But don’t you think that we deserve comfort as well?
You don’t think that we deserve a world free of pollution, free of fear of heat waves, free of food insecurity due to climate change a world where we can see our favorite animals without fear of them going extinct. We all deserve the world.
So why do you think that your wants are best and first. That you deserve to enjoy the world without care for its impact on others? That we can create so much waste to be dumped some place else?
Why do you think that the world is your property to do as you wish?
It is not. The earth belongs to us all to protect, to nurture and yes to enjoy.
So get rid of that entitled thought and make a move to carry out your responsibility.
✔️It starts with a commitment to build a better and sustainable world.
✔️ Then, adopting simple and easy moves like sorting waste for recycling, buying only what you need, avoiding single use plastic, using less water, turning of your switches when not in use.
We can all participate in building a sustainable world and there’s no better time than now for it is Time For Nature.
“We have forgotten how to be good guests, how to walk lightly on the earth as its other creatures do.”
-Barbara Ward
If we remembered that we are all going to leave this earth while the earth will remain than we will be able to appreciate the fact that we are nothing but guests.
As a guest, you don’t take over from the owner; you don’t destroy your host’s home;you don’t sell of your host’s property for money; you don’t poison their water.
Live as guests on this earth, remembering that we must leave it for other guests in the future and then we can be more gentle in our treatment of the earth and its resources.
The giant panda also known as the panda bear or simply the panda, is a bear native to south central China.
It is characterised by large, black patches around its eyes, over the ears, and across its round body.
The name “giant panda” is sometimes used to distinguish it from the red panda, a neighboring musteloid.
Pandas live mainly in temperate forests high in the mountains of southwest China, where they subsist almost entirely on bamboo. They must eat around 26 to 84 pounds of it every day, depending on what part of the bamboo they are eating. They use their enlarged wrist bones that function as opposable thumbs.
A newborn panda is about the size of a stick of butter—about 1/900th the size of its mother—but females can grow up to about 200 pounds, while males can grow up to about 300 pounds as adults. These bears are excellent tree climbers despite their bulk.
They play huge and significant roles in their forests. Their forests’ biodiversity rivals that of tropical ecosystems while it is unparalleled in the temperate world. As such they are a form of umbrella species that protect other species in their regions.
Through ecotourism, they also bring in large economic benefits to local communities.
STATUS
Vulnerable : In 2017, the giant pandas were upgraded from endangered to vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature(IUCN) species list.
THREATS
1️⃣ Habitat Loss: Their natural habitat is severely affected in infrastructural development plans to make way for roads, dams etc. This reduces their access to bamboo and finding potential mates.
2️⃣ Hunting: Poaching of pandas used to be the major threat to them. However, since the enactment of the Wildlife Protection Act (1988), which bans poaching and carries severe punishments, it has greatly reduced. However, pandas may accidentally be caught in traps meant for other species.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
1️⃣ You can adopt a panda. This is simply symbolic and a donation would go a long way. Organisations such as World Wildlife Fund have panda adoption kits.
2️⃣ Lend your voice in support of organisations and activities aimed at panda protection and conservation.
Mangroves are tropical trees that thrive in conditions most timbers never could. They thrive in salty, coastal waters, and the interminable ebb and flow of the tide.
The largest amount of #mangroves cover can be found in Indonesia with some 23 000 square km.
Their thick, impenetrable roots — are vital to shoreline communities as natural buffers against storm surges, an increasing threat in a changing global climate with rising sea levels.
THREATS Mangroves are under threat nearly everywhere, but the problem is particularly acute in Myanmar, where the rate of #deforestation is four times the global average.😫
Once lost, mangroves are very difficult to replant due to shifts in the very sediments the roots helped keep in place. Thus, it is better to revitalize than replant.
WHAT WE CAN DO?
We can all support organizations dedicated towards Mangrove conservation. Donate to their cause, sign their petitions and join them in advocating to save the mangroves.
Today, we address Food Waste as it relates to Water Waste.
According to the World Resources Institute, an environmental think tank, inside the 1.3 billion tons of food wasted every year worldwide is 45 trillion gallons of water. This represents a staggering 24 percent of all water used for agriculture.
Agriculture is already the world’s biggest user of freshwater: The sector accounts for 70 percent of all use around the world, according to the World Water Assessment Program. Those freshwater resources are diminishing fast, just as demand for them rises from millions of hungry and thirsty people joining the global population.
However, when it comes to water, not all food products are created equal. As WRI notes in its new working paper on food waste, a pound of wheat flour on average contains 12 percent water and 1,639 calories, whereas a pound of apples, on average, contains 81 percent water and 766 calories. Fruits and vegetables are the largest source of loss and waste on a weight basis — in part, because they contain more water than other foods.
Meat, of course, requires more water in its production than any other food, because animals devour so much feed that in turn has to be grown with water. Meat production requires between 8 and 10 times more water than grain production, according to the WWAP. Fortunately, we’re better about eating the meat we produce. It represents only 4 percent of the total food wasted by weight, and 7 percent of the calories wasted, according to WRI.
This week, our monday wisdom for you is from Stewart Udall.
In his words,
“Plans to protect air and water, wilderness and wildlife are in fact plans to protect man.”
When we advocate for better environmental conditions, we advocate for man. We’ve seen man suffer from the disasters caused by environmental degradation.
When we talk about biodiversity loss, we recognize that it has negative effects on man.
When we are concerned about the glacier melt, we recognise that it could and does have several negative effects for man.
We’ve seen the occurrence of natural environmental disasters more often in recent years, we’ve seen poverty as a result of climate change, food scarcity, water scarcity, wildfires, health issues and so on due to environmental degradation. Why then won’t we advocate for better environmental conditions.
Here’s our second wisdom for today:
IF YOU DO NOT SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT FOR ANYBODY ELSE, DO IT FOR YOURSELF.
7.6 million hectares of forest is lost every year to make way for agriculture and urbanisation–cattle pasture, palm oil plantations, soy fields and roads.
How do we replace this large number of natural forest lost every year? We need to plant more trees.
On 15 June at approximately 1:42 p.m. local time, Pinatubo erupted—the largest volcanic blast since Alaska’s Novarupta in 1912. Its ash cloud contained 5 cubic kilometers of material—lofted to 40 kilometers high. Because a passing typhoon simultaneously brought heavy rains, fast moving flows of ash, mud, and volcanic debris called lahars rushed down the volcano, flattening towns, smashing through jungle, and smothering rice paddies and sugarcane fields. The water also mixed with falling ash, creating a cement-like substance, and many buildings caved in from the weight. More than 350 people died during the eruption, most from collapsing roofs.
Effects from Pinatubo didn’t end on that date. Gas from the ash plume jostled weather patterns and dampened the effects of global warming for the next year.
A whopping 17 megatons of sulfur dioxide was released by the explosion, as measured by satellite spectrometer. The total amount of sulfur dioxide released before and during the eruption caused the most profound effect on the stratosphere since Krakatau in 1883. The sulfuric aerosols that formed from the sulfur dioxide circled the Earth within 3 weeks and remained in the atmosphere for 3 years, reflecting enough sunlight to cool the entire planet by half a degree Celsius during that time.
However, during the following winter, Europe experienced surprisingly warm temperatures. This winter warming hadn’t been observed after past volcanic eruptions, like Mexico’s El Chichón in 1982. What could be going on?
Using atmospheric circulation models and computer simulations to study how Pinatubo’s sulfur aerosol cloud traveled around the globe, scientists found that sulfuric aerosols reflect sunlight outward while absorbing heat from below, leading to cooling of the troposphere while heating the lower stratosphere, explained Alan Robock, an atmospheric scientist at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J.
This temperature gradient strengthened the Arctic Oscillation, a wind pattern circling the Arctic. In its strong phase, the Arctic Oscillation pulls warm air from the ocean, heating northern Europe and shifting northward the global jet stream—the “river” of wind that flows around the globe.
The shifted jet stream allowed warm winds to flow over the Northern Hemisphere during the winter, Robock said. Because the jet stream flows like a wave, while Europe was receiving warm air from the south, the Middle East received colder air from the north, bringing to Jerusalem the worst snowstorm in 40 years.
“At the time of the Pinatubo eruption, nobody knew about winter warming,” Robock said. Armed with advances in modeling, plus the highly monitored atmospheric effects from Pinatubo’s eruption, atmospheric scientists are better prepared to forecast the global effects of the next big eruption, Robock added.
The eruption helped scientists definitively declare that human emissions of greenhouse gases are to blame for at least the past 60–70 years of warming.
Scientists tracked sulfur aerosols sourced from Pinatubo’s eruption as they traveled around the world. For 2 years following the blast, surface temperatures cooled, as forecasted by climate models that included Pinatubo’s injections into the atmosphere. Temperatures rose again once the cooling aerosols fell out of the atmosphere.
Pinatubo, in a sense, served as a natural climate experiment to test and calibrate models.Pinatubo, in a sense, served as a natural climate experiment to test and calibrate models. Scientists plugged observed volcanic emissions into climate change models with and without anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases. In the simulations that included only volcanic eruptions, scientists didn’t see the past 60–70 years of consistent warming, Robock explained. This observation helped climate scientists sharpen their models further, confirming that humans—and the unprecedented amounts of greenhouse gases they pump into the atmosphere every year—are to blame for the warming climate. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was able to use these newly sharpened models to further support the attribution of climate change to human activities.
You might think Oh, maybe sulphur dioxide is the solution to global warming but NO!
“Clouds of sulfuric acid particles—created when sulfur dioxide newly injected into the stratosphere meets water—provide surfaces on which ozone-destroying chemical reactions take place.”
Some scientists have suggested hacking into our own atmosphere to counteract the effects of climate change, but Pinatubo’s eruption raised great concerns over whether such direct manipulation could be controlled. Known as “geoengineering,” one of these methods would involve injecting sulfur dioxide particles into the atmosphere just like a volcanic eruption would.
Robock and other scientists agree that this kind of injection would have negative consequences. One consequence is the destruction of the atmosphere’s ozone layer, which prevents dangerous ultraviolet rays from hitting Earth.
Clouds of sulfuric acid particles—created when sulfur dioxide newly injected into the stratosphere meets water—provide surfaces on which ozone-destroying chemical reactions take place. In the 2 years after the eruption, atmospheric ozone destruction sped up, and the ozone hole over the Southern Hemisphere increased to an “unprecedented size.”
“To halt global warming, humans would have to inject 100 million tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere every year—that amounts to about five Pinatubo eruptions per year.”
Robock said that to halt global warming, humans would have to inject 100 million tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere every year—that amounts to about five Pinatubo eruptions per year. Scientists generally agree that the consequences of geoengineering are too risky to attempt. It would be safer and more practical to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and “keep fossil fuels in the ground,” Robock said.
The microscopic organisms called Plankton are the unseen heroes of many marine ecosystems, providing food to a wide variety of species.
These organisms might be microscopic but that doesn’t deter them from playing important roles in marine ecosystems.
They provide base for the entire marine food web.
TYPES Plankton are of two types: Zooplankton (animals) Phytoplankton (plants)
FOOD PRODUCTION IN THE FOOD CHAIN Zooplankton and other small marine creatures eat phytoplankton and then become food for larger creatures.
OXYGEN PRODUCTION Phytoplankton use the process of photosynthesis to create energy. As with plants, they take in carbon dioxide to release oxygen.
Phytoplankton account for about half of the world’s photosynthesis on the planet effectively making them one of the most important producers of oxygen in the world.
Because the aquatic food chain depends so heavily on plankton, the survival of these tiny plants and animals is essential for healthy marine ecosystems.
CARBON CAPTURING Apart from the production of oxygen, plankton also help capture a great deal of carbon in the ocean.
When plankton dies or is consumed, a set of processes known as the biological carbon pump carries sinking particles of carbon from the surface to the deep ocean in a process known as marine snowfall.
Some of this carbon is consumed by sea life, and a portion is chemically broken down. Much of it is carried to deep waters, where it can remain for hundreds to thousands of years. If the deep oceans didn’t store so much carbon, the Earth would be even warmer than it is today.
Effectively, plankton is help to fight climate change and global warming more than some humans are doing.
THREATS Climate change and rising sea temperatures pose serious risks to plankton populations.
TOO MUCH? Too many plankton in one area can cause serious environmental problems.
When a bloom is recorded with certain types of phytoplankton which produce toxins, the area may experience a red tide or other serious algal bloom.
This can cause high fish mortality and other damages to the marine system.
Hi there. Today, we would be discussing the methane gas as a cause of global warming and climate change.
Methane(CH4) is a powerful greenhouse gas contributing to #globalwarming
Methane is 84 times more potent than CO2(carbon) as a Greenhouse gas in the short term.
It is estimated that about 25% of global warming is a caused by methane emissions.
It is estimated to last up to 12 years in the atmosphere.
Methane from human activities is therefore a significant driver of #climatechange
Methane can be sourced from: ✅ Fossil fuels ✅ Livestock production and management ✅ Waste treatment ✅ Plant cultivation such as Rice ✅ Other agricultural services
✔️ I hope you see why we call for a ban on #fossilfuels.
✔️ Why we encourage people to #eatlessmeat or go #vegan
Warming temperatures, shifting seasons, changing precipitation, and rising sea levels are disrupting the behavior of our feathered friends and the ecosystems that support them. Of 143 breeding bird species evaluated in the State of the Birds 3 report, 43% (61 species) are Highly Vulnerable to the effects of climate change predicted to occur by 2050. Of the other species, 15% (22 species) are Likely Vulnerable and 42% (60 species) are Least Vulnerable
How sad 😔
Guess which species are responsible? You guessed right, Humans!
While trying to make life better for ourselves, we must endeavor to avoid hurting other species and embrace sustainability.
As the world gathers round to celebrate yet another important biodiversity event-the World Migratory Birds Day, we have gathered some quick facts about the day that we thought you should know.
What is the Day About?
World Migratory Birds Day is celebrated twice a year on the Second Saturday in May and October. This means that on October 20,2020, we shall be celebrating World Migratory Birds Day once again.
The day is set aside to raise awareness about issues facing Migratory birds and to inspire moves aimed at their conservation.
Why is it celebrated twice a year?
The day is celebrated twice because May is not an ideal time to celebrate the day for countries in the South. The birds may have already passed through. In the North, this date may be too early. For this reason, October was chosen to celebrate the day once again during the birds’ wintering grounds in the South. Again, note that this date differs for the countries in the South. For example, in Costa Rica the day is celebrated in April while Carribean countries celebrate it in October and begin festivities in September.
Either way, it is best to plan activities for WMBD around the time convenient in your location when the birds are present.
What is the theme for the year 2020?
The 2020 theme is “Birds Connect Our World”
What are Migratory Birds?
The definition of these birds in the dictionary differ from the one by regulation.
The dictionary defines them as birds that move from one place to another at different times of the year.
By regulation in the USA, a migratory bird is a bird of a species that belongs to a family or group of species present in the United State as well as Canada, Japan, Mexico, or Russia.
Please note that the Convention on Migratory Species defines “Migratory species” as the entire population or any geographically separate part of the population of any species or lower taxon of wild animals, a significant proportion of whose members cyclically and predictably cross one or more national jurisdictional boundaries.
Why Migrate?
Approximately 40% of the world’s birds migrate, which means there are a lot of birds on the move.
Migration is primarily a strategy to optimize living conditions by moving to areas which are warmer and have more food.
How Are they Conserved?
Migrant birds can be especially difficult to conserve as different countries need to cooperate to ensure birds are conserved across their range.
Birds are also vulnerable on flyways as they are often hunted en masse. If birds are conserved in their breeding habitat but their wintering habitat is degraded this makes it a sink for the population as a whole.
This is why international agreements such as the Convention for the Conservation of Migratory Animals and the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement have been put in place- to foster cooperation between countries, allowing birds to be conserved with the big picture in mind.
Do I Know any Migratory Birds?
You probably do. And you have also probably seen birds in the process of migration.
Migratory Birds include
1. Arctic Tern famous as a long distance migrator. It migrates farther than any other bird species as it can migrate from the High Artic to Antarctica, a round trip of 60,000 to 82,000km.
2. Bluejay which is a medium distance migrant as it travels distances over states. Resident populations can be found in Newfoundland, Canada while breeding populations are found across Southern Canada.
What are the threats to Migratory Birds?
The loss of habitats due to pollution or exploitation caused by encroachment for settlement, agriculture, grazing etc. is the main threat migrating birds face, as they are dependent on finding suitable breeding and wintering grounds as well as stopover sites along their flyways where they can rest and feed. The loss of any of these sites used by the birds during their annual cycle could have a dramatic impact on the birds’ chances of survival.
Also, high-voltage power lines and wind turbines have a dramatic impact on birds, which are in danger of being killed by electrocution or collision.
Poaching remains widely practised in countries where people are highly dependent on biodiversity for their livelihoods.
Migratory Birds travel long distances within and over different countries. As such, national and international cooperation is required to ensure their protection and conservation. It is for this reason that international conventions as mentioned above are essential to ensure international cooperation.
The Convention on Migratory Species and the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement are administered by the United Nations Environment Programme, and the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership.
How can you celebrate?
Given that the world is in the middle of a pandemic and social distancing is advised, events planned in honour of the day have been cancelled but you can still do your part by practicing birdwatching from your home, sharing pictures taken on media sites as well as sharing information aimed at raising awareness about this day like sharing this post.
In the early hours of April 22,1970, like the sun rises from the east and like a newborn’s first cry at birth to the world, the eco-conscious society arose spiritedly like the sun and voiced out their cry for the very first time like a newborn child does to the world. Sen Gaylord-Nelson, with Denis Hayes (National coordinator), U. S Rep Pete McCloskey of California (co-chairman), 85 staff members along with 20 million Americans ( 10% of the total population of the United States) took the first long-walk to eco-freedom, with the goal of raising awareness about mankind’s role in protecting our natural world. Groups that had been fighting individually against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness and the extinction of wildlife united on this day around these shared common values.
In the decades leading up to the first Earth Day, Americans were consuming vast amounts of leaded gas through massive and inefficient automobiles. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of the consequences from either the law or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. Therefore, It is worthy of historical reiteration and connection to mention that the above ruinous events and particularly the damage done by a 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California, was what –as a matter of fact– inspired Senator Nelson to organize a national “teach -in” focused on educating the public about the environment. An inspiration that birthed the dramatic emergence and subsequent prominence of Earth-Day. A peaceful eco-revolution that grew considerably and became a global affair in 1990, with the mobilization of over 200 million people in 141 countries. An affair that gave a voice to an emerging public consciousness about the state of our planet.
What’s changed since Earth-Day 1970?. Has our planet witnessed more consequential harm than good or more resultant good than harm?. Have more trees been cut down than planted?. Has the plastic pollution recycling chart increased or decreased?. Have the endangered species become finally non-existent?. And has the ozone layer witnessed a progressive destruction or a stabilized condition?.
• Global emissions (tons) of CO2 is 2.4 times more causing temperature to rise from +0.02°c in 1970 to +0.99°c as at 2016 which gives an increase from 14.9 billion to 36.3 billion in amount.
• Over 170 animal species like the Golden toad, Saudi Gazelle, New Zealand bush wren amongst others are now extinct.
• Plastic population was in 2015 estimated to be around 6300 metric tons. With a staggering 79% in land fills and environment. Sadly, the plastic makes its way to the ocean where it traps and is eaten by marine animals. In the ocean the plastic continually breaks into smaller and smaller pieces until it can enter the blood stream of fish and other organisms, bringing along the toxins it has absorbed. Consequently, it is estimated that by 2050, there will be more plastic in the world’s ocean than fish.
•Sea ice has melted with a 13.3% decline per decade, giving a decrease in km² size from 7.2 million in 1970 to 4.7 million in 2016, etc. However, amid several climatic issues our world is confronted with, our planet has also changed for the better.
•The Earth Day 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from the democrats and republicans, rich and poor, city slickers and farmers, tycoons and labour leaders. By the end of that year, the first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air Act. Two years later Congress passed the Clean Water Act and a year after that, Congress passed the Endangered Species Act.
• Since 2010, Earth Day Network has planted hundreds of millions of trees in 32 countries, focusing on areas most in need of reforestation. This project tagged the Canopy Project has empowered rural and urban people to conserve, repair, and restore tree cover to their lands and rebuild local economies.
•Even as we’ve used more energy by +44%. Key pollutants like So2, N02, lead, Vocs and particulates have decreased by -71% which has witnessed growth by +246%.
• The world banned CFCs with ozone-depletion emissions down by 98%. The ozone layer has thus stabilised and begun to recover, preventing an estimated 2 million skin cancers cases per year.
• Earth Day network launched “A Billion Act of Green campaign” in 2010 and met its goal of registering one billion actions in advance of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in June 2012. EDN is now past 2 billion Acts of Green and heading for it’s third billion.
• In 2015, a consensus was reached by 197 countries to dramatically reduce Co2 emissions. This agreement was signed in 2016 and termed The Paris Agreement. An agreement that will keep the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, with the aim of substantially reducing the risks and impact of climate change.
• Amongst the many achievements of EDN include the Global Water Network launched in March 2009, which focuses on global fresh water crises. Green Ribbon Schools Program launched in 2011, Women And the Green Economy (WAGE), National Civic Education Program (NCEP) and the Angry Birds Champion for Earth.
Now, the cause for a clean environment continues with increasing exigency, as the scourges of climate change become more and more evident every day. As the consciousness of our climate crisis expands, so does civil society mobilization, which is reaching a fever pitch across the globe today. The eco-conscious societal wheel is turning and spinning again. A rejuvenation of the social and cultural environment witnessed in 1970 is speedily unfolding. A new generation of young people are refusing to settle for insipidity. A generation united by digital and social media, bringing together concerned citizens of the planet as never before and catalyzing the world together to take on the greatest challenge humankind has faced. Your decision matters. You can be part of the solution and not the problem. It is up to you and I, to all of us to effectively utilize every possible opportunity to build the change we need. It is up to us to participate in this cause to make a cohesive, coordinated and diverse change, one that goes to the very heart of what EDN and Earth Day are all about – empowering individuals with the information, the tools, the messaging and the communities needed to make an impact and drive change.What will future Earth Days look like?, together we decide.
Introduction Climate change is a global phenomenon. One that plagues not only the most developed of nations but also the most underdeveloped. Climate Change is one of the most intense global environmental challenges and it is common knowledge that while geographical boundaries may exist, environmental boundaries do not. As a result, the effects of the industrial revolution in Europe which took place as far back as the 18th and 19th Centuries and is commonly considered as one of the leading causes of climate change are still felt today all around the world. The unfortunate aspect of this is that the effects of climate change are most felt by underdeveloped nations which had the least to contribute to the start of climate change. The larger percent of these underdeveloped nations are found in Sub-Saharan Africa. Nigeria became the largest economy in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2014. She is classified as a lower middle income developing country. Her economy diversified and grows by at least 6% per year. Despite these, the poverty level in Nigeria continues to grow in fact she is classified as the poverty capital of the world as at 2018. It is erroneously believed that climate change is not applicable in Nigeria however a critical informed assessment of Nigeria’s economy would reveal the cause and effects of climate change in Nigeria. The North is vulnerable to drought and desertification, the south east is plagued by oil pollution, land degradation, air pollution, loss of biodiversity etc. In fact, I dare say that the stunted growth of the economy is directly linked to climate change. The most pertinent cause and effect of climate change evident in Nigeria is poverty. Article 8 of the IUCN Report on Environment and Development states: Poverty itself pollutes the environment, creating environmental street in a different way. Those who are poor and hungry will often destroy their immediate environment in order to survive: They will cut down forests, their livestock will overgraze grasslands; they will overuse marginal land; and in growing numbers they will cross to congested cities. The cumulative effect of these change is so far-reaching as to make poverty itself a major global scourge.’ That is the Nigerian experience.
Climate Change in Nigeria Climate Change is defined as
“a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods.”
The identified causes of climate change have been classified into two: Natural and Human causes. The natural causes include volcanic eruptions, ocean currents, earth orbital changes and solar variations. The human cause is broadly the production of greenhouse gases which include carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. These are produced from industrial processes, agriculture, transport, energy production, deforestation and other human activities.
Nigeria has been actively engaged in international climate policy negotiations since it became a Party to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) in 1994 ratifying its Kyoto Protocol in 2004. Nigeria submitted its First National Communication (FNC) in 2003 and a Second National Communication in February 2014. Nigeria is host to a number of Clean Development Mechanism projects, as well as projects financed by the Adaptation Fund. In September 2012, the Federal Executive Council approved the Nigeria Climate Change Policy Response and Strategy. HE, President Muhammadu Buhari, The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on 26 November 2015, approved the Nigeria INDC. In 2017, Nigeria officially ratified the Paris Agreement. Despite Nigeria’s participation in these global agreements, the effects of climate change continue to plague Nigeria economically, socially and environmentally. Environmentally, deforestation, desertification, air pollution, ozone layer depletion, marine pollution are evident in Nigeria. Socially, the unrest in Nigeria- The Fulani herdsmen crisis and the Niger-Delta militants- are largely linked to climate change. Desertification and deforestation in the case of the Fulani Herdsmen and the extreme land degradation In case of the Niger-Delta militants. All these factors adversely affect the economy, chasing away potential foreign investors and increasing the income inequality in Nigeria.
Constitutional Appraisal of Climate Change in Nigeria The provision of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as amended that relates to the environment is found in Chapter II of the Constitution in Section 20. This provision is however by virtue of Section 6(6)b of the same constitution classified as non-justiciable. This means that a citizen cannot bring an action on its non-implementation by the Nigerian government. However, several Nigerian policies and regulations on the environment including the National Policy on the Environment 2016 draw their authority on that same constitutional provision. While indeed the Constitution remains the grundnorm for all legislations, policies and regulations made in Nigeria, the non-justiciablilty of Section 20 raises a lot of concern as to the enforcement of these regulations. It has been suggested by environmentalists that in legal actions on the environment, the claimant may rely on Section 33 of the Constitution which guarantees the Right to Life to plead their case. However, I am of the opinion that while all rights may be interrelated, litigants should be able to successfully rely on one right without having to include another. A major problem then arises since the life-threatening effects of climate change activities are not immediate. An argument may be made on behalf of the principle of inter-generational equity but the existent fact that the science on Climate change continues to develop every year may work against that. Climate change as a global environmental challenge is also recognised as an important determinant of sustainable development as Climate Action is adequately provided as one of the sustainable development goals drafted by the United Nations in 2015. Further, it has been widely acknowledged as central to all of the remaining goals. At the Climate Action Summit at the United Nations General Assembly(UNGA74), Nigeria, along with representatives of other nations, made renewed promises on climate action. On behalf of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency President Muhammadu Buhari announced that Nigeria would take strategic steps to fight climate change and fulfil her obligations under the Paris Agreement. One of such steps mentioned was the inclusion of youths to plant 20 million trees to help absolve the carbon emissions of the atmosphere, innovative measures by inclusion of youth-led ideas on climate change. I commend the attempt by the President to include youths in the fight against climate change however the failure of the President to set a specific deadline or reveal an action plan for these new promises does not suggest a readiness to fulfil them. Conclusion and Recommendations It is no longer news that climate change is a major problem that must be tackled hands-on. As scientists have affirmed, it is possible to reverse the effects of climate change this century by deliberate action. To achieve this, the practical, scientific and political aspects of the economy involved in the fight against climate change must unite. It has been claimed that while it is practically possible to combat climate change, the question remains if it is politically possible. In a nation plagued with corruption such as Nigeria, this question strikes and must be answered in the positive in order to achieve an headway. As regards the Constitution, it is my recommendation that Chapter II of the Constitution as a whole and Section 20 in particular be made justitiable in order to send a message to the citizens and the world that the environment will not continually be sacrificed in favour of economic growth. This would ensure that citizens and concerned organizations can litigate on the basis of Section 20 which would in turn put all government officials on their toes in combating climate change. It is also recommended that the Climate Change Bill be reexamined, passed and assented to by the President this year. Further, there could be an establishment of an agency for climate change separate from the Ministry of Environment or the strategic restructuring of the Department of Climate Change in the Ministry of Environment. This Department must be made visible to the public and it should publicize its policies and regulations appropriately all around Nigeria through the use of door to door mechanisms, symposiums, conferences, awareness walks etc. The Constitution of Nigeria being a rigid Constitution may be difficult to amend however regulations on climate change could be enacted that draw adequate authority from the Constitution and be enforceable in court.
Alwaysfornature 