Chigozie NwabunwanneA certain number of people are anxiously waiting for a day the sun, moon and stars fall to earth, sky to turn red and filled with lightning and thunder. Dragons appear from nowhere and the dead rise. They might, however, be disappointed to be caught off guard, because the doomsday they expect will come but in another way. This is man-made and might end mankind. It is slowly outflanking us, putting us in a position we can’t escape and making the doomsday inevitable.
According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, global warming is the gradual increase in temperature of the earth’s atmosphere, which is mostly caused by releasing gases like carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
As time keeps dragging us through the endless phase of eternity, man has noticed that the temperature of the world keeps increasing, which means that the 90’s was hotter than the 80’s and the 21st century is hotter than the 20th century. As the years keep going, the temperature keeps increasing and becoming unbearable for man in his own planet which is his only home in the boundless universe.
For many, flooding has become regular. It’s now normal for rivers to flood their banks and enter people’s homes in August or September every year.
But obscure to many, we are sitting on a time bomb. As the heat waves increase every day, month and year. The ice caps in Antarctica melt into the ocean, which is a vast addition to the plentiful amount of water the ocean already has, in return, the ocean equally distributes some to our rivers and coast and that’s where the seas get the amount to flood the coasts, riverbanks, homes, farmlands, etc.
It’s unknown to a few that there is a change in the precipitation pattern, which means a change in rainfall pattern. In Nigerian science textbooks, it is written that the rainy season starts in April or May and ends in October, observing an initial break in August. But what we are seeing nowadays is terrifying. The rainfall might even start in June and keep pouring till December. The harmattan might vanish one week before Christmas and return mid-February. Even the first week of the year which has always been the harshest time of the year is now getting warmer.
People in the coastal and riverine regions are complaining of a serious reduction of fish resources. In the Horn of Africa, severe drought is making people walk kilometers for just a can of water. In countries that are neighbors to the Sahara, the desert keeps advancing slowly, steadily and stealthly turning once arable lands to arid lands.
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Rivers and lakes are drying out. In Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon, the lake Chad will soon become history. Arable lands are disappearing, foodstuffs are reducing and getting more expensive. Resources are now getting scarce, war looming. For countries without resources will invade smaller ones to plunder the little they have.
All these look natural but are not, they are all man-made. Man in his search for knowledge, resources and development is trying to destroy his home.
Man has been using wood even in the pre-historical period, they cut down trees to cook and warm themselves. But today, trees are been destroyed indiscriminately. The Amazon rainforest, Brazil, is the largest in the world and it keeps reducing daily. The rate of deforestation is very high currently. Trees are cut down every hour without being replaced. Trees, which are life themselves are destroyed to make luxurious pieces of furniture. This can only be compared to a man cutting out his lungs and selling them to buy shawarma. The more we destroy trees, the more we produce carbon dioxide which the trees suck up to give us fresh oxygen. This highlights man’s ingratitude to nature. Urbanization seems to be at its peak. Some countries of the world ignore their rise in population index. A family might consist of 22 people, which means that if two people produce 20 children, then, the 20 children will grow and produce more. To accommodate themselves, man mercilessly invaded the forest and destroyed any sliver of life there to build an estate. Many animals are going extinct. Many medicinal plants have been wiped out without being given any chance to prove their worth. Trees are destroyed leaving nutrient-laden soil open to the direct heat of the sun. Which is the major cause of soil erosion.
Man keeps burning fossil fuels daily for energy. These fossil fuels are buried remnants of plants and animals that died millions of years ago. The primary examples are coal, crude oil or any fraction of it. Burning of these is the primary cause of global warming we experience today. It releases nitrogen oxides into our atmosphere bringing forth smog and acid rain which destroy plants and smaller animals. Man is sowing the wind and will reap the whirlwind.
Can We Create A Healthier Future?
But there are ways to change and create a healthier future. Many countries are making countless efforts to control climate change, but is their best good enough? The responsibility of filtering out the planet falls to man as an individual to save his home. But first, we should start walking, using bicycles and public transport. The increasing number of vehicles equals the number of dangerous gases they emit into the atmosphere. Man should relearn how to walk or ride bicycles, to improve his health and that of his planet.
Man should also practice discipline in what he eats and stop consuming more than necessary. We should stick to organic nutritional meals, which are not just for the betterment of our planet but for our personal health too. The junk we consume today is prone to cause our cells to rebel and increase blood sugar.
Governments should also create birth control laws because we are gradually running out of land to feed the growing massive population and even living space to accommodate the upcoming generation.
The more trees we kill, the more we suffocate ourselves. Cutting a tree down without planting another should be considered as murder and becomes a penal offence. Man should relearn the ‘art’ of afforestation and reforestation in the northern part of our continent to push the Sahara back and regain more lands for agriculture.
Man should keep away from the use of pesticides on farmlands. The use of pesticides is like a man “drinking the hemlock.” When they are used, they not only destroy pests but also innocent insects that aid cultivation. Insects like bees, who according to the British Ecological Society are the most important living thing in the world. They are master pollinators, vital for plant reproduction.
Renewable energy should be used to generate energy for they are very eco-friendly: wind turbines, solar, and hydroelectric power and abandoning this exhaustible energy that is not friendly to the ecological system.
Finally, man should spread awareness and teach people about the looming danger. Educate the children in school to avoid this forthcoming catastrophic end. Man should be made to understand that the day the rivers and seas dry up and are filled with plastics when all the trees have been destroyed to make lavish furnitures when all animals and drinking water disappear, man will finally realise that he can’t eat money.
