Most times, when people hear the word, climate change, they often think about global warming or increasing temperatures and that sort of stuff. The truth is those things are related to climate change but they are just a handful compared to the ecosystem of events that come with the climate changing. Another common misconception is the belief that climate change is the same as global warming. In fact, I saw a comment on YouTube where a person argued that because the hypothesis of climate change was not true, scientists and environmentalists then resulted in another fake idea, climate change. The comments under climate videos just show how knowledgable people in different parts of the world are. Another comment said "2mm/year. Wow. Let's run for the hills!" This person was referring to the average rise in sea level, also caused by climate change. Now even though 2mm sounds small, such rise does affect coastal cities like Lagos. The reason for concern is not because of the rising sea level. Scientists don't think that by next year, the whole world would become Atlantis. But the effects of even a small rise in sea level can cause a lot of damage, now according to research, places like Makoko, Iwaya, and even Unilag are under threat. This is because these places are not only at risk of being wiped out between 2050 and 2100 but they are densely populated meaning that people who live there now will be forced to move elsewhere. That's nearly 86000 thousand people in Iwaya alone. Places like the lagoon front right in front of the ocean will be gone in the next 50 years at least. And I know what most of us are thinking, Who on earth had time to do research on climate change effects in Nigeria? I know right. I was surprised too but this just confirms that research is being conducted because we are at higher risks than the countries who most people blame for climate change. For example, the average elevation for the USA is hundreds of meters in their inward states but the average elevation of Lagos is just 41 meters.
Now, most people feel like climate change is not relevant because the cannot see the effect but some countries especially Islands are already under threat. In a documentary, it shows that the country of Kiribati (and yes that is a country) can actually be underwater is the next 50 years because of climate change, they deal with flooding every single day because of the rising sea levels. Most people would just say why are they still living there then, but those who say that obviously don't understand what it means to leave your home and everything you are familiar with, mostly because of what some other countries are doing. This situation is very similar to the refugee crisis in Syria and Internally Displaced People in Borno, but because we can not see what is causing the changes like terrorists and poverty we like to shove them under the carpet.
Most people who say they don't believe in climate change make it sound like it's a religion where your trust in the system is based on faith, the event of climate change is based on scientific evidence and research. And the thing is that this science is out there on the internet. I literally just typed "sea-level rise in lagos" on google to get some of the facts used in this article so it's not that difficult. Or maybe, it's because people don't like science. You know, like the way people say they don't like Math. But we have so many people studying biology, chemistry, cell biology and genetics, physiology, medicine. So maybe people don't hate science. Then what could be the cause? I think it's because people don't learn about climate change while they are in school. Correct me if I'm wrong but the only subject where I actually learned about climate change was geography and I know people in my school disliked geography, a lot. So why would something so important be only discussed in a subject that most people disliked? This means that most people would not even get to hear about climate change until they left secondary school. So when they hear about it, they either treat it like just another social media trend or one of those "foreign topics" like racism or LGBTQ rights. Something that affects us this greatly should not be limited to the confines of one subject area alone not just because it's important but because it does not have only a science aspect. It has social, political, economic and ethical effects like displacement of people, implementation of eco-friendly policies, loss of revenue due to damages from climate caused natural disasters, and the ethics of geoengineering.
Some many things that happen in the world today are related to climate change. If you've been keeping up with the news, you would know the locust crisis in East Africa. This is actually attributed to climate change. "How is this one too related to climate change?", you might ask. Well, because global warming, an effect of climate change has been happening all over the world, this increases evaporation rates, leading to more heavy rainfall and cyclones. This causes flooding which leads to a lot of water afterward making it easier for tree locusts to populate and this also displaces desert locusts from their natural habitat, the desert, into populated areas, like farms in surrounding countries, hence the plague. All these things are connected. Even the common heat that we have been experiencing in Nigeria is part of this so-called climate change, and we have not even started experiencing the average 2 degree Celsius rise in temperatures that the UN was talking about. So how would it feel when that actually starts happening?
We cannot afford to stay ignorant, we have to create awareness in our community, we have to start asking our governments what their plan is for the changing climate, we have to ask them how they plan to diversify the country's income when countries finally stop buying oil because they are trying to move away from fossil fuels, we have to start asking what type of engineers we really need. In the next 20 years, most of the jobs in the oil and gas industry will be at risk because of the moral concerns of crude oil and its effects not only on the people of the Niger Delta but its effect on climate change. Yet many students are still going for chemical and petroleum engineering. Do the mechanical engineering departments address the innovation of machines that do not rely on gas or petrol? Do we have students who could invent electric cars based on their school curriculum or is it just a thing that we continue to see in sci-fi movies? Are we going to sit and watch as the next generation of students react to the issue of climate change just as we did when they need to be aware of what they will be potentially facing in their lifetime? Are we going to be Nigerians who sit, complain and tweet about it or are we going to be Nigerians who stand up to actually do something like the way we did during independence, during M.K.O or during Ebola? We have the ability to be proactive, compassionate and starters of change if not in the world but at least in Africa.
Isn't that what being the Giant of Africa is all about? ( and don't scoff in that place😑, I'm being serious) 😉
Thank you guys for reading as usual. It's been long since I posted but I'm going to be more frequent now. There's a lot to talk about. Have a nice day. Stay green and stay free.
Hey y'all if you want to check or watch some of the stuff, I said, I've added the links to their pages or videos here. You should check them out, after all it's the weekend. No excuses.😊
1. Scientist responds to comments on climate change: He also explains the difference between climate change and global warming except you want to check Google, either way, works.
2. Kiribati: An island actually experiencing the effects of climate change that we (Lagos) are at risk of facing
3. Map showing the elevation of Lagos. (You can put your house address and see the elevation of your house) It's really accurate
4. Totally sciency research paper on sea-level rise in Lagos, Eti Osa: Beware of graphs and fancy terms
5. India's sea-level rise threat: Just for perspective.