By Shey Peter Mabu

Our common future is undeniably threatened. The threats which range from poverty and disease to disasters and terrorism are indeed too many to be handled by a few. Hence, the need for global action, since one of them, climate change directly affects the future of mankind on our planet.

Fortunately, since 1972 when the Stockholm Conference on Human Environment decided to set up the United Nations Environment Program, UNEP, the World Body has endeavored to prove that it cannot talk peace and cooperation, non-violence and progress without concern for dreaded developments that threaten the very existence of life on earth. It is therefore no surprise that at its 62nd General Session, the World Body besides crucial issues like world Security, Peace and Cooperation focused on Climate change and its imminent damage to life.

But how founded are these fears? What can nations and their people do to minimize, if not completely alter the trend? Why this talk about climate change which some people believe should be left with climatologists and researchers while politicians and diplomats concentrate on problems of poverty, disease, hunger, and terrorism?

To be honest, concern by the United Nations Organization on this issue of climate change cannot be considered ostentatious, nor elitist. For, the world in which we live is a kind of giant ‘greenhouse’ in space, but instead of a roof, we have a blanket of heat-retaining gases which include water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and the tropospheric ozone.

All these have maintained a delicate balance of solar and heat radiation for thousands of years but unfortunately in the last two centuries human activity has aggravated the natural phenomena that can alter this balance by increasing the level of gases thus introducing a new super absorbant greenhouse. These increases result in risen temperature which also affects change in climate, our present cause for concern.

The reported increase from 2.5 to .5 degrees Celsius (4.5 to 9.5 degrees Fahrenheit) in this century, for example is indeed disturbing considering the possible effects of global warming. Should this continue, the fears about low-lying areas becoming flooded and what used to be planes effectively used for agriculture and land becoming lakes and seas could become a reality.

In the face of all these disasters that could emerge as a result of climate change, mankind, as President Paul Biya appealed in his address at the UN in New York, should be aware of the danger and strive as much as possible to avert the worst. Such environmental safeguarding demands a knowledge of how much damage we ourselves cause at various levels, within our communities, nations, and regions.

It is unfortunate, yet true that over eleven million hectares of tropical forests, are lost every year without any significant effort to replace what is destroyed. About 40-50 per cent of this deforestation is attributed to scavenging for wood, road work, agriculture and commerce. About 6 million hectares of new deserts are formed every year as a result of poor environmental management besides climate change. Yet, desertification and soil erosion can be checked through sustained efforts to relinquish our unconcerned habits toward the environment.

President Paul Biya gave hope not only to environmentalists, but also all friends of our earth when during his appeal for environmental awareness and its exigencies, he announced that his government would create a National Observatory on climate change. Considering the environmental challenges that communities in the rural as well as the urban areas face, citizens should aim at making the best use of such a facility by doing all to see that basic elements of environmental protection such as, tree planting, fight against pollution, desertification and soil erosion become our lifestyles.

This is important because our future on this planet can only be guaranteed if we are conscious of the dangers of global warming, climate change, and what we must be doing to pre-empt aggravating the natural forces behind the imminent danger.

Source: Cameroon Tribune