Climate Change and Child Brides

In an article posted by theguardian.com, Gothic chamberlain wrote about the complex relationship between climate change and child brides. According to interviews Chamberlain conducted, climate change has caused many young women to be married off as a result of the rising sea levels. the article provides an example using a young woman named Ntonya Sanda, who according to Chamberlain, "Her parents sat her down and spelled it out for her; the weather had changed and taken everything from them. There was not enough food to go around They couldn't afford another mouth at the table." 

Sanda was then coached by her aunt and told about how to have sex with a man at the age of 13 years old, only ten months later, "she gave birth to their first daughter" Chamberlain reported, " In recent years they had noticed the temperatures rising, the rains becoming less predictable and coming later and sometimes flooding where there had not been flooding before. Families that would once have been able to afford to feed and educate several children reported that they now faced an impossible situation." 

The worlds dependency on non-renewable resources has affected more than just animals and human health. It has begun to affect birth rates, poverty, childhood education, and young women. 

Partially in counties like Malawi and Mozambique, climate change has caused rainy seasons to shorten, rivers to dry up, and flash flooding. This has caused many families who have depending on these once static weather patterns to suffer. Families are unable to farm and provide for their children. Instead many people must beg for scraps and many young women are forced to give up their dreams of becoming educated in order to help their family by becoming brides. 

Climate change has caused many rivers to disappear, and as a result, according to Mac Bain Mkandawire, executive director of Youth Net and Counselling, "30 to 40 percent of child marriages in Malawi are due to the floods and droughts caused by climate change."

It is a sad static that likely will not change unless there is some form of global intervention. While it is largely impacted Africans, it may affect other nations as well. It is important to discuss these problems in order to exact social change to help offer these young men and women a way to pursue their aspirations as well as help the larger society.