Here, in Alabama, ‘family’ is transcendent. The “Auburn family” and the “Alabama family” exist (as in football), and of course, countless church families thrive.

Yet at the heart of a southern family is the nuclear, or more often, an extended family; a blood line of parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, first and second cousins, all gathered like clockwork to celebrate birthdays or college football over ribs and macaroni and cheese.

Moreover, the children. Where would the southern family be without its children? Children, after all, carry the hope and promise of future family.

Now, in a leading medical journal, The Lancet, a startling collaborative study by 120 medical researchers and doctors representing some 35 institutions, reports that if humankind fails to limit its fossil fuel emissions — in other words, if we remain on a “business as usual” path for climate change — our children will be among those most harmed. This breaking study indicates that climate-change factors that especially challenge our children include worsening air pollution, rising temperatures, and heightening food insecurity.

To continue reading, please see the full article available at AL.com, written by UAB's Dr. James McClintock, Endowed University Professor of Polar and Marine Biology, and Dr. Paul Erwin, Dean of the School of Public Health.