FEATURE ARTICLE

Augustine C. OhanweTuesday, December 4, 2012
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ON GLOBAL WARNING: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

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reed does blindfold as could be seen in the case of certain powers’ unwillingness to cooperate with scientific measures that could ameliorate the danger which global warming poses to humanity. In our rapacious greed to accumulate wealth, maximise profit, expand our industrial base and become famous, the industrialised nations have polluted and continue to pollute our planet with greenhouse gas emissions, an act they do without caring for the consequences. But nature is not outraged with impunity. No one can provoke mother nature without expecting her wrath. Many natural disasters are living testimonies

There is no denial that monumental strides made by industrial revolution since it was born risk being dwarfed by the enormous damages it has wrought, and continues to do – all in the bid to maintain pecuniary gains. Countries that had failed to sign the Kyoto Protocol, and may have have attended the recent Doha Climate Change Conference as a mere social jamboree have sacrificed the future well being of humankind and our planet on the altar of material gain. Subordinating the future of mankind to economic consideration is a dangerous gamble. According to scientists, the US with 4 percent of world’s population does produce 25 percent of carbon dioxide pollution from fossil-fuel burning. This huge percentage makes it by far, the largest share amongst the industrialised world.

Disturbingly, the United States which ought to take a leadership role, not because of being a super power but as super polluter in solving the problem has unfortunately become a reluctant sheriff. It refused to cooperate with the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse emissions. Many think that what the US has gained in elevation as a super power and perspective, it has lost in terms of being in touch with sensitive grass root realities with scientific underpinning as the issue of the danger posed by global warming has testified.

And after philosophic introspection, the US, China and other states that have distanced themselves from cooperating with other nations in the war against global warming, would evaluate themselves as not worthy to condemn narcotic mafias and terrorist organisations, and if they do, such action will further weaken their moral fibres.

We have stratified our world into superpowers, great powers, industrialised nations, rich north and poor south but we have only one world and Mother Nature as the only superpower. She is colour blind, status blind, creed blind hence she metes out her retribution without caring whose ox is gored. And as global warning heats up the north pole, changing its climate, tropical insects such as tse tse flies, mosquitoes and wasps are getting ready to migrate thither to inaugurate plagues alien to the inhabitants of that zone. It has already started in southern part of Greece where anopheles mosquitoes have been found to be spreading plasmodium, a parasite that causes malaria. The Greek are alarmed. This is one of the after effects of global warming, and many worst case scenarios will occur in many parts of the world in not too distance future.

Scientists have also made factual assertions that as ocean temperature gets warm, hurricanes are provoked. Global warming does not cause hurricane or tsunami but it makes them worse, destroying what took years to built, in just ten seconds. And more depressing is that droughts and heat waves will establish their reigns, which leave in their wake, a trail of more destruction. Low-lying countries are in danger. The rise of sea levels will not only swallow Lagos and Bangladesh due to their geographical positions, but will disorganise the balance of our delicate ecosystem. And while sea levels execute their havoc, wildfires, desertification, and conflicts will occur in successive bewilderment engineering migrations human and animals to safer places, if any. This gloomy picture is scary.

Yet, with all the frightening consequences, some nations have remained adamant and have refused to sign the Kyoto accord and even have refused to recognise the Doha 2012 climate change conference as something very serious. They have defied persuasion to join other nations in reducing greenhouse emission. Those nations that refused to cooperate are like kids playing with fire in the neighbourhood of a cask of gun powder. And citizens of such nations have refused to muster courage to put pressure on their respective governments to be alive to such a sensitive issue that threatens our planet and humankind. Is it not a symptom of cognitive decline?

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