Sokoto — In a sense, the twin problem of poverty and environmental degradation in Nigeria have bearing with overdependence on and frustrations from hydrocarbon as the main source of energy in the country. This source which includes coal, petroleum and uranium is essentially fossil and depletible in nature. This is to say that they are by-products of dead animals and plants and other organic matters, which metamorphosed over a certain period within the earth crust to eventually become potential energy sources, and which exists in exhaustible magnitudes.
The processes of reaching these energy sources, as is obvious in petroleum exploration and coal mining, are complicated and require a great deal of advanced and expensive technology both in the materials and the know-how. Whereas energy is a major requirement in homes, offices, industries, the overdependence on conventional energy sources has continued to wield enormous influence on the Nigerian environment and has increasingly become a source of worry and threat to the nation's economy with the greater proportion of the impact among the less-privileged and poor population.
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