Summary
UNICEF reported that 242 million children in 85 countries had their education disrupted in 2024 due to extreme weather, including heatwaves, cyclones, flooding, and droughts.
One in seven school-aged children globally missed school, with low-income nations in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa most affected.
Heatwaves were the leading cause, impacting 118 million children in April alone.
Flooding and storms destroyed hundreds of schools, particularly in Pakistan, Mozambique, and Afghanistan.
UNICEF highlighted that schools are poorly equipped to handle climate crises, disproportionately affecting children in vulnerable regions.
That’s like telling someone with a mortal wound “I understand your pain, I just pulled out this splinter.”
I was waiting in a maternity ward while my wife was having our daughter, the waiting area was surrounded by rooms filled with women giving birth so I had constant screaming on all sides of me. To distract myself I was reading one of the magazines they provided, an article on two women hiking in the Alps and I somehow managed to get a nasty papercut on my tongue. I went to find a nurse to ask for a painkiller and I was explaining to her how I knew she was busy and would not have asked only the pain was very bad and she just smiled and walked away. I thought she was going to get me a pill but she just walked over to a group of other nurses and said something to them and then they all laughed and looked over at me.
That’s pretty funny. Was it bleeding?
Pedantically, they can’t give you pain killer without checking you in. And no non-prescription pain killer would have helped either way. You would need a local anesthetic like benzocaine.