Commentary on global warming and its implication on Ghana

Global warming has been described as the greatest threat facing humanity.  But the question has always been what factors are responsible and what we can do to curtail the dangers associated with this global phenomenon. 

After years of making a comprehensive study of the world's major eco-systems, a group of environmental campaigners who were part of a study called the Millennium Eco-system Assessment published their first report. 

The report revealed that in the past half century, the growing demand for food, fresh water, timber, fiber and fuel has caused unprecedented changes in the earth's eco-system, stitching the earth's ability to sustain future generations. Earth's natural ability to pollinate crops, provide air conditioning by wild plants and recycle nutrients by the oceans is being overtaxed. 

The planet is also at the edge of a massive wave of species extinction. Humans are damaging the planet at such a devastating rate that they are raising the risk of abrupt collapse in nature that could spur disease, desertification and dead zones in the seas.

According to the Globe and Mail newspaper of Canada, wetlands, forests, savannas, estuaries, coaster fisheries and other habitats that recycle air,  water and nutrients for all living creatures are being irretrievably damaged. The causes of this climatic development are not hard to find. A report from a UN-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) says, global warming is unequivocal or a fact and very likely, mankind is largely to blame. 

Human activities are the major cause of global warming.  In Ghana for example, we see on daily basis loads of charcoal being conveyed from the countryside to the cities.  Pollutants such as human waste, emission from combusting engines are all causes of climate change. Energy consumption worldwide is breaking record after record.  Since the burning of oil and coal produce greenhouse gases, some governments are taking a closer look at nuclear power as a cleaner alternative.  But it too present challenges. 

The International Herald Tribune reports that in France, one of the world's most nuclear-reliant countries requires nineteen billion cubic metres of water to cool reactors. And the hot water that is normally expelled from reactors raises temperatures of water bodies to damaging levels.

The dire consequences of global warming are quite catastrophic.  Rising temperatures may foster the spread of disease carrying organisms, including fungi to spread father a field.  The dangers posed by climate change are nearly as dire as those posed by nuclear weapons.

The effect in our country today may be less dramatic in the short term but over the next three to four decades, global warming could cost irredeemable harm to the various habitats upon which human societies depend for survival.  Floods and droughts that are recurrent in this country are products of global warming. 

But my concern is how do we as a country respond to this unavoidable phenomenon? 

The UN Millennium Assessment  board of directors agrees that it lies within the power of human societies to ease the strains that are being put on the eco-systems and said achieving it, will require radical changes in the way nature is treated at every level of decision-making.

We should not wait till the situation is out of hands before we try amending the pieces. On this note, I call on scientists, environmentalists, Policy makers including our Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to begin to look at possible ways of responding to this phenomenon. 

We should remember that we owe our future generations this task and we must not fail.

BY: DOMINIC ASUITENG ISSAH