By Kayode Emola
Last month I wrote about the announcement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that the world is entering an El-Niño phase – for those who missed the article on 9th June, you can find it here: https://thebossnewspapers.com/2023/06/09/voice-of-emancipation-el-nino-should-we-be-worried/. Yet, despite the NOAA’s warnings, it would appear that even the advanced countries are not paying attention to the impending catastrophe heralded by El-Niño.
We need to accept that our world has changed drastically from the one that our ancestors bequeathed to us, and the options available to us to remedy this ongoing damage are few. We must either seek to reverse the damage done by the release of CO2 and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere; or else we, our children, and future generations will have to pay the price.
The several climate washing conferences on several continents are not going to cut it – conferences alone will achieve nothing unless they are accompanied by unanimous, decisive action. Every one of us needs to agree that the present situation is an emergency and that nothing short of a revolutionary approach on a global scale will be sufficient to move us in the direction of achieving anything meaningful.
Many advanced countries, such as the US, UK, Germany, France, and China, are larger contributors to the climate catastrophe, so need to do more to help mitigate its effects. The governments of these countries, and others like them, need to be intentional in their approach to tackling Climate Change.
According to the UK’s Office of National Statistics, the number of excess deaths recorded due to the heat wave last year was over 60,000. With the heat wave that is currently ravaging the entire globe and most especially Europe and Asia unusually, one would not be wrong to assume the effect of El Nino will be more significant than previously thought.
Whilst Africa which is far away from the Pacific will in no doubt be shielded from the El-NINO weather effect, the continent has its own fair share of global catastrophe to deal with. Places like China are beginning to record unprecedented temperatures forcing business to stop and some cities being placed on lockdown.
In my own personal experience of extreme weather in Northern Nigeria more than a decade ago, I couldn’t bear staying under 34°C without being excessively dehydrated. Scientist in a recent study sponsored by Sky News has discovered that our body begins to find it difficult to function at 40°C. People with underlying conditions could find their bodies shutting down due to extreme heat. With places in China witnessing over 54°C last week, it is only a matter of time before that type of temperature becomes the new normal for every country if nothing is done to tackle climate change.
These weather phenomena are global, unheeding national borders and divisions. Therefore, no singular nation can claim to be immune to their effects, and so it must be a universal endeavour, where we all come together to fight for the preservation of our earth.
Major oil-exporting countries like Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, among others, must begin to acknowledge that the time of cashing in on easy income from crude oil is coming to a close. These nations need to realise the dangers this commodity poses to our planet, and invest in other sources of income instead.
There is nothing preventing us from utilising solar and other forms of renewable energy, rather than perpetuating our overdependence on crude oil. Oil has remained buried for millions of years for good reasons; this black commodity is like Pandora’s box, whose unfastening has released a multitude of demons into our earth.
These demons are now hell-bent on destroying our planet, without anyone suspecting or paying attention to the damage being caused. It is ironic that the majority of crude oil nations, including Nigeria, have an average life expectancy far below that of countries that do not have these commodities. It leads one to ask, what then is the point of having a commodity that neither benefits the majority of a country’s citizens nor adds to their quality of life.
My Yoruba people, we must be cognizant of the fact that we are no more immune to the meteorological effects of climate change than any other nation or people. We must seek to implement the many things we can do in our own little way, setting a standard for new development buildings in our land such that they are designed to receive the majority of their energy from renewable energies like solar panels, hydro dams, geothermal, windfarms, etc. In this way, we would be well-prepared for either future legislation or market forces resulting in a reduction of hydrocarbon-generated energy.
The effect of climate change will undoubtedly be felt by everyone in the world, irrespective of where you live. However, it is the strategies that individual countries implement to mitigate its effects that will give them the greatest chance of surviving the forthcoming onslaught.
As we advance the cause of our independent Yoruba nation, I urge every one of us to direct all our actions toward building a sustainable environment for our children and future generations. This is a legacy worth investing in, one that we would be glad to have built even after we are long gone from the face of the earth.
