Youths for Public Safety By Abubakar Jimoh
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The earth which is recorded to have been founded about 4.6billion years ago, has witnessed series of atmospheric changes, among which is the ongoing increase in Global warming which has caused several damages to biological beings that inhabits it. This increase in global warming hurts human health, animals, and plants; it is generally known to have been facilitated by greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, water vapor, nitrous oxide, and methane which trap heat and light from the sun in the earth’s atmosphere and accelerate it’s temperature level.
This phenomenon has posed negative effects to the weather and agricultural conditions across the world as drier situations have prevailed in the Sahel region of western Africa, southern Africa, the Mediterranean, and parts of southern Asia; while droughts have been projected to become longer and more intense since 1970 particularly in the tropics and subtropics. From the latest development, weather patterns have become less predictable around the world giving chances to sudden occurrences of natural disasters like floods, Hurricanes, desertification etc.
Also, the increasing warm nature of the atmosphere has caused reparative effects on the surface layer of the ocean, as it expands in volume thus raising sea level which has complicated life in various parts of the world; since erosion of cliffs, beaches, and dunes will increase and invade the mouths of rivers resulting to heavy flooding. The rises in the temperature will cause a great harm to plants which are naturally sources of food to man and animals. Meanwhile, Global warming has accounted for the increase in tropical diseases such as malaria mostly found in the tropics and transmitted by mosquitoes, yellow fever, and encephalitis.
Consequently, in attempt to proffer workable solutions against the negativities arising from Global warming that could cause damage to man, plants and animals, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) under the leadership of its Director-General, Alhaji Muhammed Sani-Sidi in collaboration with National Metrological Centre has organized a number of conferences and workshops across the country on sensitization campaign against global warming.
It was resolved that responding to the challenge of controlling global warming will require fundamental changes in energy production, transportation, industry, government policies, and development strategies around the world.
Forest preservation is an essential tactic to keep carbon dioxide emissions from reaching the atmosphere. It has been reported that trees, especially young and fast-growing ones, soak up a great deal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store carbon atoms in new wood. There is a need to reduce the growing rate of deforestation particularly in the tropics. Over the years, Industrial demands for agricultural products, like rubber has resulted to deforestation and soil changes across the globe. These patterns have accelerated as industrial growth has spread more widely, and creating global warming.
Carbon dioxide brought to the earth surface through the natural gas drillings around the world must be captured, compressed, and then injected into an aquifer deep below the seabed from which it cannot escape. In most cases, the process of carbon capture would also involve transporting the gas in compressed form to suitable locations for underground storage as it has been adopted in natural gas drilling in Norway since 1996.
Adequate environmental and wastes management through the adoption of systematic recycling is another tactic to tackle global warming. It has been observed that recycling reduces pollution because recycling a product creates less pollution than producing a new one. Recycling can also reduce pollution by recycling safer products to replace those that pollute. It also saves energy by reducing the need to process new material, which usually requires more energy than the recycling process.
Apart from these, carefulness has been urged in part of individuals towards the use of electrical gadgets such as leaving turned on television, computer, and the lights. Instead, it is advisable to take time away from the television and spending more time outdoors; while excessive use of mechanical engines like cares, buses, trucks that generate fume must be reduced to combat global warming.
There is a need for the review and full implementation of the global Environmental Protection Laws as this will help proper and timely sanctions on agro-allied industries contributing to environmental pollution. For instance, United States has embarked on serious effort against local and regional air pollution since the promulgation of Clean Air Act of 1970, which was amended in 1977 and 1990. This can also be achieved in Nigeria through reformation and mobilization of the existing Environmental Protection Board across the country.
