Abuja — Climate change refers to a change in climate that is attributable directly or indirectly to human activities, that alters the atmospheric composition of the earth which leads to global warming. Climate change has the potential of affecting all natural and human systems and may be a threat to human development and survival socially, politically and economically. Nigeria has a variety of ecosystems, from mangroves and rainforests on the Atlantic coast in the south to the savannah in the north bordering the Sahara.
Whether dry or wet, those ecosystems are being battered by global warming. While excessive flooding during the past decade has hurt farming in coastal communities, desertification is ravaging the Sahel. Traditionally, desertification in the Sahel has been blamed on overgrazing practices of the local population. But it has been discovered that the real problem is climate change. Rainfall in the Sahel has been declining steadily since the 1960's. The result has been the loss of farmlands and conflicts between farmers and herdsmen over ever decreasing land. Many different communities, including fishermen, farmers and herdsmen, are now confronted with difficulties arising from climatic changes. Peoples' livelihoods are being harmed, and people who are already poor are becoming even more impoverished. Climate refugees are being created, as the changes make some land unliveable and affect water supplies.
Nigeria is one of the countries expected to be most affected by the impacts of climate change through sea level rise along her coast line, intensified desertification, erosion and flooding disasters and general land degradation. According to a report in guardian newspaper that Nigeria will lose close to $9 billion as a result of the catastrophe while, at least, 80 per cent of the inhabitants of the Niger Delta will be displaced due to the low level of the oil-rich region. As Nigeria's economy improves, its per capita greenhouse gas emissions may approach those of the developed nations of the world today. This combined with continued gas flaring and a large population will further worsen Nigeria's standing as a key emitter of greenhouse gases globally.
Human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels for transportation and energy production, are increasing the concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere trapping heat and causing global warming, climate change and sea level rise. Climate change is indeed a global problem. Therefore, there is the need for serious attention from each and everyone to play its role in other to protect our darling earth by planting a tree to clean the air, store carbon, and provide food and shelter. In Nigeria, agriculture is the main sources of food, and a major source of industrial raw material, and the means of earning foreign exchange. It employs close to 70% of the Nigeria's population.
Agricultural practice in the country is predominantly rain-fed and therefore particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Nigeria has a population of about 140 million impacting on the physical environment through various activities within the area of 923,000 square kilometres. This couple with variability in elements of climate such as rainfall and temperature exposes the country to the impact of climate change. Nigeria's vulnerability will be in two way; first, the resulting impacts of climate change and second, the impact of response measures. This is because Nigeria's economy is highly dependent on income generated from the production, processing, export and consumption of fossil fuels and associated energy-intensive products.
Despite this huge implication of climate change response measures for Nigeria's economy, it is appalling that there is no visible demonstration of the preparedness of the government to tackle this issue. The greatest cause for concern is that the blueprint for Nigeria's development Vision 2010 fails to give a mere acknowledgement of the importance of climate change to Nigeria's economy, let alone stipulate the development strategy with which to tackle it. But the observations above show that the danger signals are clear: Nigeria should either prepare for the issues raised by climate change today or pay a higher price in the future.
Establishment of comprehensive air quality standards and creation of national energy efficiency codes can furnish the driving force for rapid development of the country's energy efficiency and renewable energy opportunities. Finally, THINK GLOBALLY BUT ACT LOCALLY.
Nasiru Idris Medugu is a PhD Researcher at the Faculty of Built Environment, University of Technology Malaysia
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Too much of the attention in climate change is being given to the carbon cycle and not enough to the water cycle. Africa's water resources should be enough to water and cool it, but they are being sucked dry by weeds. The same weeds silt up streams and lakes and makes wetlands into grasslands, furthering desertification. In your area, the number one weed is Typha. Clear it from your nations (there are a bunch), removing the silt left behind for use in rehabilitating soil elsewhere or for fighting coastal erosion. The silt must go before the stream or lake can fully recover. When the rains do come, water will again accumulate as of old. They will recharge aquifers, and reestablish "lake effect" rains. With the weeds gone, higher temperatures will speed up the cooling process. The weeds are great for sequestering carbon, but for each carbon atom they absorb, they absorb a molecule of water making carbohydrate. We need that carbohydrate made in someone's garden or farm.
You can finance the clearance of weeds (Typha, anyway) through their value as biofuel feedstock. Typha can be readily used as fuel in many ways.
Climate change can either be caused by nature or influenced by activities of mankind.We need to pay urgent attention to this issue before it becomes a permanent issue on our national budgets.
Most importantly, we should watch our economies as climate change has already started affecting the economies of the world as well as human productivity and much attention is not given to this area.