There was a time when global warming seemed like something to be worried about in the distant future. Just like commercial flying cars ever becoming the norm.
This nonchalance is almost about to cost us everything. Efforts were, and continue to be, made in raising awareness on the damning consequences of global warming. Recently, levels of awareness have risen owing to the fact that earth is warming at an alarming rate. Global warming is no longer a warning of a distant future occurrence; it is happening now and the window is closing. The time to salvage the situation is now.
Global warming is explained as the increase in the Earth’s average surface temperature caused by high levels of carbon emissions, greenhouse gases (GHGs) and the presence of other air pollutants. Greenhouse gases have the ability to trap heat the Earth’s surface and the pollution remains in the atmosphere for several decades. The 1880s were when people began to record temperature and the 25 warmest years have been said to be in the last 28 years.
Studies also show that each of the last three decades has been consecutively warmer than the preceding. Experts have come out with absolute certainty that the skyrocketing increase in greenhouse gases over the last 50 years is linked to human activities(mainly due to the burning of fossil fuels) and that we have approximately 10 years to begin righting all our wrongs to avoid irreparable loss.
Global warming aggravates the occurrence and impacts of extreme weather events such as drought, floods and heatwaves. Here is how- increased temperatures have differing effects on places depending on whether they are wet regions or dry ones. For wet regions, higher temperatures hasten the evaporation process resulting in an increase in the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere which leads to heavier downpours that cause floods. For drier regions, higher temperatures increase the rate evaporation and precipitation is not able to replenish the lost moisture soon enough which makes the soil dry up even more. This results in less solar energy being used for evaporation in drier regions and makes available more solar energy which raises the overlying soil temperature. Reduced evaporation due to depleted soil moisture means less moisture in the atmosphere for precipitation to occur. This is results in a ‘self-amplifying cycle’ that makes droughts lengthier and direr.
From the above, it is quite easy to understand why we have been experiencing more and more erratic rainfall and unstable weather temperatures. That is just us paying for all the sins done Mother Nature.
The phenomenon also poses grave dangers to human health like respiratory diseases from polluted air, malaria, malnutrition due to poor crop yield and droughts, water-borne infections, heat strokes etc.
Through our actions and inactions, we have altered nature’s processes- an era some experts now term as the ‘Anthropocene’.The Anthropocene is the term used to describe a geological epoch dominated by human beings. Our means of transportation emit so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere; farming methods like slash and burn method rob the soil of its protection from erosion and disorients the organic matter content in the soil.
The cutting down of trees also destroys natural forests. Not forgetting that the fires release so much carbon dioxide and may also lead to bush fires causing massive destruction. Poor fishing practices like light fishing, using chemicals and poisons also endanger our coral reefs, pollute water bodies which put the living organisms that depend on them at risk. Paper production, poor waste management are some of the prime culprits.
For a developing country like Ghana, that is over-reliant on nature’s blessings for the sustenance of our economy, the consequences of climate change promise to be cataclysmic.
Droughts due to the erratic rainfalls in drier regions would affect crop yield. Floods as a result rising sea levels and heavy downpours which cause loss of property and lives, and causes displacement not to talk of the Psychological toll it would have on the victims and their families. Our economy which is heavily dependent on agriculture would crumble.
Statistics show that 45% of Ghana’s workforce is into rain-fed agriculture and the fisheries sector in responsible for 4.5% of our GDP; a source of livelihood to over 2.5 million Ghanaians. Can you imagine the chaos that would arise out of food shortage?
We live in a country with a limping, if not non-functional, ambulance system, a struggling health system, poor road networks, and in 2019 potable drinking water is still a challenge. Coupled with our many peculiar problems we face as a nation, the attendant effects of climate change augur well for us.
The global climate strike, a worldwide effort by the youth to compel the major stakeholders in the various countries to take much more bold actions on climate change-related issues, begins on September 20th, 2019 and ends on September 27th, 2019.
This is a step in the right direction as it would take all countries in the world working in concert to arrest the situation. I implore every young person in Ghana and elsewhere in the world to add their voice to this fight for our future. This should be our fight; the future is ours after all.