TACKLING GLOBAL WARMING IN NIGERIA
Once upon a time in an endowed kingdom, the air was fresh and the scenery beautiful, the grass was lush and the oceans pure. It was a kingdom with a balance. All parts of the system worked. Each time new subjects were inducted into the kingdom there seemed to be enough to serve all, the balance distorted but the subjects had a connection with the kingdom and believed they have the responsibility to help the kingdom get restored. There came a major invasion of civilisation. The subjects became extremely industrious and engaged in activities to make living go beyond the presumed ‘archaic’ level of the kingdom. The once endeared connection started wearing out.
The wave of civilisation ravaged every nook of the kingdom; induction rate grew - population; the sense of responsibility for kingdom balance dropped, the rate of usage of resources spiked and outdid the rate of formation and maturation of resources. Trees were felled; fossil fuels were burnt; the air, land, and water were polluted. The kingdom groaned, the subject moaned as they seemed to be excited by each new day of invention and introduction of a shift from the presumed ‘archaic’. Then comes the resultants of all the activities, the kingdom started burning and the subjects were running; the effect of their activities was the formation of a cloud of death over the kingdom - the greenhouse gases welcomed a new era called global warming.
The mystery is that the cloud of life around the kingdom contains some elements seen presently in the cloud of death but in controlled quantities; the balance crumbled, the grass became dry; the oceans littered with dead fishes and other creatures, the glacial melted, and the oceans increased in volume, broke its banks and flooded the kingdom. There began scarcity of resources - famine, the kingdom started burning from inside out; the subjects kept running all about yet sustained their wave of activities.
The only thing that can remove the cloud of death is to choose to live responsibly in the kingdom. The decision to plant more trees, outlaw the burning of fossil fuels and vehemently resist pollution of any kind by reducing, reusing and recycling materials will set the subjects on the path to reconnection with the kingdom. There is no option B; the kingdom is our planet, the system - our environment; we are the subject.
The effect of global climate change is biting harder each day, the time to set the records straight and act is now. Amusa Temitope Victor, Ilorin, Kwara State