Climate change: World must unite to save the planet

ACROSS the northern hemisphere, a foretaste of the apocalypse is unfolding in the form of heat waves, uncontrolled forest fires, displacement and deaths. In Europe, the crisis has already claimed about 2,000 lives in Portugal and Spain and is afflicting thousands in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Greece and others. Humanity is facing the inexorable consequence of its collective failure to hearken to experts’ warnings on worsening global warming. The world must act now with utmost urgency to halt environmental degradation and save the planet.

Some pessimists think it is too late already, believing that the planet has been damaged beyond repair. Most scientists and climate change campaigners remain optimistic, however. But they also warn that the time to act before irredeemable damage is done has narrowed. Less-developed countries like Nigeria that have contributed to this global environmental hazard should learn from this and take drastic steps to implement robust environmental protection action.

In Europe, heat waves have caused the deaths of about 128,000 persons in four decades. Thousands have been displaced, properties destroyed, and social and economic activities affected. In 2022 alone, about 500 wildfires have been reported in England and Wales, compared to the 237 recorded in 2021. In the United States, wildfires have ravaged California, and residents of several other states are under threat. US Climate Envoy, John Kerry, hinted that President Joe Biden is considering announcing a “climate emergency” and symptomatic of how politics gets in the way of needed action, many Republicans in the Congress continue to oppose the radical legislations recommended by experts.

To avert disaster, the world must change how it manages the planet. The Amazon (Brazil), the world’s largest rainforest, is fast losing its vegetation, prompting the Council on Foreign Relations, a US think tank, to warn that failure to take remedial measures could lead to irreversible consequences.

The world should sharply slow down continued fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions that are now at the highest level in human history, according to the United Nations. Other imprudent practices that deplete the ozone layer, led by foremost industrialised nations, have largely brought this calamity upon mankind. Countries should collaborate to reverse the damage, reduce global temperatures and replenish the ozone layer.

Aptly identified by the World Health Organisation as “the single biggest health threat facing humanity,” climate change, fueled mainly by human activities, is manifesting through extreme weather, excessively hot temperatures, destructive rainfall, extreme flooding, rising sea levels, wildfires that consume even green grasslands, drought and unpredictable weather. This contributes substantially to global food crisis, terrestrial and aquatic species extinction, vanishing flora and fauna, and other hazards.

The message must sink in that no country, no population will be spared in the looming disaster unless definite efforts are made to reverse it. Embracing renewable energy and transiting from fossil fuels is now more critical than ever before.

By Punch Editorial Board

https://punchng.com/climate-change-world-must-unite-to-save-the-planet/