and other factors contributing to climate change. Read the most current version of the resolution here.